TESTING TIMES

In the shade of the trees near the hospital in Rethymnon on Tuesday

Today (Thursday 15 August) is the 'Dormition of the Mother of God' and the biggest summer festival in Crete for the Orthodox Church. It is the time (a bit like Thanksgiving in America or Christmas in the UK) when everyone goes home to spend time with family. So Athens empties and lots of families travel back to the islands or their villages for important church festival days and general feasting after a 15 day fast! The roads are all very busy and the shops have been selling cakes, sweets and fancy treats in preparation. Our village is FULL of people with shiny cars from Heraklion and Athens – and after the past few days, we will welcome the chance to stay at home in the cool of the house and not go anywhere.

We recovered from the dreaded prognosis of the Urologist last week and read as much as we could on line. A letter from England had the franked postmark for Prostate Cancer UK. With such a prompt and google to look it up on line, there was such a helpful pdf leaflet to download which was incredibly reassuring. We were therefore in better mental shape when K had his two scans this week. The first was at Rethymnon hospital and he turned up at the crack of dawn to get his numbered queuing ticket before the glass windows where outpatients need to jostle in their masses to get their books stamped. This accomplished, he made his way to the office of the CT Scanner and when I went to bring him some water and juice an hour or so later on, I noticed that the powers-that-be had put up new signage in Greek and English, so this hospital visit, I knew exactly where to go. He was in a queue behind the emergency admissions and had to wait an hour or two, but he got there in the end. The dye they used to show any metastases made him turn very hot from the inside out so we had to take it easy for the rest of the day and try to get the horrible stuff flushed out of his system as fast as possible. 

 I drove back from Rethymnon via the KOMBOS intersection – not quite as big as spaghetti junction but which has to be experienced before it can be explained properly. When it was first constructed it had traffic lights, but as everyone ignored them and chaos ensued, it was deemed preferable to dispense with them.  Now lines of cars from at least eight different roads take the rare step of slowing down and creeping slowly forward – never taking eyes off the road needed - unless something else is in the way which is when (and only then) you do have to stop. It seems that everyone creeping cautiously forward works for Cretan drivers who are macho warriors behind the wheel - even the girls! Every time I achieve a left turn on to the national road from Rethymnon to Skepasti, I have a ridiculous sense of escaping from the jaws of hell with awe and disbelief.

Village War Memorial at Achlade

Holiday madness on the roads meant that yesterday we went to Heraklion on the bus and took a taxi from the bus station to the Clinic for a bone scan. Kimon was injected with more stuff – to show up on the Xray – and had to go away for 3 hours and DRINK LOTS! As it was like a blast furnace in the centre of town, this didn't seem too difficult although I had to line up loads of bottles of water alongside beer so that whatever this horrible gunk was, it wouldn't stay too long in his system either. He is not allowed to get close to youngsters under the age of 13, pregnant ladies or babies – so we looked about carefully on the return bus home and are biding our time in the cool for the next day or two. We are mighty glad to get this over and done with. The city was so full of cars, buses, scooters,  people and so hot, hot, hot.  With a heady sense of relief, I stepped off the bus, my ankle flipped over and I went flying into the gravel by the side of the road. So now I am sitting with my feet up with a swollen ankle and a well scraped knee but the relief of being home is almost tangible and there is nothing so restorative as a cup of English tea.

Ian found a new village taverna not far away

We were introduced to a lovely village taverna last week and spent two very enjoyable evenings there chatting with our bubbly waitress Demetria, a student at the University of the Aegean during term time and daughter of the family who own it. We had wonderful mezethes on our first visit and a beautiful meal the second time. Alongside the nice food, it was delightful to watch all the children of the village play together around the taverna, school and local church. First of all, they all trooped by holding on to a length of rope in follow-my-leader style and disappeared for half an hour or so and we watched a game of hide and seek in progress. Then they all reappeared and played a game of skipping with the two rope ends stretched across the road and stopping to drop the rope and perform an excellent Mexican wave and a loud cheer every time a car passed. What fun! A bit later all of them – about 12 children aged 7-14 sat in the back of an open 4 x 4 truck and joked with each other. Finally, before it was time to go home, the owner of the truck took them all up the road 100 yards and back again laughing and singing all the way for a complimentary outing. It was great to see the children so happily playing together and created a lovely atmosphere all around us.

We do not get all K's results back until the end of the week and will need to speak to the Urologist to understand what the options will be. The man doing the Xray said that Kimon's bones looked good – which seemed like a positive indication, so we will see what the Specialist has to say in the next few days. A big thank you to all our friends who made contact and sent helpful information and encouragement. Kimon and I were touched the messages which came our way.