2012.07.08 - Gaby Andreas

Health problems and visit from Busan

Last week we went through a bit of a rough time. Paula started to get abdominal pains on Monday evening, on the way home from after a game of squash. Tuesday she discovered blood in the urine and Wednesday morning we went to the hospital. Luckily Korea has an excellent health care system (compared to Scandinavia), and she had in less than two hours seen two doctors, had a urine sample test and an endoscopy into her bladder. In Denmark this would have taken about two months ! The doctors found what they thought was a cyst/tumor and an infection, so they took out a sample for a biopsy and scheduled Paula for a CT scan two days later. Friday we then went for the CT scan and settled in for a few days of waiting - the results would tick in on the Tuesday.

The pain came and went and sometimes she felt fine and other times she was twisting and turning in pain. Friday evening we were able to go to the Mexican restaurant with Rune & JongA and Rolf & Saide for some savory latin american food, followed by a trip to Sea Side bar in Bangeojin. This bar used to be pretty dead but after a renovation and a few big offshore projects at the shipyard, it is now the place to be.

Saturday Paula was still OK, so after my morning bike ride we went to the new British pub in Ilsan Beach - The Golden Eagles. This is a very promising place with a nice terrace towards the beach, good beer and pretty good pub food. Pietro had graced us with his time (he is normally always to be found in Busan during the weekend, but had stayed in Ulsan for the Saturday as he had a working weekend).

Sunday Paula had run out of the medicine the doctor had given her and the pain duly returned. we had made big plans for volleyball, squash, dinner and a movie but all had to be cancelled. instead she stayed in bed and i started on the next sewing project - making pillows for our old sofa. It is a lot more difficult than it looks - especially the zippers. I managed to do all the cutting but finished only three pillows. 4 more to go .....

Monday Paula was feeling better again, so we decided to wait for the results the next day. The office sent her a big bouquet of flowers ... when I came home from work I thought my wife had deceased !!! Nice thought ....

So finally Tuesday came around and luckily the news were mainly good. The cyst was benign but unfortunately it could not be ruled out that it could develop. So Paula has to go for a check-up in four months time. I'm sure it's nothing ... here in Korea the doctors like to follow up on such situations, which is very comforting. In the meantime she was given one week of medicine to bring down the infection, so she was ready for another round of squash in the evening!! She's a tough cookie when she wants to be !

Wednesday evening it was time for a game of volleyball ... I wrongly thought. Only three people turned up, so we played tennis instead. Thursday we went to watch The Amazing Spiderman with Jamie and Friday Mexican dinner with Rune & JongA and Rolf & Saide at Rune's place a few floors below us. Wow - what a nice meal!

Saturday we went shopping all day - After a lot of window shopping we managed to find a sofa that we liked. Unfortunately (!) it was the cheapest sofa we had seen so far. Now some people may think that this is a strange statement, but as we have been given a certain amount of money to spend on furniture, buying a cheap sofa meant that we would "have" to think of other things to buy to use the whole amount. So we went to Lotte Department store ! We have never shopped like this before ! Expensive glasses, kitchen knives, soda machine, cutlery ... you name it ! We felt like newly-rich and we didn't really like it. But it had to be done !

In the evening we went to the Moroccan restaurant in downtown together with Agnieszka and Michael, who had just returned from their vacation. Paula is ecstatic that Agnieszka is back! After a good dinner we continued with a Serbian schnapps at our place and then later a beer at Pietro's (second Saturday in a row - what's going on Pietro?!)

Today I went for a nice bike ride in the morning with Rolf, Olav, Irving and Leif. The trails are closing in and Olav called the route for "the jungle" - and that is even after an unusually cold spring/summer.

After the ride Gaby and Andreas came up from Busan with their kids William and Sofia. We were lucky with the weather, so we went for lunch at The Golden Eagles (again), followed by an afternoon at the pool in the compound. Dinner was served at the Mexican before they went home again. It was a really nice way to spend the Sunday - relaxing in good company at the pool side. Then it felt like a weekend!

With gaby, Sofia, William and Andreas at the pool - with a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake!!!

It was my first dip in the pool this year. Poor show, I know, but have been busy, tied up and so on!

Gaby and Andreas at the clubhouse

And at O'Taco where we met Rober

Paula and Peo were pooped out after the shopping and visit. It was a full weekend with lots of eating out ! Check out the new pillows !!

I almost forgot ... work ! I did work the last two weeks even though I didn't mention it above. I worked a lot actually ..... Here Rune and Pietro - the two people who followed my lead and moved from the ice cold office to the neighbouring temperate office !!!