End of trip

I know I was quiet for the last 2 days, but I was in Montreal.  The weather was mild, warm and lovely with loads of autumn sunshine, cold in the mornings and late evenings but beautiful during the day (and a couple of Canadians complained that 18C was “really hot”, silly wabbits!)  It was pleasant enough to discard coats and just have a shawl in case of cool breezes.  According to all reports, the boys were doing fine in my absence, although from all accounts Don wasn’t doing much eating or cooking, so I’m not sure what state he’s in when I get back tonight.  Jerry ignored me as usual when I was on the phone and wouldn’t even flick an ear to pretend that he was listening to me.  We had to leave him home when Don drove me to the station, and when he got back, Jerry attached himself and wouldn’t budge!

Normally when I’m in a hotel or a strange room, I have difficulty sleeping; not this weekend.  I got into my pillow fort (I always build one in a hotel bed) snuggled under my comforter and went to sleep.  I had to get up to turn off the lights — housekeeping turned them ALL on, which meant walking around the room to find switches for lamps… The first night I set an alarm early as the conference started at 8, and this morning I got up at 8 to get breakfast.  But I slept very well.  The people at the conference made sure that I ate, which was lovely, although I was quite disappointed by the breakfast pastries which looked much better than they tasted.

The presentations at the conference were really very interesting.  They weren’t overly long, but touched on some fascinating subjects.  Like one study which looked at how genetics affect the use of opioids, and pointed out that there were some (5 in all) areas that were involved in opioid metabolism.  Then another one on community care and finding ways to alleviate isolation.  We had a long conversation after about the cultural differences between Canada and countries like the Caribbean and India.  We also discussed how to change language so that clinicians don’t seem heartless, which can happen unintentionally.  Then the patient partners talked about our experiences and what it’s like hearing and living with our diagnoses.  I’m quite proud that I made it almost to the end — I left about an hour early and went back up to my room.  The organizer saw me leaving and accompanied me back and put me to bed.  Later that evening, when I was hungry, I ran into some of the other participants and we all went to the hotel restaurant for a truly excellent meal.  I got back upstairs just after 8, and immediately got ready for bed and fell into a deep sleep.  I went downstairs for breakfast, which was exhausting but worth it, then was back in bed shortly after 9am, and I slept until noon when I got up, packed and checked out.

The hotel staff were very kind and did everything they could to save me having to walk too far.  The hotel itself— it was a Hilton — was comfortable and fully accessible.  I’m not in a lot of pain, which is good, just tired from sitting too long — I got to the train station well over an hour early, and the train was delayed by 30 minutes, so it‘s a long time to be upright.  Looking forward to being home and snuggled in my bed, I admit.

Tiring weekend, but I’m glad I was able to come.  Also very happy that the costs were covered — the hotel bill alone gave me palpitations!  As you can guess, I’ll be happy to be home and snuggled in!  On the train now, heading to Ottawa.  Good night!