Making connections

3rd July 2022

After his dramatic Sunday, Stephen spent a quiet (-ish, how could it be otherwise where he’s concerned?) day on Monday taking things easy at home – or, at least, as easy as he could between fielding phone calls.

Some of these were asking after how he was doing, but one or two were work related, including having to tell Bertrando that his first day proper at his new job wasn’t happening as he was at home recuperating. He also made an appointment with the doctor for Tuesday evening, though as the nice Dottoressa Sara was off (something to do with the arrival of her sixth child) it was with the locum.

Before he got there, however, he pretended that all was more or less fine again and spent Tuesday in giro, first for our shopping trip (where he did make the concession of having tea at Pina instead of the usual cappuccino, a much lighter option especially as Italian tea is not so much a good strong breakfast brew as a let’s wave some floor sweepings at some hot water brew), then some time at the Carellis (yes, Archibald’s boots still demand his presence) and then, in the afternoon, an appointment at the dentist. You can see then how he was making sure he didn’t overreach himself.

As for the locum, he cast an eye over Stephen’s papers from the Pronto Soccorso and said that he needed to make appointments at Fisiomed, a medical clinic, in Sforzacosta, a town near Macerata, for another echo scan and an endoscopy. These he did on Wednesday, with the scan booked for the next day, Thursday and the endoscopy for the following Monday (you aren’t able to do them both on the same day).

Wednesday also saw Stephen in the office for his first day proper at his new work, which seemed to go ok other than not being able to get his email going. Fortunately, Bertrando has an able assistant who was able to, well, assist Stephen to get it working. It seems pointless to make up a pseudonym for her as I don’t even know her name as yet, but should she move from bit part to featured player I will duly reconsider.

Thursday we set off in good time for the clinic in Sforzacosta, for while it looked quite straightforward on Google maps (head for Macerata and hang a left at the roundabout near Piediripa), one has to allow for eventualities. In the event, however, there weren’t any and we arrived with nearly half an hour to spare. This was a good thing, for despite the waiting area being quite busy, as it serviced six discrete specialist rooms, everyone was seen with speed and efficiency, meaning Stephen was done and dusted within minutes of what was his allotted appointment time.

There isn’t much to report at the moment about his condition, that will have to wait until after the endoscopy and his follow up visit to the doctor in Francavilla, but the scan at Fisiomed more or less confirmed what had been said at Fermo Pronto Soccorso, so at least there weren’t any surprises.

The good news on Friday was that Stephen was able to send me an email from his work account, which consisted of the single word “test”. And they say romance is dead - but happily clichés are alive and kicking. Yesterday we had a quiet day at home then this morning, after a hiatus of three weeks, we tried a walk on Porto San Giorgio beach. We were only able to cover half of our normal route as we didn’t want to overstretch Stephen, and he was beginning to feel the strain a bit. It did, though, give us time to stop off at Girasole on the way back as we needed to buy a birthday present and also pop into the Tim shop.

This was because my phone has started being somewhat uncooperative. The first of the month should have seen my Internet access replenished, but for three days it hasn’t worked. I also received a message from Tim to say that I had used all my gigabytes up (how, when I had not been able to access the Internet at all, is a mystery) and offering me the opportunity to buy some more. The nice lady at the shop’s first reaction was to look aghast and comment that I only had 2 gigabytes, as much as to say what could I expect. The fact that I am not a TikTok obsessed teenager so that amount does me nicely didn’t seem to occur to her.

She did, though, try to help, checking my account and phoning for technical assistance, culminating in telling me to turn my phone off for twenty minutes and that when I turned it back on, it would be ok. We said thank you and headed home for lunch, a journey just long enough to comply with her instructions. I know you are probably ahead of me on this one, but when I took the dogs out to stretch their legs, I turned the phone back on and yes, no Internet. That though, is a problem for another day, and at least with Stephen and his intestines, it gives you all a double narrative to look forward to next week.