The Skiathos Bulletin Board

skiathos lad · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 292 Location: skiathos

Well I should just stick to writing about snow trips, shopping. Parties and shows but am afraid the 2nd part of my report won’t be as adventurous.
Id like to take the opportunity given the chance from my mishaps to explain to you guys how the Greeks are treated in general by their government and perhaps enlighten a bit those of you that have decided to move permanently here or plan to do so.
You see it all has got to do with our education witch am afraid all it has left is that at some point some thousand years ago we were the center of the universe.

At the age of 55 I haven’t had much problems with my health and since I enjoy doing a lot of sport and activities like snorkeling, skiing and wind surfing, tennis ,ping pong and another few I forget, I think I will live forever and ever!
Heck I read asterix and obelix every morn in the wc .
But near the end of this summer I had for the first time in my life a dizzy spell and I almost had fainted.
So just after the holidays and still in a haze from all the partying and good times, I decided to follow everyone’s advice and enter one of the best hospitals so I could take tests and a thorough check up.
In Greece we have 2 types of insurance:
The one provided by the government and the private.
Govs staff is for free but unless you pay in the envelope they tell you: so sor plz come back in 6-7 months and well see.
As well all the archaic equipment used in the public hospitals, together with the fact that most of the good doctors have gone to the private sector, and considering that more than likely one will end in a room (all share what’s available- most rooms for 3-5 but some as many as 12 persons.) with at least a gypsy in! (nothing against them but they are visited by at least 25 relatives witch most times camp in the room using the same loo as the patience!!!}
A smart reader has realized by now if one can afford internet then he must be amongst the population who have private insurance.
I went to one of Athens best large hospitals and talked with a lady pathologist (friend of a friend) who looked at my blood tests results and explained with a serious voice what an idiot I were and how could I possible be alive with a cholesterol count of 310!!!
Then she told me that at 55 I never had any of the normal tests taken by everyone and she would strongly recommend giving me amongst a no of blood tests and many nameless a triplex, a special x-rays, another used for the pregnant ladies, and a colonoscopies, a dreaded one witch had been discovered by count sadist and is responsible for the homosexuality of our modern world,.
(YES my friends, I am not ashamed to admit I lost my virginity and very proud to say I disliked every second of it!!!)
I did ask all the obvious questions how long will the tests take and how much money (you see you must pay and then claim from insurance).
2 days max, at around 2500 euros was the reply.
So the adventure started and by the second day, and after taking a numerous tests and meeting with some very mean machinery, when I woke up from my normal afternoon siesta gathered around my bed wife, parents, sister with husband, and lady pathologist together with a surgeon.
From their looks I started to understand…. and the SILLY smile witch had started to form on my face froze.
How many years do you smoke? Asked the surgeon.
2 packs per day?
At first I thought they would go on about the secret camera in the WC and all the smokes I had there in the 2 days of my stay but noooooo.
Some shadows (6) we have discovered in your lungs and
We strongly recommend an operation so we take a fragment of it for a better examination…..
I don’t remember the rest of what they said except the vision I had of my wife’s new husband smacking my kids for wanting to visit my grave.
To cut it short and after some of the worst days of my life with big pains and sorrows came the final reply:
ALL CLEAR!!!!
I gathered up my last remaining strengths and declared to the wide eye pathologist: either you sign the paper and let me out or I escape grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
So against her will and putting all her arguments away like its only a day since the operation, and the stitches will brake……….
She signed the exit papers.
My beloved skiathos ill get to see you one more time!!!
Of course I had to pay but they were very polite about it (not the surgeon who took 4000 cash) at the hospital and took a check for 16,500.
The lady pathologist run, just as I were leaving the room, and told me in the price was included a visit with an endocrinologist and plz to wait another 5 min for him to come.
Just as he introduced himself and started asking me about staff like my age and my height and my weight, while taking measurements around my waist with a tape at a very famine disposition, the wife whispered in my ear: but he has a wedding ring!!!
You can relax then dear, I whispered back; no married man can be a queer!!!
Well I should be ashamed of my self because he was the only one who gave me a good advice:
GO ON A DIET AND QUIT SMOKING.
AH a bit expensive at 20,000 though!
I had a second opinion from a doctor friend who lives and works in skiathos:
the shadows were, he said after a close look at the x-rays, lemphadenes witch are something normal to a smoker and you should never had the op but run another x-ray in a few months first and only if the shadows gotten bigger or worst have the op.
then he proceeded to tell me that the reason he left Athens and came to our island to work was that his wife had passed away with the big C and he couldn’t stand being a doctor and having taken the Hippocratic oath and seeing the way the Greek health institutions and doctors sacrifice it all in the name of money!
Man, can you imagine, they cut my lung open while knowing that there was not much wrong with me, so they earned more!
Next time we visit a doctor ill ask the wife to take off her gold rings and jewelry!!!
Anyway the good thing is now it’s been nearly a week with no smoke (I pray to god every day to give me strength in this) and foods containing fat have disappeared from the fridge.
This year it’s been a very interesting experience at very extreme rates, driving with the foot all the way down to the gas pedal and I must admit I haven’t been bored at all.
It has helped as well the fact all the nurses at the hospital had previously graduated from a top model agency and bla blab la bla……………..

Elle · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject:

Mike!!
Welcome back! We're missed you and Paul and I certainly miss being on Skiathos and seeing you.

Your feedback report was SO funny - and SO scary! We are happy that your health is OK and now you're well on the way to making it better....
Congratulations of QUITTING SMOKING!!!! Good job, Mike! You'll be fine - just keep that image of Eleni's new husband smacking your kids for wanting to visit your grave in mind... Smile

If I can quit, you can quit and all of the advice I can give you is DON'T give it ANY drama! (I know, hard thing to ask of a Greek, but...) If you do, it will claim you back. No yelling and screaming or laying on the floor yelling while you pound your closed fists onto the ground. Wink

Go for a long walk instead (and that my friend, will be good for your cholesterol!)

Anyway - we miss you. And Paul does look forward to fishing with you under better circumstances, one of these days.
We will see you in May and think about when you want us to perform there at your Oasis bar... we'll try to round up any other Skiathos lovers who frequent this forum, and we'll make party of it. (though I think people would have to get really, really drunk to dance to our music...)

Tha se do, meta
Elle
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Marshall P Knutt · Joined: 02 Sep 2007 Posts: 62 Location: Hull

Absolutely rivetting reading Parts 1+2 Very Happy

Looking forward to the next instalment Very Happy

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Val & Kev · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 130

Hi Mike, 2 great reports, you really should write a book! Yes thanks to you the room no longer shakes when the washing machine spins! Thanks for that and all your hospitality to Kevin. We're out in March , hope to see you all then.