Sneak Peek

We are in the southern-most  part of Portugal near a small fishing town named Sagres.  It's lovely here.  Inland looks a lot like Southern California.  The coastline is cliffs and beautiful little inlets for silky sanded beaches.  There are also a lot of cave formations that I will have to come back to see for myself since my foot is in no shape for coastal hiking.

Anyway, there is a lot to tell as this is going down in history as our best family vacation.  I'll write a real blog post  when we are back and settled!

A New Doctor, A New Approach

At my 24 hour check up with my surgeon, he gave these basic instructions. (In your best German accent) "It's JUST two holes [in your foot], go home and use your sticks, don't put any weight on your foot for 6 weeks, then we'll do an X-ray". No cast to protect it? It was literally my naked foot, limp and swollen, with 2 bandaids covering the incision points. What about icing and elevation? What about therapy? He was not amused by my questions or the mention of my brother-in-law who is a PT and suggested this or that. He insisted that I am young (thank you!!) and didn't need to do any of that.

 The next morning I called my family physician, who sympathized with my situation and warned me that this was a fairly normal experience in Luxembourg. She agreed to call one of her coworkers and see if they could get me into another orthopedic since I would not be able to do so on my own in a short period of time. Thank you Doctor Tunstall!!! It was very good of her to help!

 Upon meeting Dr. K, he informed me of a completely different approach, oh and looking at my X-rays, said he probably wouldn't have done surgery. You can probably imagine my frustration. But what's done is done. That's when I really wanted to get a 3rd opinion, but knowing it was nearly impossible, I took a chance on the new doctor with hope he would be more reasonable. Decision made and cast prescribed. Getting the cast on and with putting some very light weight on it for balance and such was MUCH better.

 A week later, I returned to the hospital in downtown Luxembourg for an X-ray. Oh, but the X-ray machines have been having problems today, so were just going to take your cast off so the doctor can see your foot. WHAT? What's he going to see? If you need to give me a new appointment time, I will come back! So, the tech went off to call the doctor. Meanwhile, the downtown hospital of the capital city of the wealthiest country in the EU got their X-ray working. Amazing! Glad Jeremy was able to meet me at my appointment, because I tried, but could not figure out a way to climb a tiny step ladder with nothing to hold onto with a broken foot. This picture just makes me laugh at the ridiculousness of my entire experience!

Bone growth looked great, swelling down, no cast needed. An ankle brace to prevent lateral movements ought to do it from here on out. Right! So, I spent the next 2 weeks with my foot elevated a lot and not wearing the lame brace. I tried ordering an air cast boot to wear, but without a doctors prescription, that was tricky too. Needless to say, the doctor didn't think I needed it. I did. Now at 4 1/2 weeks post-op, still on crutches, I agree, I finally don't need the cast or a boot. The ankle air brace may actually become useful in 2 weeks, when I'm off crutches. 2 MORE Weeks! Well, we are SO incredibly blessed! We are off to Portugal to spend a week... That should help pass the time :)

With that, I'm done writing posts about my medical adventures, I hope!!

Surgery in the Grand Duchy

On Monday, we took the boys to school and I nervously headed into surgery. Jeremy helped me into my gown, but was not allowed to stay with me any longer.

 Note: Luxembourg is a very wealthy country and known for some of the best PUBLIC healthcare in Europe. Well, in comparison to my experience in American private healthcare, I was less than impressed. It's scary to think it is like the future of American Public healthcare. In fact, our pediatrician in The Woodlands, came to a conference with the EU in Luxembourg to learn best practices of their public healthcare systems. His conference was in Kirchberg--exactly where I was!

 I headed to anesthesiology to have my leg numbed. That was an experience I never want to relive. Imagine a soldier getting a slug dug out of the back of his knee with no drugs in a bloody war scene. It was only slightly better than that. Seriously, there was no explanation about the procedure, what to expect or what to do if it's getting too painful. But don't worry, if you start crying and telling them it hurts and you can hear your blood pressure monitor alarming, they won't ask for consent, they will just give you 'something to relax'.

 After the torture was over and my leg was numb, I was taken to the OR. The surgery seemed to last forever... I've had 2 c-sections. It wasn't all that different, except that it's a foot instead of a belly. But after a baby is born there is so much excitement and distraction to pass the time while they stitch you back together. So, it just seemed long. Off to recovery!

 Here's where the American medical system can really save some money! Shove all the post-op patients in to one big ward and mostly ignore them. Nevermind recovery rooms (shared or private), offering water or food to the patients who just fasted for 24 hours. Only pain meds for the people who moan the loudest. Doctors and anesthesiologist are off the hook too. No need to make sure your patient is recovering ok before leaving the hospital-- that's just an unnecessary medical cost!

