Surgery

I arrived home from Switzerland on Saturday with my broken shoulder and still on crutches.  If you missed that excitement, you'll have to go back to my last post, about Torgon, Switzerland.  Mic was going to a record conventional in Milan, so I was by myself.

I know it sounds strange that I walked around with a broken should for what turned out to be 2 weeks.  The Swiss doctor had said I would need surgery, but I had some time as that part of the body heals very slowly.   I had broken part of the shoulder socket, but as long as I kept my arm up against my body, I was in no pain and I wouldn’t cause further damage.  The piece of bone was totally separated and just sort of floating nearby.  I was still able to use one crutch, which helped alleviate the pain in my foot, but I still didn't know what was wrong with it.

I had decided to go to Germany for my surgery because my friends Judi, Steve and Sharon kindly offered me a place to stay.  Also because it was near a military installation and they would accept my American insurance.  I was able to get a flight out on Sunday.  I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends who ferried me to and from the various airports.

On Wednesday I had my first appointment with Dr. Toric, an orthopedic specialist.  My friends in Germany worked but I was fine with taking public transportation where ever I needed to go.   I had checked out the bus schedule and it looks like an easy enough trip.  I left with enough time that I could even do lunch before my appointment. Good thing I left so early! As is usually the case, the bus took longer, the wait for the train took longer, and the walk to the doctor's office took longer. As it was, I made it with about half an hour to spare and no lunch.  The appointment went well; after a CT scan he agreed with the Swiss doctor that I would need surgery.  He was able to get me an appointment with anther surgeon, Dr. Kessler, at a hospital in Pirmasens on Friday. 

On Thursday I went to the mall just to have something to do.  At some point during the day my phone died and with it, Google Maps.  No problem, the bus stop was right around the corner from their house, what could go wrong I thought?  Well had I got on the right bus, nothing.  But I got on the wrong bus, and ended up at the wrong end of town.  Now what? It was early evening, dark and I had absolutely no idea where I was.  So I started walking.  Eventually I came to a sign pointing to a hotel that was right around the corner from the house, whew disaster averted. They laughed when I told them what had happened. Only I could have so much bad luck!  They said eventually they would have come looking for me, which was reassuring.
 

I must say, the bus that served their little town had the same three or four drivers for my entire stay.They were so kind, they would wait for me to get settled in my seat before they took off. Not like Malta, where I think the drivers get extra points for making old people or anybody with the cane fall.

Friday I had my appointment with Dr. Kessler.  He said he wanted an MRI of my shoulder and told me to wait outside his office and somebody would come for me.  This was about 8:30.  To make a long story short, 2.5 hours later, I was still waiting.  After asking several times was I supposed to go somewhere, I was told "someone will come for you."  At one point, the receptionist,  who spoke very little English, said Dr. Kessler will see you now.  I said you know I still haven't been for my MRI but I'm not sure she understood me.  Dr. Kessler came in and was quite upset.  He got on the phone and started yelling at someone. He apologized profusely and said the guy that came up at 8:30 was supposed to be taking me down there. His receptionist walked me down to the MRI department.  After about 30 minutes my phone rang and Dr. Kessler's nurse, who did speak English, asked me where I was. I said I'm right where the receptionist took me, in the MRI department, looking at the MRI machine.  She said they couldn't find me.  Eventually I got the MRI.  Steve had driven me, so at least I had someone to talk to the whole time.  Dr. Kessler apologized profusely, we went over his plan for surgery and he told me it was scheduled for the following Thursday.  His nurse said of course you want a private room right? She said it's only 40 Euro. I said of course I want a private room, thinking, that's cheaper than a hotel.

On Saturday Renee and I went to Saarbrucken just to see what we could see. What we saw was a whole lot of rain, so we ended up shopping all day. Renee is the kind of friend that it doesn't matter what you do, you're going to have a good time together.

On Sunday I had made plans to meet my friend Annette. Tonda had some friends in town so we all decided to go to Heidelberg together. We hiked up to the castle and signed up for a tour. I had left my crutch at home because I didn't want to slow the group down. Of course by the time we hiked up to the castle, my foot hurt.  At the very beginning of the tour I sat on a bench as the tour guide started explaining the room we were in.  From then on, he made sure to tell me that I could sit here or there. It was really embarrassing to have everybody wait while I settled down.  We got to a set of stairs and I said I don't want to go up there.  He said no no, you have to go up there, we have a portable chair. He then asked me what was wrong and I told him I had broken my shoulder and had a problem with my foot.  He then turned to the group and said okay everybody she has a broken shoulder.  Wow, how embarrassing!  Aside from being singled out, it was a pretty good tour of the Heidelberg Castle. We headed back into town and found a really nice place for lunch, just in the nick of time as it started pouring rain.

