Year: 2003

Olga news: today’s blood tests showed that operation cannot be performed tomorrow. We will, instead, go to Nicosia hospital to remove one of the stones from the gall duct. That should help her a bit. Operation is suspended until Thursday for now. Hopefully, this all will end before the end of the week.

Olga is still in the hospital. Today doctor suggested we try to feed her something. She had three spoons of plain boiled rice and a small corner piece of toast. Pains are back. :( That obviously suggests that she will not eat anything before the operation, which is now planned for Tuesday. Poor baby. :(

Olga is still in the hospital. More tests are done. Doc says that if everything goes like it does, then coming Tuesday is the appropriate day for the operation. That, obviously, depressed Olga quite a bit. Lev and Hazard are often guests though, which helps her a bunch.

Today we also practiced a magic of taking shower with the dropper connected to one arm. Tricky, but previous romantic experiences do help.

Incompetence of medical staff was shown today in full size. One of the nurses broke a Mercury fever thermometer. She didn’t pay much attention to this fact though and went on with the check for another device. I guess every Russian knows that Mercury (aka quicksilver) is hazardous for the health. So, I pointed it out to her and she blinked at me with the total dumb look in her eyes. Luckily (I though) they had some Russian nurses. So I call one and tell her the story. She knew at least something – she put on the thick rubber gloves and used pieces of hard paper to collect the Mercury balls. She though disposed them into the recycle bin that was standing in the room. Well. I throught it out anyway. That didn’t seem to much of an effort to me though and I complained about this situation to the passing by doctor. He was not much of a smarty either. He called another nurse, which brushed the room and left happily with the looks of the person who knows her job well. Mkay. I opened the windows and left a bit worried. For those, who are not sure about the dangers of the Mercury, hazard did a fine job of finding this FAQ.

I guess that we are not in danger, but I am seriously thinking about printing this FAQ out and distributing it among hospital personel. Heh.

Olga is getting used to the hospital. She is full time under the dropper (the stick with the bottle on top, which injects medicine into her blood with small but often drops). They also give her some antibiotics and some other stuff.

More tests. Situation seem to be under control and Olga’s condition is stable. Doc says that operation may be carried on on coming Saturday.