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04/11/21 Thurs. After a few days of doing very little while I wait for the new Smartbank to arrive, this evening another job cropped up. Just as it was getting dark, the toilet decided to go on strike and started backfilling! I closed the seacock and stripped out the pump, expecting to find a blocked joker valve but all seemed OK. I reassembled it all and the problem had gone, so perhaps the gremlins were lingering from Halloween.
05/11/21 Fri. My Smartbank package arrived this morning but there is a slight problem - they sent the wrong item! I checked my order and the payment and both are correct but the package didn't contain what I ordered, only the Smartbank and solenoid. I e-mailed Cactus to tell them of their error.
07/11/21 Sun. Cactus seem to be ignoring my e-mails which is very unusual as I have never had any problems with them in the past, I sent another this morning but of course I will have to wait until Monday (plus 8 hour time diff.) before I can expect a reply. In the meantime, I fitted the new Smartbank - and got the same error code of E11 showing. The only thing I have not changed now is the Smartgauge itself, and that was missing from my order!
09/11/21 Tues. Contact from Cactus overnight, they have recognised their error and sent off the missing Smartgauge to me, so now I wait another 10 days or so until it arrives.
10/11/21 Weds. Surprisingly, the Cactus package is already in Kuala Lumpur but of course it's progress will now slow down! Last night, the KK doc's receptionist contacted me and said my biopsy results were in and could I come in today at 3.30pm - er, that isn't possible, as I need time to arrange a rental car and hotel, so now it's rescheduled for the 15th at 3.30pm. We went over to the yard with Mark and Kim on their catamaran to help them haul out this morning.
12/11/21 Fri. This has to be a record! My Cactus package arrived today, that's four days from Devon, UK, to Kudat - amazing! Also arrived is my engine compartment extraction fan AND the antifoul paint ordered from Kuala Lumpur.
15/11/21 Mon. Picked up at 0700 by Azli, the rental car guy but we had to wait in town for a car until 0800. Drove down to KK and checked into our usual hotel (Cititel Express). At 3.30pm I had an appointment with Dr Melinda Tong, the dermatologist, to hear the results of my biopsy. Not exactly good news......the growth on my shoulder is cancerous and needs to be removed. Next bad news is that it is too big for her to remove and she suspects it will need a graft, and that I should go to KPJ Hospital and get a CT scan of my brain, chest and abdomen to see if it has spread inside. She took a blood and urine sample while I was there.
16/11/21 Tues. This morning we went to KPJ Hospital after fasting for 12 hours and had a CT scan - not uncomfortable but not a pleasant experience either! Then we found a cafe and had pie and coffee while we waited for the results. Then we took the results to Dr Melinda Tong, and had a second urine test. Now I have to wait until 10am on Thursday to see Dr Ramesh, a reconstructive surgeon, at KPJ Hospital. The scan showed up some other anomalies but they are going to have to wait until I get this first thing sorted out.
17/11/21 Weds. With nothing to do today, and getting withdrawal symptoms from nobody sticking needles in me, we drove out to another clinic and asked for a Covid Booster jab, which they gave us free of charge.
18/11/21 Thurs. Met up with Kim and Mark for coffee this morning, they will be flying home to Namibia later today. Appointment with Dr Ramesh at 10am, who was very clear in what needed to be done and how he intended to proceed. He asked when I wanted the operation and I just shrugged and said 'whenever'. OK he says, how about 5pm tonight? Back to the hospital at 5pm, taken for a covid PCR test before allowing me upstairs, now it began to get serious! They took me into a private ward, said get undressed, don the gown with your backside hanging out, and lie on the bed until we are ready. Almost 2 hours later, a nurse came for me with a wheelchair and took me up another couple of floors to the theatre, changed over to a gurney trollley and wheeled into the operating room, switched over to the table and the doc got his trade tools out and started hacking away. I only felt it once (and yelled out) before he gave me another shot of horse numbing stuff. After about an hour, I was taken back to the ward and told I could go home tomorrow morning. What?? No, no, I'm off tonight Doc. Lay on the bed for a couple of hours, with nurses coming and taking my blood pressure every now and then until I got really fed up and got dressed. Next nurse in was a bit taken aback but after checking, I was discharged and allowed to leave. Found a Starbucks in the hospital grounds and had a cake and coffee. It was now 1am (Friday) and no taxi's! We phoned the hotel and got them to send a car for us!
19/11/21 Fri. After a good sleep, I woke up with a few aches and pains and although we were supposed to go back to Kudat today, I thought it better to stay another day, so we extended the hotel and car (again).
20/11/21 Sat. Perhaps we should have gone back yesterday......the pain this morning was worse! Nothing to worry about though, the hospital gave me a big bag of pain killers, but I've not taken any yet and will avoid it as long as possible. We drove back to Kudat and arrived there around noon, so now we are back on the boat with a stiff aching shoulder that I can't do much with!
22/11/21 Mon. Getting bored now with inactivity! My shoulder still hurts and I've succumbed to taking a total of 3 painkillers so far.
24/11/21 Weds. Should have removed the shoulder dressing on Sunday (3 days the doc said) but it's been too tender. Anyway, removed it yesterday, Ana gave it a little clean and put on the anti-bacterial cream given by the hospital, before reapplying a dressing. This morning the pain has lessened a lot but blood had seeped through the dressing, so I guess I will have to leave it on for another day.
29/11/21 Mon. Progressing well with the shoulder. Six of us met up on Saturday evening in the marina bar for a meal and chin-wag. Today we went into town and bought a new engine start battery, replacing the old one which was refusing to crank the engine despite showing full charge. I also replaced the Smartgauge, which finally fixed the problem I've had with it for over a year. 12 months of exchange e-mails with the Merlin field engineers achieved nothing and when I asked them if it could be the gauge itself, I got a resounding "No, that does not happen". So much for the experts!
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