Trip to a Turkish Hospital & other stories: part 2...........

Day 2 of our holiday dawned overcast, so we set off to the breakfast room to devise plan B, as an alternative to the beach! After the nights rain, we noted that the tiled floors, which were everywhere throughout the hotel, inside & out, were slippy in places. We even passed comment with fellow guests on the subject & witnessed one of the waiters, holding a hot coffee pot, lose his footing momentarily, to a collective sharp intake of breath!!

After we had finished breakfast, the sun still struggled to break through the cloud, so we set off for another round of retail therapy in the local shops. When it came time for a coffee break we called in to the Tequila Bar, only to bump into an old friend, Deniz, who we first met in 2005, while he was still working at the bar. He has since married & has a

respectable job now! But it was so nice to see him again & chat over a coffee.

With the sky still overcast we finished our window shopping & ate lunch at the hotel restaurant, when lo & behold the sun finally won it's battle & broke through the clouds! We decided that we would resume our places by the pool & set off post haste!

This is where things went pear shaped! As I mentioned before, to get to our room we needed to cross the pool area & go down a flight of 6 tiled steps. Rosemary commented that with all the tile being so shiny it was hard to see where it was wet! One side of the steps had a handrail, the other a low wall. I took hold of the handrail & was just saying "Be careful Ro, you've nothing to hold on to" when my right foot slipped off the third step, throwing me back onto my bent left leg, where I bumped down the remaining three steps with my leg still tucked under me. I really don't remember too much, other than Rosemary calling for help & the very real pain I felt in my ankle, and that I couldn't feel my toes at all!! A fellow guest, who was a nurse took over & gave first aid, by now I was feeling sick & shivering - shock, I guess! The hotel manageress sent for a doctor, who in turn sent me in an ambulance to Fethiye hospital - a trip of 40minutes over a very bumpy road!! The inflatable cast I now had on helped a little, but not much! To add insult to injury, we arrived at hospital amid a torrential downpour!!

Within half an hour I was X-rayed (amazingly no bones broken!), examined, strapped up, supplied with medication & crutches, had been relieved of the £50 insurance excess & was in a taxi back to Olu Deniz!! Take note NHS!!!!

When we got back it became apparent that the crutches were useless, unless I wanted to fall again immediately on the wet tile floor, so a wheelchair had to be hired!! After the dust had settled, I realised that half of my spending money had been used up & Rosemary & I would not be having the holiday we had anticipated! But we are 'glass half full' people & decided to make the best of a bad job - albeit that our travels would now have to be very local, as although Rosemary is a very young 62, she has Angina, and I am not exactly lightweight!

So, with me dosed up on pain relief & anti-inflammatory drugs, we set forth to the Tequila Bar, ignoring the rain, Rosemary expertly navigating the storm drains & kerbs! Of course everyone wanted to know what had happened & much sympathy was dispatched!! We ate dinner at the bar & actually called it an early night, as by now we were both exhausted & in spite of being almost permanently elevated, my ankle was throbbing!!

I slept surprisingly well that night, with a pile of pillows & blankets under my leg, & woke to discover my foot was almost completely black & that my toes still didn't belong to me. My shin was also bruised & had a small round puncture wound, not noticed the day before. On rising I found that on my right side, my hand, arm, waist, buttock & knee were also developing some choice bruises! I lamented that even if it did stop raining I would still only go home with one brown leg!

So, Day 3 treated us to morning sunshine, & we set off as speedily as is possible when negotiating ramps that are definitely not wheelchair friendly, to breakfast & afterwards to the pool, where we received a round of applause from our fellow guests!! We managed a full 2 hours before the clouds started to descend, followed by more heavy rain. Rosemary & I, with a little help from the pool staff managed to return to our room before the heavens opened & I took a nap while she sat on our sheltered balcony with a book & a very large G&T!!

That evening, after dinner we adjourned to the Tequila Bar & found ourselves taken over by a group of 'girls' from Middlesex, who had been in the bar since 2pm, sheltering from the rain & were, to put it mildly, very merry!!! With live music in the bar, this was a fabulous night & I discovered that it is possible to dance while sitting down!!

Day 4 & Day 5 followed in much the same fashion, grabbing a couple of hours sunshine before the rain hit! Eating either in the hotel or a restaurant within easy distance, followed by nightcaps in the Tequila Bar!! On the Saturday however, we decided to venture to the beach front, which entailed a gradual incline! Rosemary built up speed on the approach & I could not speak for laughing as I swear I felt the G-force pulling at my cheeks!!! We spent a reflective hour sipping beer, Ro in a bean bag & I in my wheelchair! Before the sky darkened & we had to make the dash back - thankfully all downhill!

Before we left, Rosemary bought one of the bean bag covers to take home with her, so impressed was she with the comfortable position for consuming ones beer!!

Day 6 was a scorcher, the kind of weather we had expected for the whole week. After making it as far as the seafront the day before, we decided to try & get at least one day on the beach! We loaded up the wheelchair & once again raced up the gradient, Rosemary huffing & puffing & me helpless with laughter, then I negotiated the wooden boards laid down the slope of shingle with great trepidation, on my crutches. We settled for the first sun loungers we came to & spent a pleasant enough day, although I remained beneath the shade of the parasol (not like me at all!) as the sun was so fierce & we really hadn't had time to acclimatise, Rosemary did manage a couple of dips in the sea.

We stopped off on the way back to the hotel for a couple of beers in the cool garden of one of the bars on the main street & planned our last nights activities before returning for an hour by the pool & then off to our room to pack, ready for our trip home the next day.

That evening was a quiet one, after handing back the wheelchair I made the slow progress on crutches to the restaurant across the street, and then on to the Tequila Bar. Instead of music, it was all beer & chat, until we saw off Jason & Nicola, who were leaving in the early hours & made our farewells to our friends in the Tequila Bar.

This is not the end of the tale & there is a final chapter to the story, which I shall share with you tomorrow!