I looked at Vivien, and she looked at me, both pretty much in a state of shock after the prof had explained the meaning of all the other medical complications attaching themselves to Hepatitis C. Personally I couldn’t have been more confused if he’d tried tying me upside down to a rubber lamppost, covered me in chocolate and started calling me Doris!
I mean, what language was that diagnosis delivered in, it certainly wasn’t English as I understood it. I know I’d asked for the bitter pill not to be sugar coated, but I had at least expected the results of his deliberations in English and not Latin, Basque or Indonesian!
It had all sounded very dramatic and rather serious, but the overall tone of his delivery was sympathetic and suggested re-assurance and calm, not alarm. This at least gave hope for the prospect of some future on our horizon. “So that’s alright then is it prof?” I asked, and indeed he suggested it might be. With that out of the way I now felt able to deal with the medical issues. I knew nothing about Hepatitis C; we’d always been completely up to date on all vaccinations necessary for travel including Hepatitis A & B. Neither of us really understood too much about any of the diseases we were vaccinated against, other than knowing we couldn’t travel without them. Therefore, as long as we were up to date, we knew we weren’t going to catch any of them. But there is no current vaccine for Hepatitis C, and when Prof Wibawa announced I had it, he might as well have told me I had raging swamp rot or dingleberry disease.
Prof said he could stabilise my condition, and that at least seemed to indicate there was some time on our side. Time enough anyway to learn what had caused this, and how to avoid it in the future. Recreational drugs haven’t been a part of our life for over 30 years since our children arrived in the late 70’s, we might have drunk a bit too much in Spain as part of the Mediterranean lifestyle, but neither of us have ever been overweight, we’ve both kept ourselves fit through sport and exercise, and so there was no reason to believe I couldn’t return to normal again. So the new mantra became; Concentrate on dealing with one day at a time. Do what the doctors tell you. Beat Hepatitis C and all the related medical side issues linked to it. Then focus on something positive. That bit was easy for me. Get fit and well enough again to enjoy my family and friends, and at some as yet, unspecified time in our future, resume travelling.
It had all sounded very dramatic and rather serious, but the overall tone of his delivery was sympathetic and suggested re-assurance and calm, not alarm. This at least gave hope for the prospect of some future on our horizon. “So that’s alright then is it prof?” I asked, and indeed he suggested it might be. With that out of the way I now felt able to deal with the medical issues. I knew nothing about Hepatitis C; we’d always been completely up to date on all vaccinations necessary for travel including Hepatitis A & B. Neither of us really understood too much about any of the diseases we were vaccinated against, other than knowing we couldn’t travel without them. Therefore, as long as we were up to date, we knew we weren’t going to catch any of them. But there is no current vaccine for Hepatitis C, and when Prof Wibawa announced I had it, he might as well have told me I had raging swamp rot or dingleberry disease.
Prof said he could stabilise my condition, and that at least seemed to indicate there was some time on our side. Time enough anyway to learn what had caused this, and how to avoid it in the future. Recreational drugs haven’t been a part of our life for over 30 years since our children arrived in the late 70’s, we might have drunk a bit too much in Spain as part of the Mediterranean lifestyle, but neither of us have ever been overweight, we’ve both kept ourselves fit through sport and exercise, and so there was no reason to believe I couldn’t return to normal again. So the new mantra became; Concentrate on dealing with one day at a time. Do what the doctors tell you. Beat Hepatitis C and all the related medical side issues linked to it. Then focus on something positive. That bit was easy for me. Get fit and well enough again to enjoy my family and friends, and at some as yet, unspecified time in our future, resume travelling.
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