Day 1,115
Game Over?
So those of you that know Tom were probably surprised that he agreed to take it easy with me and catch a bus rather than ride up the Death Road. The reason being, Tom was feeling far from 100%. He was suffering from some sort of infection in his nose, which absolutely stank. So he decided to get himself checked out. By a lucky chance the area of La Paz we had our Airbnb in, Sopocachi, is the medical area of the city. He booked a consultation with an ENT specialist and it was pretty clear this guy knew his stuff. He examined Tom and referred him for a series of tests. This was simply a case of Tom and I walking a few minutes to the various specialists and scanners, being greeted so kindly, ‘Mr Tom, this way please’.
We took all the scans back to our ENT guy the next day and the concerned expression on his face when he opened the envelope gave us a bit of a shock. His sinuses were severely infected, antibiotics would ease the symptoms but not clear it. There was also a sizable hole between his sinuses and gums that had not healed from the tooth extractions. Bottom line was he needed an operation under general anaesthetic to fix it all, followed by no strenuous exercise for a month and no flying for two.
The operation was booked for the following day and then it was off for the pre-op heart tests. Fail! Another concerned looking doctor, more tests and more complications. The operation has been called off for now and we are awaiting another test tomorrow to ascertain whether Tom will be able to continue cycling around the world, or will have to stop such strenuous exercise. How we fix the infection and hole is still to be determined. Shit!
At least La Paz is a lovely city to be stuck in. The Teleférico is amazing, the food is great and the people are very friendly. Whatever happens we are still very lucky people and glad to be alive.
