Survived Belfast, (London)Derry and Birmingham …

Hello subscribers (and welcome new ones!),

I admit, the headline above would have sounded a lot more dramatic some 30, 40 or 50 years ago (at least to those who have a bit of knowledge of the history of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland).

But for me it really did turn out dramatic in the end, in its own way – not in a bombing or drive-by-shooting scare sense, but health-wise. As I had already said in my previous DT Newsletter, I was battling with some severe skin condition, but the hospital fixed me just about enough before this latest trip that I thought I could risk going.

And indeed, the first week in Belfast went absolutely fine. My skin remained decently manageable, so I was able to do everything I had planned to do and gathered tons of material for new DT Blog posts and chapters for my main website.

However, on the last day in Belfast at the end of my visit to the revamped Titanic Belfast Experience, I suddenly noticed additional symptoms, and over the next few days these got progressively worse. I still just about managed Derry/Londonderry, but was beginning to struggle a bit.

Then after we flew to Birmingham to visit my wife’s parents, things started to escalate so severely that it became unbearable. Not just skin, but also affecting my heart rate (racing and irregular) and in part also my breathing and co-ordination. All presumably an increasingly extreme autoimmune reaction.

Partly on advice from my sister (who is also in the medical profession), we therefore decided to cut the visit short and booked last minute a new flight home on Sunday (at some cost, but hey-ho, needs must). We arrived in Vienna at midnight ... but our luggage didn’t (just for an extra piece of bad luck thrown in for good measure. But at least we had it delivered to us the next day).

Early next morning we made our way back to the “Notaufnahme” (A & E) at the general hospital here in Vienna ... for the second time! On this occasion, after a quick look at the state I was in, I was sent straight up to dermatology, so thankfully without the usual two hours plus wait to even get seen at “triage”. This time they really took an interest, examined me for hours, had several tests done and they took samples and whatnot. In the end they decided to admit me to the ward – next morning.

So here I am, typing this, with some difficulty, from my hospital bed. They say I’ll have to stay in for about another week, possibly a bit longer. But at least they are now giving me heavy-duty treatments that have already brought the worst of the symptoms down to a tolerable level. Yet they want to get to the bottom of all this and at least await all the lab results while carrying on the treatment.

Fingers crossed it will all turn out OK in the end – but it could also mean life-changing issues, even affecting my ability to travel (at least where to and for how long at a time), which of course would be quite a blow, not just for my wife and myself, as we are real travel-addicts, but consequently also for my vocation: DT. But it's too early to despair, really ... Hope dies last and all that ... I'm resolved to fighting this! 
  

A promise though: After this Newsletter I’ll stop dwelling on myself and showering you with medical stories (but if you do want to know contact me directly in private), as I know you really are here primarily to read about DT, so I should concentrate on writing for my DT Blog and website again.

And that I will continue to do for as long as I can – beginning with some highly relevant sites in Northern Ireland, including about some old but revamped sites, plus some new ones, or at least ones newly discovered by me. They will be interesting – I think I can assure you of that, if may say so myself ;-)

But you will have to bear with me. Writing on an inferior tablet/laptop while lying in a hospital bed is not ideal (though I think I’m doing better than I had initially anticipated). So more DT Blog posts and Newsletters will have to wait until I’m back home at my regular desk with my regular computer and with access to all my resources ... and after I’ve managed to process all those gigabytes of new photo material.
  

As a first one I may do what I did last time after Cyprus, namely draft a kind of overview general Northern Ireland DT Blog post put together quickly with fewer and less polishedly processed photos, and then slowly follow that bit by bit with more in-depth posts and website chapters with more lavish photo illustrations over the next few months.

As I said – please keep your fingers crossed and bear with me.
  

Oh, and by the way: the photo at the top shows the abandoned, burned-out and boarded-up former Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast. More about its history and significance in one of the next DT Blog posts. For now I just thought it kind-of symbolizes well how battered I’m feeling right now (... you just can’t take the black humour out of me it seems …).
  

… sorry it turned into a rather long Newsletter after all. I’ll try to keep it briefer next time.
  

Until then,

best wishes,

Peter
  
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PS: I drafted this Newsletter on the 19th of April to be sent out on the 20th; so that date above would actually have been correct. BUT, the WiFi in the hospital was so bad that it would have been impossible to try and send it from there. Nor did I want to risk sending anything requiring DT back-end passwords through the hospital’s open, i.e. unsecured, WiFi Hotspot. Hence I had my wife send only that interim short note last Saturday.

I’m home now, but still under heavy medication and prescribed with a very time-consuming (and unpleasant) treatment plan, which unfortunately will carry on over the next few weeks, so I won’t be back to my usual speed and standards so soon. But I will try my best to get something proper together and posted as soon as possible.