Diagnosis: a spontaneous venous thrombosis on the left leg, partly inherited from my family, partly due to sítting too much time in front of my computer.

So I spent the best part of the week enjoying this view:

..or taking snapshots like this one:

This is actually where I was waiting for gastroscopy where this woman next to me asked the doctor for colonoscopy, telling him that she had too much anal intercourcse lately. Well….

Staying in hospital is ok – at least you’re provided with free food and I didn’t have to pay for anything. Now compare that with hospitals in Kenya and you know what’s better about Germany. Really, the health care system may be far from perfect, but it is better than in other countries.

Eventually, I was given these tights which are really *tight* but also help putting some external pressure on the veins.

The irony is that they’re selling this colour as flesh tone. It’s the moment where your mind goes: WTF?!?!?! U guys can’t be siriiiaaaas?!

But they are. These tights also available in black or white – and I will order a black pair asap. Will have to wear these for at least 6 months, probably even longer. Yes, I know, many women have been wearing such special tights for the last 30 years or so, but I am a man and just not used to such special underwear. It could be worse.

One reason for blogging all this is to remind you not to spend too much time seated (this also happens during long flights, btw!) – or else a thrombosis is what may follow. They do all kind of tests with you to exclude a tumor (which may be another cause for a thrombosis) and that ain’t nice.

The other reason is that the Angiological department at the Uniklinik Frankfurt shares the same building with the Infectological dept – where all HIV-patients are treated. You end sharing the place with other patients who are about 1/2 of my weight and who probably won’t survive another month. Makes you appreciate life.

Another positive aspect of all this is that your body is checked upside down – so it’s good to know (that) the rest is all well!

Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to ask/discuss on the panel.

I won’t blog much, but will be tweeting lots so catch me on Twitter. Also search for #africa09 on twitter.

"To be fair, even great diarists of the past had bad days: Samuel Pepys, the Englishman whose journals clarified a big chunk of the 17th century for historians, sometimes had nothing more imaginative to say than: And so to bed."

"Great blogging is great writing, and it turns out great Twittering is great writing — it's the haiku form of blogging."