Successful Operation - Now The Waiting Game

I must admit it has been a great worry when I had said goodbye to Galia two days ago before her operation. We both don’t like hospitals and it is usually us visiting others there not the other way around. Two days on and the operation was a success and the period of recovery is now on, the waiting game in pain. It is a great relief that things went well, but then she was in good hands with her cousin, who personally spent one and half hours operating on her.

We are so, so lucky that we had free VIP treatment in this brand new private hospital that stands by the River Tundzha and the beautiful Diana Park. The vast majority of Bulgarians attend the big main hospital on the other side of town, it is in very poor state of repair. Ask any expatriate who has been there and taken on the culture shock; they will take a big deep breath before they recall the experience. Without family working in this new hospital Galia would probably not had the operation and carry on with the suffering that had plagued her for twenty years. It is the other sick and suffering Bulgarians that we feel for, they aren’t in a privileged position to afford and receive such care as Galia had.

Galia is due back home tomorrow where I can pamper her to the hilt. It will be some two months before she can go back to work, but I know she will ignore Doctor’s advice and go back early – That’s Galia for you.

Finally, it is with sincere thanks Galia has asked me to thank everyone who sent get-well wishes and a speedy recovery. She was rather overwhelmed when I told her she had people thinking and praying for her all over the world. I am quite sure this had a positive affect on her mental strength to get through the last few days.

Thank you all again.

Operation Belt Tightening

Galia is due to go in hospital this tomorrow (Thursday) for another operations to be performed by her cousin. She has been sweating it out for quite a few weeks after her first successful operation and remains in a state of tension knowing that for many weeks afterwards she will be in great pain on recovery.

It has been difficult for Galia as she has had this problem for many years now. I try and tell here that for the first time in over twenty years she will see a light at the end of the long and painful tunnel. Like many Bulgarians Galia thinks of now rather than the future and right now she has to go through the biggest hurdle. It is quite hard to get Bulgarians to think ahead. It is the same with shopping, they will just get enough for today as tomorrow they will go out and do the same, they never thing ahead for the weekend.

The most difficult thing to come to terms with is my perfect health put alongside. I find myself apologising that I have no medical or health problems and that I wish I could take the place of her being ill instead. Galia I don't think understands that as she doesn't say much in response as it something that none of us can do anything about so what's the point in talking about it. She just says that I am very lucky not to be ill. I look at it as not luck but education and common sense looking after yourself that contributes to being healthy.

Galia has also had dental treatment on her teeth a few months ago having three large molars extracted. She was due to have another dose of treatment to have these teeth replaced, but hasn't entertained the idea due to the cost. To put ithe cost in perspective, it equates to over a month of Galia's wages. We live on a day to day basis, no provision for savings and the only reason Galia is having this hospital operation is that it is being performed by family for free. Without a doctor/surgeon in the family, Galia would not have gone ahead with this due to the cost. We don't have a dental surgeon in the family. Even so, we count ourselves very lucky as things stand, thousands of other Bulgarians just carry on with their suffering in poverty without complaint.

Most Bulgarians just don't look upon their diet as anything else other than tasting good, and it does. The cholesterol and calorie counts are incidental. Unless Bulgarians actually participate in competition sports, there is hardly any that do aerobic fitness. The men concentrate on muscle building but that's not really aerobic exercise.

The fittest and most durable people in Bulgaria live on the smallholdings in the villages. These hardy people work manually day in day out and out of those village smallholders the fittest are the women who work harder than the men.

Back to Galia, she will be off work for two months, she has some sick pay due, but it will be much less than she would normally earn so we will have to tighten our belts even further for a while. We are also lucky that the weather should have warmed up over the next few weeks so the heating bills should be nominal right through to the autumn.

We all hope Galia gets through this okay, nothing is worse that being in pain and ill. There really is an end of this in sight now, but for now in the Bulgarian way, we will just take things on a day by day basis.

A Weekend Retreat

Galia is now making good steps on her road to recovery from her first operation before having to endure another operation in a few weeks. I really to feel for her as she has been in pain throughout the ordeal, sometime you can't see the benefits ahead with this upon you. Reassured, time will see her through and the pain will have been a forgotten history in due course.

This weekend, we relaxed in Skalitsa at the farmhouse, we both love it there and if it wasn't so far away from town we would both be living there full-time. It just takes too long and is far too expensive to commute to Yambol and back on a daily basis. I used to do this and know it is not practical, and Bulgaria is all about being practical.

So two days in the Skalitsa farmhouse what did we do?

The answer is quite simply, Galia did nothing, I wouldn't let her. She wanted to cook clean and all the usual things that Bulgarian women are brought up to do. She knew it was wrong right now to exert herself with these chores so she just lay down on the sofa bed and watched television, while I did my English thing of not being able to relax.

While Galia was engrossing herself with Bulgarian television, I was drawn to the farm and land, big ideas again on the horizon about what to produce on this fertile land this year, I was almost in a trance as I walked around the grounds planning away. There wasn't much I could do outside right now, the ground was sodden and we all know there will be another major bout of snow and sub-zero temperatures before April, which is when work takes off here. I do have plans to start another blog about managing a farm in April when the new season starts, there will be a lot of work involved, but then who's scared of work? Back to today, there was one chore that could be done right now, that was to prune the fruit trees and a walnut tree that was impinging onto the summer house, so it was cutting and sawing branches for a couple of hours.

When I went back into the farmhouse to check up on Galia, she had dusted, vacuumed and mopped the whole house while my back was turned. I could never be angry with Galia, but just had to accept that not allowing, or trusting in my case, men to do housework is something that has been bred into women here for generations, so why be any different today? Galia also knew that when I did get back in the house after the pruning, I would have been doing these household chores instead of her despite her unwillingness to allow me. Well it was now all done and dusted and Galia was none the worse for it, seemingly. I was now in the house for the remainder of the day and was allowed to cook dinner that evening, something that I haven't done for a while.

Having now both completed necessary work inside and outside the farmhouse respectively, we relaxed in our own company. Well actually relaxing with our laptops with no work other than top up the wood burner ever few hours, but that's not a chore that's a pleasure. There is the story about the supermarket chicken this weekend, but that will keep until the next post.