26th of February 2020
October 2016, I woke up one morning early. The debate between Hillary and Trump was that morning and I did not want to miss it.
The night before I had been preparing to put some plastic boxes into the garage and they were not far from the door to my bathroom.
So, I brushed my teeth, and washed my face ready to sit down and listen.
What happened next was that I fell, I stepped out of my shoe and lost the balance, hit the boxes and fell!
The pain was horrible, I tried to put some painkilling cream on my arm and I just sat down and felt this would go away.
This was the day my veggies were supposed to come and at 10 o’clock I called my friend and told him not to come because I was going to the hospital. He called the ambulance and my wonderful Bombeiros picked me up and took me to Coimbra.
The future was ruined, I had planned to go to Germany during Christmas and now I was sitting in the urgency room and would be transferred to another hospital for surgery on my shoulder. I could have shouted but of course I just felt miserable and the pain was killing me. Another ambulance transferred me to the hospital where I would spend the next 10 days and then the next weeks and months went into rehab and trying to become NORMAL again, which of course would not have been possible. I am never NORMAL.
The rehab went well and everything is now almost perfect, or as perfect as possible. My shoulder is getting stronger every day and the gym and my friends and people there help me every step of the road.
I had been registered to the health centre in Penela and was not very happy there and now I am approaching the reason I am talking about this 4-year-old happening.
My wonderful doctor, Joanna, who operated and fixed my shoulder is married to a family doctor. He works in a health centre 25 minutes’ drive from my home. To make a long story short my friends Joanna’s husband agreed to take me as his patient and I moved to Lousa with all my health records and everything and that was my lucky day.
My family doctor is the best. He knows me and I can tell him everything. He understands me and he takes care of me. He and everyone at the centre makes me feel better every time I come for a check-up, different from when I went to Penela where I always had the feeling they did not want me there.
The nurses and all the staff at my new health centre are perfect and always welcoming.
This week I saw my wonderful Joanna for the first time in a long time and that was my best gift ever. She gave me a hug, a hug I have been craving for since march last year. She gave me back my confidence and just talking to her was amazing. The 2 of them have made my life more meaningful since I met them.
I just want to share this with you my friends because we are in the Covid times and most of us are sad and miserable and sometimes we forget to look at the wonders that are happening even though we are in lockdown here in my little land. We are taking the situation seriously and we are trying our best to be responsible and sometimes the situation is almost unbearable but then something wonderful happens, like when I met my wonderful doctor and spoke to her after such a long time.
Let´s remember to be grateful for the little things as well as the huge ones.
I hope all my friends stay safe and I feel sorry for all those who have lost their loved ones.
NORMAL will arrive again, maybe not until next year, but eventually some kind of normal will be back. Until then we need to be patient and make the most of what we have.
Hulda Björnsdóttir
My thoughts shared with you 