As I said, everything was going fine yesterday, our second day here. Then about 6pm I was trying to get out of the pool, relying on stepping up from a low underwater wall, and I slipped and fell backwards into the water. I’m a heavy guy, and I fell heavily. My left hand made aloud “Whack!”, which must have sounded like a bone breaking, but wasn’t. But my right leg scraped on that low underwater wall. A couple of guys immediately came over to help me up. I must admit, I was a bit disoriented in the water and had to say hang on, give me a minute.

Then they got me standing up on the pool surrounds and we could see a couple of bleeding grazes on my right shin and knee, not too bad, I thought. So I slowly walked back to our room, about 25m away, and stepped up onto the smooth tiled verandah. Then I nearly went for a slide. We looked down and there was a bit more blood than there should have been.

A very kind and attentive hotel lady took over and discovered a 1cm cut under my right big toe, bleeding a fair bit. Being on anti-coagulant medication, it didn’t want to stop. She started applying ice cubes, and to cut a long story short, it took an hour of ice cube TLC before we felt we could apply a dressing. She actually phoned a local doctor and showed him the wound by using her phone. How about that? Modern technology. He didn’t think it necessary to come, just recommending antiseptic and tight pressure bandaging.

One of the hotel guys went out to an Apotek in the street nearby and came back with gauze bandages. When I saw them I realised I had some of my own, but no problem. I had also brought large waterproof band aids, so by about 7.15pm I was all bandaged up, although leaving Betadine marks all over the tiled floor. None of this was painful (not very much anyway), so I was happy. Full marks to the hotel ladies and guys for their solicitude. It was lovely.

The thing now is to prevent infection. Being diabetic, it’s always a danger here, so I’ve started the first packet of Cephalexin antibiotic. Better to be careful.

So what a bugger. I can still walk OK and it’s not painful, it’s just a nuisance at the moment, and the trick is to stop it becoming more than a nuisance. I don’t want to have to go to the hospitals, they’re expensive.

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My blood moon shot from March. (C) PJ Croft 2018

There’s a blood moon eclipse on Saturday, at 01.14am WA time, with Mars also visible. Might be worth making an effort to see. Here’s an article about how to see it: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/