Panamanian hospital and a change of plans

You can turn 40 in many different ways. You can throw a big party. You can travel to avoid all the excitement. You can spend it with dear friends and family. Or you can test the quality of a Panamanian hospital and try communication with poor Spanish..

The preparations for my big run was going very well indeed. The weekend before I turned 40, three weeks ago, I tested the so called 25/5 method for my weekly long run. Run for 25 minutes, walk for 5 minutes, then run again and so on. It was my friend Sebastian that gave me the tip. The idea is for my body to recover during those 5 minutes, to be able to withstand the really long runs. And it worked perfect! Three hours of running, and I still had a lot of energy left! Thank you, Sebastian!

Sunday came, and I didn't feel excellent. Monday was a kick off at work, but I had to go home after lunch. My stomach really hurt by now, and I was glad to know that my appendix was already removed in a surgery a few years ago- it couldn't be that at least.

On Wednesday the 25th it was worse, with fever and evil pain-attacks that kept me awake throughout the night. One day before my birthday, the only option was to go and try out a Panamanian hospital. The experience turned out to be a surprise. Well, maybe not a big surprise, since my wife Ida had tested it the day before with excellent result. The effectiveness, the hospitality and friendliness left the Swedish hospitals way behind.

Also, I got a big (but painful) laugh when my wife Ida remarked, after they have pushed me in a wheelchair through the corridor in the hospital, “this is how it is to turn 40..”.

The Panama International Half marathon on Sunday the 29th was just to forget, and despite the excellent health care at the hospital and medicine, the evil bacterias kept their grip on me for more than two long weeks.

A friend of mine commented that it might be a good idea to move my ocean to ocean race a few weeks because of the interruption in my preparations. So, mid May became early June. And why not? The first Saturday of June is the 6th- the Swedish national holiday. Is there a better way to celebrate this than to run from one ocean to another?