 Most of the patients in the ward were dozing on and off from their anesthesia. Unfortunately, I got to experience it fully sober. Jeremy wasn't allowed in to see me nor was I to be released until feeling came back to my feet. I was told the anesthesia could last 6-8 hours. I was only 3 hours in when I arrived. After about an hour and a half, a nurse say me crying and asked if I needed something--YES! Is water too much to ask? She brought me a dixie cup! I downed it and quickly asked for another. Food? I got a vending machine style Madeline cookie. Imagine a Twinkie without the filling. Yep, that was my nourishing post-op snack.

 Now it had been an hour and a half since I entered the recovery ward. I could hear Jeremy asking to see me at the nurses window. Nope. So I asked if I could get my cast and leave. Well, no prescription for a cast and still can't wiggle my toes. This time I insisted on WHY? She explained that I need to feel my foot to get out of the bed and walk on crutches--it's a far walk to the car. REALLY? No cast and I have to walk a cross the hospital grounds to the parking garage--no wheelchair? I somewhat politely informed the nurse that there was no sense in waiting for feeling because I would NOT be walking out on crutches! But there was no prescription for a wheelchair?? I assured her that my husband would find a wheelchair!
Either I was that convincing or they really needed my space in recovery (pretty sure it was the latter), so they wheeled me to the dressing room to meet Jeremy. They yanked (yes, it was that unpleasant) my IV out, cut my hospital bracelet and gave me my clothes. Done! So, I started asking really stupid questions like, now what do I do? Elevate, how often do I ice? Is there any medication? Don't worry, you will see your doctor tomorrow is all I was told. Oh and if it's painful, you can take the standard 1g dosage of Tylenol.
Now back at home, my lower leg was still numb, but where they dug the bullet out and my whole upper leg was in a lot of pain. Too bad I cleaned out my medicine cabinet and threw away all the extra Vicodin from previous surgeries. Tylenol didn't cut it. At 11pm-- 14 hours after the 6-8 hour anesthesia was given to me, I still could not feel my foot or move my toes. Just happy that I wasn't still in that terrible ward, I went to bed. I awoke at 3am with throbbing pain in my foot--YAY, I can feel my foot! boooo Tylenol! Thanks to my family praying for me, I was able to get back to sleep for the night.

Jeremy had to do everything for 3 days following surgery. I was useless. He was great and he got a little glimpse of the demands of a mom every morning before school. I planned meals and grocery lists. He shopped and cooked. Then once I started moving more, I could cook with a chair in the kitchen so he didn't have to do it all.
My friends were great too. Flowers, magazines, chocolate and pastries were some of the gifts they brought on their visits. I wouldn't have survived the last 5 weeks without all the friends who came to have coffee with me! I only had 2 days that I was alone.

SNAP

As most of you know, 5 weeks ago I had just finished coffee with a friend and was 1.4 miles into my morning run when I turned my foot and 'snap!', I broke my fifth metatarsal.  

It was a beautiful, warm sunny morning and I was just warming up.  I don't really think there was anything in the path that caused my foot to turn, just a quick unfortunate step the wrong way.  I hobbled up the the bus stop (after a quick scan at the organic shop for something I needed) and took the buses home.  When I got off the bus in Limpertsberg, I was pretty worried about how bad the "sprain" must be, but managed to get home to ice and elevate.  After 45 mins, I tried to stand up and tears came flooding!  I was less upset about the pain, but the fact that this was a serious injury and I had no idea how I could pick up kids from school in 3 hours. 

Jeremy was at a conference in Munich where he was so quarantined that we had barely said hello each morning.  He would not be able to leave for another 36 hours, so I needed to figure this out!  I tried to gently put my foot down and started crying again.  I decided that I had to call him.  He was sweet enough to know I wouldn't call if it wasn't an emergency.  He booked the next flight home and my sweet friend, Jeannie, took me to the hospital.

Jeannie called her Doctors office and they recommended a hospital.  Upon arrival, we were not amused (at the time) to find out that while we went to the "Urgences", they were not an Emergency room today.  Huh?  But we were at an emergency room--right?  Well, apparently Luxembourg has a unique system of rotating which hospital is considered on-call for emergencies.  You have to call the emergency line in order to know that information. Wow. Maybe a tip the doctors office should have given??

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The clinic wasn't busy, so they were happy to see me and order an X-ray...no guarantee of a doctor, but we proceeded.  It was an obvious break on the X-ray and the head traumatologist orthopedic surgeon came to see me.  The German, no non-sense, doctor explained that the distance of separation of the bones necessitated surgery to screw it into place and we would do that on Monday.  I would not bear any weight on this foot for 6 weeks.  He also assured me I chose the best Hospital in Luxembourg with the finest doctors.  Later, I would form my own opinion on the subject. 

Still not thinking much about my foot, but completely freaking out about how life will change for the next 6 weeks... who will bring kids to school, cook, help clean the house, and the worst part--what on earth will I do?  

I'm so thankful to have so many neighbors and friends who called daily to see how they could help and if they could take kids to the park, etc.  Amalia immediately started calling people to find me some help!  By Sunday, we had hired a sweet gal who came 2 days a week to help with house keeping and to take the boys out to ride bikes and play.