DrForr

Just to give people an update on where I am after the spill and subsequent events at YAPC:

First of all, I need *AGAIN* to give my thanks to:

@Amal1a_ (Amalia) (and everyone else at Evozon for supporting me)
@renatolrr - (Renato) YAPC Coordinator, gofer and frequent bedside supporter during the last 3 weeks of hell
@Makova65 - (Manu) Another bedside confidante and inadvertent Andalusian Spanish tutor
@jjmerelo - (JJ Merelo) Another coordinator, gofer and @YEF director, I think.

And those that I can't find on Twitter - Maribel, Victor, Pablo, Paloma and Jose. Pretty much everyone responsible for YAPC::EU 2015, probably.

I can't thank you enough, you made my last 3 weeks bearable, I'm not sure what I would've done if I were just staring at off-yellow hospital walls for 3 weeks. I *SHALL* return to Granada, and Manu, I *will* take you up on your offer.

And now for a more personal update.

As you can doubtless tell, I'm still doing science and I'm still alive. (Apologies to GlaDOS - though I'm still waiting for that d*mn cake. I got a brownie last night for delivery, but it's not the same! *NOT THE SAME*!)

I managed to slip and break my hip on the very first day of YAPC::EU 2015, I think breaking the streak of medical incident-free YAPCs. Sorry 'bout that :) No concussions or other obvious trauma otherwise.

That day and night is somewhat a blur of pain, but I think the morning of the 4th they finally did surgery. I'm now officially bionic, had titanium plates and screws installed to reinforce the neck of my left femur. Incidentally, while the spinal epidural was comparatively painless, getting into *position* with a broken hip was *not* fun.

After getting the leg set and screws in place, the rest of the time was relatively pain-free. I didn't get much sleep in the hospital as I'm a side sleeper, and I was ordered not to move the leg while it was healing, so a lot of time was spent staring at either an off-yellow wall or my smartphone reading @CStross novels.

Throughout I was getting daily or even twice-daily visits from the @YAPCEU orga people, most of whom I'd met, all checking up on me and getting me fresh water bottles, at least when I was allowed water.

There were of course other people visiting, and my apologies if you visited and I *don't* remember - these last few weeks have been a blur. I remember Wendy and Liz, Sue, Burak, maybe Jim Keenan, and of course Larry and Gloria during the first few days, before the conference wound down. The people from @YAPC::EU were a constant presence, and helping me all the way to the hotel where I actually slept for a night, and even drove me to the airport.

Fast-forwarding through a few days and IV changes, and now I have an inflamed gall bladder, which apparently is a common side-effect of the surgery. This does have a bright side, as when I went down to have an abdominal MRI scan I *also* get to experience what has to be the closest thing to Neo leaving The Matrix for the first time.

I've always thought "cold fire" was just a poetic description, but "cold fire running up my arm and across my heart" is the closest description I can give to what it feels like to be injected with a (I assume) gadolinium MRI contrasting agent.

So another hospital (the place I was in was for orthopaedics) and a week-long wait for another operation, this time on a nasogastric tube and a week-long complete fast. I now have a few more cuts, and am missing both my gall bladder *and* two large walnut-sized gallstones.

After a day or so to make sure nothing would leak, I *finally* get a chance to taste the wonder that is Sevilla/Granada orange juice. Beats the living h*ll out of anything we've got back in the States, or even here in Romania, I'm sad to say. At least I'll have another reason to go back.

The first reason is, of course, the Perl community that supported me in *so* many ways that I can't possibly do them justice, everything from little things like wet towels when my internal thermostat was out of whack, to topping off water bottles when I was too weak to twist caps, to arranging hotel rooms and even playing the part of travel agent when it was time to get out of the hospital and start properly recuperating.

The second reason is, of course, the people outside the Perl community I met, even if it were just my trying to ask some random passer-by on the street about local microbrew, in my then terribly-broken Spanish. In 3 weeks' time I was forced to remember and adapt more Spanish than I had in .. years.

And finally, of course, my parents and family (even my new sis-in-law), whom I know I gave a terrible scare to, and I'm eternally grateful that they're there for me.

Thanks everyone.