Part 21: In the Green.

I learnt how to stab myself yesterday... wait I guess I should rephrase that. I learnt how to use a diabetic blood sugar testing kit with utilizes needles. Needles used to be a thing that bothered me a lot more than they do now, I guess spending a week as a pincushion to a team of vicious medical professionals toughens you up to the idea of being jabbed with sharp metal objects.

It was actually rather amusing as the nurse who was supposed to be teaching me how to use the kit did not know so we learnt together under the tutelage of Professor Google and teacher's aide, Mr Youtube. She keep going "Did that stab you?" after psyching me up for the billionth time and the machine now delivering the injection. When the injection was finally complete and my blood was extracted I was super pleased to know that I was well in the green zone for where my sugar levels were at, having come down drastically since the hospital. I was pretty happy that I turned down that chocolate cake and ice cream the night before at a community function I was at. Later on I let a friend be the one to stab me and she took so much joy in it... I better watch out for that one...

My day then turned to swimming and I was not prepared for what happened there. The poor lifeguards ended up having the most dramatic customer, an elderly Greek woman refused to move from the swimmers lane despite being asked multiple times (Apparently she does this every time), when they politely but insistently tried to ask her she began muttering that insults and racist comments.

I approached her and tried to reason with her myself and even invited her to come aqua jogging with me, she treated me with more kindness than she showed the staff but between her anger and a solid language barrier it was difficult to make any progress. At a later point she ended up fully drenching a poor lifeguard with a massive intentional splash and the he was pretty miffed about that. As she left she informed me that she plans on swimming elsewhere and I felt a bit sorry for all involved, she had informed me she has pain and the pool helps... but her inability to follow instructions or be respectful had cost her a respite from her pain.

Hopefully we all learn to coexist one day.