On Monday Renee and I had made plans to go to Paris on the high-speed train. I had to leave really early in the morning and of course I set my alarm for the wrong time!  I can't believe it but I was up and out the door in 8 minutes. The only bus that comes near them runs once an hour.  The train ride was really interesting.  We were going over 300 km/h which is 186 mph.  I couldn't believe we were going so fast, the ride was so smooth.  When we got to Paris we found a hop-on-hop-off tour so we could see the most sights.  We only had one day and we knew we couldn't see everything.  We got off at Notre Dame, for the church and catacombs.  Sadly the catacombs were closed on Monday.  I really wanted to see them because they're supposed to be even better than the ones in Naples, which I thought were absolutely fantastic.  We did walk around inside the cathedral,  but honestly it was a little disappointing.  The outside is stunningly beautiful, but the inside was kind of ordinary.  It was a huge church and it was quite crowded.  There's a large space in the middle that's only for seating.  Down both sides is a big aisle that was packed with tourists. There are small chapels lining the walls.

After a quick lunch of delicious French onion soup, our next stop was the Eiffel Tower.  Here at least, the crutch and the arm brace came in quite handy.  We got to go to the front of the line, no waiting.  The bad part was, they wouldn't let me go to the very top level.  They said it was not accessible for somebody with the disability in case there's a problem.  The steps are too narrow and too steep for me to get down using a crutch.  Oh well I didn't care to go all the way up to the top anyway.  The view from the first level was quite lovely.  I could see several beautiful rooftop gardens in the neighboring apartments.

Back on the bus we saw a few more sites and made Sacre-Coeur our last stop.  We didn't go inside, instead we shopped around and took some great pictures.  The sun was just setting and it made for a very pretty backdrop.  On the bus I was up front and noticed the driver was texting on his cell phone. It was raining and there were many pedestrians out and I figured it was just a matter of time before he hit someone.  I took video of him and sent it to the company. The next day I got 4 emails from 4 different people asking for the video.  I sent it but never heard back from them.

On Wednesday morning I went to Pirmasens Hospital to check in for my surgery.  (He wanted me there a day early)  I had a conversation with Dr. Kessler and Dr. Toric, who was there performing another surgery.  We discussed my shoulder as well as my foot.  I had previously asked Dr. Toric if he could look at my foot if I could get an MRI while at the hospital and he said yes, at mt followup appointment.  Kessler then took me to the admitting office.

The admissions clerk did not speak very much English but enough that I understood the gist of what she was saying.  One question she repeatedly asked was did I want to see the Department Chief.  I said there was no need for that, I could see whoever was available.  She asked me this question several times each time I replied no I did not want to see the Department Chief.  I tried to show her my insurance card and she said they didn't need it.  I went back to Dr. Kessler's office and he took me to see the anesthesiologist.  He looked at my admitting questionnaire and said I see you're diabetic, did you take your metformin this morning?  When I said yes of course, he said I'm sorry we can't do the surgery.  You have to wait 48 hours after your last dose because it interferes with anesthesia.  I had never heard that and certainly Dr. Kessler didn't say anything.  So I went back to Dr. Kessler's office and he seemed quite upset.  I said I'm not sure why you're upset, it was right there in my paperwork.  He rescheduled my surgery for Friday. He again insisted I come in a day early.

Thursday evening Dr. Kessler came barging into my room, kicking the nurses out who were talking to me, and started yelling at me.  He came right out and said "I thought you had private insurance! I never would have wasted all my time with you if you didn't have private insurance".  "I personally took you to admitting, and anesthesiology and made sure you saw only Department Chief's, and put you at the front of the line for 2 MRI's".  He went on about this for several minutes when I stopped him and said "I never asked for any special treatment.  You kept saying you wanted more Americans to use your hospital, I thought that's why you had rolled out the red carpet for me.  I had no idea it was because you thought you could make more money off of my insurance".  "I specifically said I don't want Department Chief's".  He said, "Fine, I'll have my kid come do your surgery!"  We went back and forth with him yelling at me that he wasted so much time with me while I yelled back that I did not ask for any special treatment.  Finally he asked me to sign a release of information so they could bill my insurance company.  I had no problem signing it.  On his way out the door he very rudely said "Oh by the way I saw that MRI, and there's nothing wrong with your foot. You just need inserts".

