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Published: December 15th 2008
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Xmas Decs
I went out after writting up my blog and took a few photos of Byron This time i have a good excuse for not writing a blog recently, the title isn't as nice as it first seems i really have left a part of me here in Oz! My appendix to be precise. I'll get to how that happened in a minute but first I'll try and fill in the gaps between, i left Brisbane and got to Surfers paradise OK, i checked in to my hostel which was called Backpackers in Paradise but the name really didn't suit the place because the owner had spent so much time and money on having a bar, pool tables, a swimming pool and even a shop he'd forgot to bother with the rooms so there were cockroaches scurrying around and the bathroom (which was shared by 12 people) was always flooded. Other than the hostel Surfers Paradise was a really nice town but very touristy so again lack of money meant i couldn't do
a lot of the things on offer but i had fun looking around the town, spending time on the beach & just generally hanging around with some really cool people.
On the last Day in Surfers (Saturday) i woke up with what felt
Xmas Tree
Note the peace signs like a horrible hang over but apart from the one beer (I got free from doing a pool trick on a local !!!) i hadn't drank anything so i knew it wasn't that but thought nothing of it and got on the greyhound to my next stop Byron Bay, I arrived without any trouble feeling a little worse but nothing too bad, i went straight to the my hostel and went to sleep and before i knew it it was 8pm (i arrived at 1!) When i woke i felt really hot, sick and had really bad pains in my stomach & i knew something wasn't right so i went down to the reception and asked if there was a night doctor locally but there wasn't so they said if i needed help i had to go to the hospital on the other side of town (admitedly this is only a 15-20 min walk but with the amount of pain i was in it felt a hell of a lot more) after i got there and filled in some forms i was seen in about 10 mins, after a quick talk to the triage nurse she took all my vitals,
Beach
You can just see the light house in the background a few minutes later i saw the Dr who said i had a fever & i was hypertensive(low blood pressure) and said he thought i had a viral infection so i was put on a saline drip to keep my fluids up and given some Panadol to help with my temperature . After a few hours (around midnight) i felt better and they let me go home but by the morning i felt even worse so i went back and i saw a different Dr who said he thought i might have Appendicitis and as Byron Hospitals only small they would have to drive me in an ambulance an hour north to a place called Tweed heads, within an hour the ambulance had turned up and i arrived at Tweed Hospital around 1pm, the Dr there agreed with the previous diagnosis and sent for a surgical consult, the surgeon said it could be a few things but it was very likely my Appendix and by 3pm i was prepped for surgery, an hour later i was out (minus an organ) and dosed up to the eyeballs on morphine,again i was put on a saline drip after numerous attempts to tap
a vein (it seems my veins have a knack of hiding when a needle comes close) i was kept in for two nights before being discharged and catching a lift with an ambulance transporting a patient to Mullumbimby which was about half way between Tweed and Byron.
I spent one night in the same hostel I'd previously been staying at in Byron before checking into a motel so i had peace & quiet and a room to myself to recover, i can't really walk very far so I've not really seen much of Byron Bay other than the pharmacy and the Dr's surgery instead I've just been resting watching daytime TV which isn't that much fun. A few miles from where I'm staying at there's a lighthouse which looks nice and loads of people go for a walk around there because there's a point you can stand at which is the most easterly point in Australia, there's also a shipwreck just a few 100 meters away from the main Beach, all in all Byron seems very Bohemian with loads of hippie like shops, its also a big spot for surfing as the waves are brilliant around here but unfortunately
Shipwreck
Part of the swhipwreck sticking out of the water i don't think I'll be able to surf whilst I'm here but I'm still hoping I'll be able to surf on Bondi Beach (Sydney) which i should be at by Saturday, I'm leaving Byron on Wednesday and spending 2 or 3 nights in Nambucca Heads to break up the 12-13 hour coach trip to Sydney. To top everything I'm going to have the most un impressive scars ever because they did key hole surgery which means i have 3 small nicks in my belly instead of the usual gash down my side but I'm feeling better day by day which is good but I'm not meant to carry anything heavy for 3-4 weeks!!! Which is going to be a big problem as my bag weighs a ton but I'll find a way to sort it out, anyway that's about it for now, there probably won't be much to tell about Nambucca but well see.
Take care everyone, I'll try and do the same
Alex
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