Well.... All our plans last week just went very belly up within the space of a few minutes!!!
Last Thursday, one week ago today, we left Cervantes at about 10am. We went to see the Pinnacles which were only about 20 minutes to the south. As it is in a national park there is a charge of $12 per vehicle to get in. We were planning on going to quite a few national parks during the trip so decided to get the 4 week pass for $44.
The pinnacles were interesting but I wouldn't rave about them. We wandered around for a couple of hours and then headed off north towards Geraldton where we planned on staying just the one night.
We stopped in at Dongara beach and had a coffee and muffin about 3 or so. Quite cool with a chilly wind on the beach, we stayed inside the van for the coffee.
Headed off again, arriving in Geraldton about 5 or so. Had a bit of a drive around and then made our way up to Sunset beach caravan park. The sun was about to set, so took a couple of photos and then checked into the park.
Soon after 6 I started to get stomach pains, but didn't think that much about it really. BUT.....within about 15 minutes the pain was becoming excruciating! OMG I have never had pain like that before! I could not sit, stand, walk just didn't know what position to be in! About 7.40 I said to Lauri I think we need to get to the hospital. The pain was just getting worse. So we unhooked everything and went to ED.
After waiting in triage for about an hour and a half I eventually was seen. And at last was taken seriously. Suddenly they had me hooked up to a morphine drip and sent me off for a CT scan. They thought it was a kidney stone. But when the results finally came back I had a twisted bowel! No wonder I was in pain!
Suddenly people were running everywhere, getting called in and at 3am I underwent emergency surgery. Luckily it all went very well. They got it in time, another two hours and it would have been a very different story, probably would have lost a big portion of my bowel. Phew! Thank goodness we were in a large town with a hospital.
So the next couple of days were quite a blur. Cannulas, drips, blood pressure, drugs, oxygen etc.
Lauri camped in the hospital car park.
Ben came down here on Tuesday. And eventually I was allowed to go home yesterday afternoon, almost a week later! Could have done without all that excitement but it will be a trip to remember I am sure!
Had a great night's sleep last night. The hospital was very noisy so the peace and quiet here was lovely. Had an early night.
Up late this morning and had some breakfast. So now sitting here in the sun. Lauri and Ben have gone for a walk. Nice to get to relax at last!