Of course, what I should have done is got up and left.  There's no reason for him to come in and yell at me, especially for such a stupid reason.  And for him to say that he wasted his time with me because he thought I had insurance was crazy.  I almost did leave, and I know that I should have, but I had been walking around for two weeks with a broken shoulder and I just wanted it fixed.  After I sign the release of information he did seem to calm down quite a bit and I decided to wait and see how he was in the morning. I certainly didn't want him operating on me if he was angry. The next morning he was just as nice as could be and I decided to go ahead with the surgery.

The procedure went well and I spent the next few days in the hospital.  The nursing staff didn't speak much English but between their English my limited German, we seem to communicate well enough.  I was hooked up to two different IVs for pain, and I had plenty of movies on my laptop, so it really was not a bad stay at all.  Some of the staff were really nice and tried to chat with me and I did get to practice my German.  Although I have a very limited vocabulary, they said what I did know was pretty good.   I was told to wear the shoulder brace at all times and not to move my arm at all.  On Sunday my IVs were removed and I was pleasantly surprised to find I was in no pain.  I was supposed to be released on Tuesday, I just had to wait for Dr. Kessler's final approval.  I got up in the morning and took my shower.  After I got dressed, I took my brace down to the nurse's station for them to help me put it on.  I met Dr. Kessler in the hall who immediately started yelling at me for not having my brace on.  He said "I told you to wear that brace at all times, who took it off of you and why don't you have it on"?  I yelled back, "I took it off because I can't shower with it on and I certainly can't put clothes on over it".   I'm not sure what his problem is with the Jekyll and Hyde routine but it was I was really over it.  Overall, everyone else at the hospital really did treat me quite well. They all said they were trying to get more American patients and they hoped I would be the first of many.

I was released from the hospital on Tuesday.  I found that after the surgery, I was far more limited in what I could do.  In order to get to the joint they had to cut the muscle and that meant I could absolutely not move my arm at all.  Before it was only the shoulder, now it was my entire arm.  Luckily Sharon was home all day and she was so wonderful.  Somebody had to do everything for me including tie my shoes, cut my food; so many things you would never even think would be a problem.  Since I'm right-handed, I found everything was so clumsy. Brushing my teeth, I couldn't write, forget about makeup or putting my hair up.  I have a new found respect for anybody with a disability such as a stroke where they lose the use of some part of their body.

Sharon and I did venture into town one day to try out a Vietnamese restaurant.  Sadly, it was closed. Other than that, I really didn't do much.  My friend Renee finally got her household goods and I offered to help her move into her apartment.  I'm not sure how much help I was, but I did unpack most of her kitchen boxes using only one hand.  I was slow but steady LOL.  I also had an opportunity for Renee and I to meet up with my friend Sandy.  Sandy and I met about 15 years ago in Alpena, Michigan. She was great fun that summer when we were both at a military training base in a remote part of Michigan.  I have not seen her since, but of course have stayed in touch on Facebook. She was as wonderful as I remembered her all those years ago.  She will be in Germany for 3 months and I hope I get back there before she goes home to California.  Judi, Steve and Sharon were the best hosts!  It was really fun staying with them, I can't wait to get together again.  Next time, I hope I need much less help!

2 weeks after surgery I was finally cleared to return to Malta.  Dr. Toric had a chance to look a the MRI of my foot and it seems I have a ganglion cyst in the joint.  He said the first course of action was to try a cortisone shot, but not until my shoulder was healed.  Apparently the cortisone would interfere with the healing process.  If that didn't work, more surgery.   Oh great!  At least that was somewhere down the road, we agreed my shoulder was more pressing.  We also agreed it was best that I curtail traveling for a bit, so I canceled trips to Berlin and Spain.  It was sad thing to do but I need to concentrate on getting my arm back to 100%.  There are too many things I need to do that I can't do with just one arm.

Link to Pictures
https://goo.gl/photos/ydifhwBbAcoyuPc47