Maybe It's My Cooking?

My buddy SMM, who was my co-conspirator in many a visit to the sushi restaurant Momoyama (Peach Mountain) in Calgary has moved to the BC coast and can get fresh fishies. She recently made a plate of sushi and tortured me by sending photos.

I on the other hand bought a couple of trout for the grill at the local, and they turned out to be long time no sea, or at least no body of water. Whew! Fish fertilizer. We had steak instead. He ate it, and the grilled potatoes and the grilled vegies. Which made me assume that he liked my cooking.

But you know the old song, "How do you keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Pair-reee?" Well, Tony tasted hospital food and must have developed a taste for it, because he's back over there, eating their tapioca pudd and mystery loaf with "gravy".

All joking aside, poor old poop. He put on a brave face and suffered a lot of pain in the days he was home. That darn foot looked almost normal by Saturday night but then began to turn red, the leg got hotter and hotter and he started running a temperature. The foot swelled more and turned fiery red. He needed a doctor but we couldn't have gotten him out of here unless we took a chain saw to the end of the trailer so we called the EMTs. Lovely men. One of them, a big Native fellow, was one of the EMTs who took him to the Penticton hospital.

It took both EMts and Zak (Ian was gone) to get Tony into the ambulance safely and to transport him to our local hospital. We saw the new doctor in town, a lovely sweet and soft-spoken gentleman from England. It must be a bit disconcerting to move to a small community and find that everyone you meet already knows your name, your wife's name, how many children you have, where you went to school, where you lived before and other details which people normally take some time (and acquaintance) to discover. He was good humoured about it, but a bit dismayed to have drawn the short straw and to be working the first Canada Day he'd spent in the country.

At any rate he said Tony had an infection called cellulitis and needed IV antibiotics and a really good "going-over" to make sure nothing else was amiss. So they admitted him and we came home about 1:30 am.

Tony was feeling better this morning. The foot seemed not quite so hot and the red not so volcanic. His bed is by a large window which looks out onto two large trees, some flowers and shrubs and a vast rolling lawn with the hills beyond. Studies show that patients heal faster with a view of nature, so we have every confidence that he will soon be better and home again. But not until he is mobile enough for me to handle alone! I don't know how I would have coped without both Ian and Zak here. They have been wonderful.

This time I make fierce faces and will not let them discharge Tony too quickly. Thankfully he is only four minutes away now, not an hour.