Day 23

Day twenty three
Saturday 8th February 2020
Current position
Kimberley Backpackers
74A Buitenkant St
Cape Town City Centre
Cape Town
8000
South Africa
S 33°55.76316'
E 18°25.27812'

Poor old Ros didn't sleep at all last night as she had chest pains following her tumble last Tuesday. She's been taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen to no effect. So we had an interesting day at the hospital something I'm glad to say we haven't done before on any of our trips.
We arrived at 9.45am to find a nice modern hospital and more importantly being early on a Saturday morning it was not busy.
Ros was processed by admissions who told us all about the potential costs which we would need to pay by credit card. At this point we were glad that I'd phoned our insurance company before setting out on this adventure. She was then quickly seen by the triage nurse and straight away processed by a male nurse who took urine and blood samples blood pressure and heart rate. An hour later the doctor made a thorough examination and instructed that an Xray be taken as he thought she may have fractured ribs. This was credit card payment number one. After the Xray we were lead to a side ward where we waited for the Doctor whilst Ros was put on a drip of pain killers. Someone came and told Ros that her urine and blood samples were normal leading to credit card payment number two. Two hours later the Doctor returned with the Xray results saying there were no broken ribs. He examined Ros again and thought it would be advisable to carry out a CT Scan on her abdomen. This gave rise to credit card payment number three. Ros was wheeled off on a trolley had the scan and arrived back at the side ward where we waited for the results. We whiled away some of the time chatting to the male nurse who told us how he had learned to cope with the electricity load shedding saying that it was the only thing that happens on time in South Africa. It was also interesting that he was not pleased with the Country's plans to have a National Health Service saying that he would have to pay for all the unemployed people.
After being at the hospital for seven hours without food or drink the Doctor came back with the CT Scan results saying that they looked fine too. He then said that it would be a good idea to check Ros' pancreas which could be done from the blood samples taken earlier. He asked if we would like to stay for the results and without hesitation we said that it might be best if they emailed them to us there was no way we wanted to spend any more time at the hospital.
It took another hour to tidy Ros up and get her pain killer prescriptions. It was certainly pay as you go as we made the final credit card payments four and five. We presumed that if one payment failed we would be out on the street begging with the others. Joking apart we must admit that although the whole process took eigth hours they were very thorough. However thoughts of fleece the tourist did cross our minds. Still we have another appointment to see the doctor on Wednesday at 10. 00am for a final checkup.
We left and got an Uber to the Chemist and had trouble getting access to the street as the French camera crew were filming an advert for Nivea. After getting Ros' supply of drugs we came across the Eastern Food Bazaar with little stores selling Asian food. Ros and I shared a 'real' Bunny Chow made from a freshly hollowed out loaf of bread filled with a curried lamb shank a potato spicy sauce and a side salad. It was massively delicious there was no way we could have eaten one each. Unfortunately alcohol could not be consumed on site so we rounded the evening off at our local 'The Perseverance Pub' for wine coffee and a Brandy.