The recent weeks have been overly hectic. A combination of things going uphill in Szlachetna Paczka (and me trying to solve all oncoming problems), a pile-up of complicated transactions on the table at work and other minor stuff have been depriving me of time to get proper rest and recharge batteries.
On Thursday, 6 November I woke up before 6:00 a.m., commuted to the office, toiled away in haste, knocked off after 5:00 p.m., came back home, changed clothes and cycled to Warszawski Ośrodek Interwencji Kryzysowej (no English equivalent of such centre I would be familiar with) to have three meeting with families to be potentially taken care of as part of Szlachetna Paczka programme. I returned home shortly before 10:00 p.m. with head full of issues to be sorted out.
On Friday, 7 November the plan was to put the white shirts to the washing machine and hang them out to dry on a balcony before setting off to Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej (council centre for social welfare) to pick up papers for Szlachetna Paczka and then to work, the to have three other charity-related meeting in the evening. Upon eating breakfast I realised the washing machine did not make any sound. I headed to the bathroom it check it out. The appliance was dead and not reacting to any methods of restarting. I had to open the washing machine, whose drum was full of water. I managed to get rid of the dirty water overflowing the bathroom, get the shirts out, wring them and put them into a bowl. As I was about to take the unwashed shirts to the balcony, I felt a strain in my back ribs, behind my chest. It virtually paralysed me. I only managed to fall over in a controlled way. I could not move for some 10 minutes, then as the pain begun to ease, I crawled to the bedroom, scrambled up to bed and weighed up pros and cons of calling an ambulance. As I was feeling better minute by minute, I did not decide to do so.
Some two hours later I felt good enough to leave home, take a 504 bus to pick up documents from Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej, ambled to the underground station and turned up late at work. In the office, I felt unwell and gave in after two hours, took the laptop and headed home. Back in my bedroom, I ordered a telemedicine appointment, told a doctor what had happened a few hours earlier and was instructed to report to a hospital immediately. Kind of scared I called a taxi and 20 minutes later I was in an emergency ward of Medicover hospital. Long story short, I was thoroughly examined, mostly to rule out heart attack and diagnosed with a muscle crump, then given a drip with antispasmodics. After a two-hour lie-in, I was discharged and felt well enough to return home by public transport, calling on a pharmacy to buy myself painkillers.
On Saturday, 8 November I carried on with painkillers but went to the swimming pool in the evening. On Sunday, 9 November I cleaned my flat and gave up on my painkillers, as they were playing havoc with my stomach. On Monday, 10 November I was back on my bicycle. Up until now I feel well, although I do have no idea what caused the incident which took place on 7 November. I presume it was stress and haste overload, so the lesson learnt is take less on my back and slow it down. I am trying hard, but the process is slow and I stand a chance to pull it off once Szlachetna Paczka is over, i.e. in the second half of December.
With respect to the broken-down washing machine, it turned out my MPM appliance had most likely given up the ghost due to steering module defect. Such spare parts are not manufactured, nor sold as used ones and none of local technician wanted to take up the challenge of repairing the washing machine of that brand. I felt guilty of producing nearly 60 kilograms of rubbish (I hope somebody recycles parts of that washing machine), but also enjoy the comfort of using a brand-new Bosch washing machine. Before ordering it, I have made sure crucial spare parts are available and the appliance is constructed in a way which facilitates repair of nearly all imaginable defects (AI helps with such exercise and substantiates its answers). Besides, my new washing machine has been manufactured in Poland, near Łódź. Happily, my other white goods, all purchased in 1Q2019 are holding up well and I hope they will outlive substanially my washing machine which had served me for six years and eight months.
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