Well you never know what a day may bring…..

After a freezing night at the free camp outside Peterborough we woke to a sunny but windy day… the plan was to go into town for a coffee and brekky and then continue on to Broken Hill – not as long a journey as yesterday….

However, Beryl came across and let us know that Klaus had had a bad night – the pain relief I had given him did not touch the headache and he had not slept well at all… I was starting to get concerned about the cause of the headache – Beryl also said he had now become quite nauseous – so I said that we should take him to get looked at… Fortunately there was a small hospital in Peterborough with an Emergency Department, so Trev drove Klaus and Beryl in their car with their van hitched and I followed them in with our ute…. The others stayed at the campsite as we planned that we would see what the initial outcome of the ED visit was, and then drive back – collect our van and we would all return to Peterborough for coffee and brekky while Klaus was being seen in ED….

We walked up to the ED after parking. Klaus still had the headache and was dry-retching by this time.

Trev and I left them in the ED and went back for our van and the others… and drove into town to the coffee shop where we all ordered coffee and brekky…

The coffee shop was very eclectic – with a great collection of interesting guitars which Gordie was fascinated by….

By this time, Klaus had been seen by the nurse, and Beryl was told that the doctors were not onsite – in fact they were in a neighboring town at an educational morning and were expected back by 1230 – so there would be no further news till he was seen by a doctor… Trev went and picked Beryl up and brought her back so she could have brekky… We were all praying that there would not be anything seriously wrong, and that the doctors would come quickly and make the right decisions..

After much discussion over coffee, we all decided that the Hunters and Wells would leave for Broken Hill (in particular as Gordie’s lights were still not working so they needed to get there during the day) – it would be too late to wait til Klaus had been seen by the docs… Trev and I would stay with Beryl and work out next steps as info came to light…

So we farewelled the others anticipating we would join them later that night after Klaus was sorted….

Trev, Beryl and I then went back to the ED to wait with Klaus for the doctor…. It seemed an endless wait, and Klaus was becoming drowsier and now unsteady on his feet…. Fortunately, the doctor arrived, did a thorough examination – Klaus’s vitals and bloods were all fairly normal, but she was concerned that he had become unsteady while in ED even though Klaus now said the headache had seemed to ease…

Providentially the doctor was cautious and said she felt she would like to do a CT of Klaus’ head just to be sure there was nothing untoward occurring…. Which meant that he had to be transported by ambulance to Port Pirie – 1.5hrs away – as there was no CT facility closer… If the CT was normal he would then return to Peterborough and be admitted overnight for some rehydration, observation and pain relief… If, however the CT showed something that needed further intervention he would be transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Beryl would stay in Peterborough as she would not be able to be transported with Klaus to Adelaide if that was the outcome – so rather than be stuck in Port Pirie she did not accompany Klaus in the ambulance.

While Beryl was waiting with Klaus for him to be picked up by the ambulance, Trev drove Beryl’s car and van to the Peterborough Caravan Park…. the long way (country towns have interesting side streets 🙂 )….

and spoke to the owners who were overwhelmingly helpful – they gave Beryl a spot and thus she was sorted as far as accommodation went for the coming night. Trev set up the van so it was all ready for Beryl once Klaus had left for Port Pirie…

We were all hopeful that the CT would be fine, Klaus would come back and after a night in hospital he would be discharged the following day – and we could then continue on and meet up with the others…. We were concerned however that Klaus would not be OK to drive having been quite fatigued with the headache, so we also decided to stay the night at Peterborough with them and our contingency plan became Trev driving Klaus and Beryl’s van with them in their car…and me following driving our car and van… As I had not driven and towed our van prior, Trev gave me a crash course driving around Peterborough while we were waiting for news of Klaus….

Once Klaus had left in the ambulance (Beryl managed a farewell pic) Beryl joined us at the caravan park to wait….

A bit later, Beryl, Trev and I went out for dinner to the Junction Hotel… a local pub…. I had squid schnitzel – an interesting concept and actually really delicious!!

While we were eating, Beryl got a call from the doctor in Port Pirie…. Not great news… the CT showed a small subdural bleed that had developed slowly possibly over a couple of days… the blood was causing pressure on his brain hence the headache, dizziness and nausea… however the doctor was reassuring as Klaus had not deteriorated further, but he needed to be retrieved to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for assessment by a neurosurgeon with the possibility of surgery (burrholes) to drain the blood and release the pressure….

The doctor at Port Pirie had already organised the Royal Flying Doctor Service retrieval and Klaus would be picked up shortly…

After discussing various options, we decided that we would arrange with the caravan park owners to store Klaus and Beryl’s car and van at the caravan park, and we would drive Beryl to Adelaide first thing in the morning so she could be with Klaus… providentially again, a good friend of theirs, Bronte, was in Adelaide on holiday and so Beryl organised for him to meet us in the outskirts of Adelaide at 0830 so we did not have to drive the van into the CBD to the RAH.

We spent the evening helping Beryl pack for Adelaide, empty the van of perishables and packing valuables into our car for us to take home for them…. The night was wet and freezing and we all finally went to bed hoping to get some sleep before a long day ahead…. Praying that Klaus would get to Adelaide safely and there would be no further deterioration in his condition…