After my accident, we rented a car, and we got to see some of the more famous castles in Luxembourg.
29 March, 2006
March's Beautiful Picture of Luxembourg
After my accident, we rented a car, and we got to see some of the more famous castles in Luxembourg.
28 March, 2006
A Holiday!!!
Since the doctor said I couldn't work, we decided to take a vacation. We hadn't been anywhere outside of Luxembourg except to the Ikea in Metz, France. So we did a typically American thing -- lots of driving. We rented a car and went to nine countries in six days.
My notes are below:
22 March 2006
Darin and I woke up about 8:00 this morning, a little bit later than usual for the both of us. There had been a dusting of snow overnight. Getting out of town and going south seems like a good idea.
Darin had wanted to leave by 9:00, but I knew that couldn't be done. I had to send some emails and some files to the office, finishing about 9:45. Darin worked on getting the car packed.
We didn't leave until 10:30, and we had to stop at the bank for some money. We got out on the autobahn (A3) and were at the French border when Darin remembered that we didn't have the camera. We turned around. We left Kehlen for the second time at noon, with 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us for the day. Darin was not happy. It was 3 degrees Celcius when we left at noon.
We drove south to France, and in Nancy got on the toll roads and started making even better time. (Toll roads from Nancy to Nimes cost us 42.80 euro today.)
We ate lunch at a covered picnic table at a rest area off the toll road. It was raining. I stayed in the car. I had gone to the restroom, and it zapped all my energy.
We arrived at Nimes at 20:30 and found the Ibis hotel easily. They gave us the last two rooms on the first floor closest to the parking lot. There were still four steps that I had to get up, and I was so tired.
We ate supper in our room. The girls slept in the room across the hall.
Darin asked the front desk for some ice, and they gave him some from the bar. It made a world of difference. My foot was so swollen after going to the doctor on Tuesday, and it hadn't recovered. I kept it elevated in the car, sitting in the back seat with it between Darin and Rachel in the front seat. With just an hour with the ice, I could see the difference in the swelling.
23 March 2006
After a late night, we decided to sleep in a bit. We ate breakfast in the room, and we left about 10:15 for Spain.
I hadn't taken any photos yesterday, so I started taking pictures out the car window. It has changed from winter to spring in just 1 day. The trees are blooming, and there are flowers everywhere. We're all wearing t-shirts and shorts today.
We took the toll road toward Spain. We ate lunch at a rest area near Rivesaltes, France, close to a castle/fort. While Darin went to explore, I took the long journey to the toilets, only to find they were all stand-up toilets. Darin got back in time to help me while the girls went exploring. We ate a picnic lunch at one of the tables. Darin meant to take a picture of me being out of the car, but he missed his chance.
We crossed the border into Spain about 13:30, and we got off the toll road at the second exit, before 14:00. We drove to Roses, and then to Cadaque, through a national park of some kind with lots of winding roads. Cadaque was right on the Mediterranean, and we drove around some, but we made Darin go back. We took some pictures at the top of the mountain down towards Roses and Port Selva. By the time we arrived in Port Selva, N and I were not feeling well. We took another winding road up to St. Pere Rodes -- we were there from 16:00 to 17:50. Darin and the girls explored the monestary. I sat in the car and watched boats come into the bay at Port Selva. It was a bad pasttime for someone who had to go to the bathroom like I did.
Next we drove up the coast, still on very winding roads, and found the last (open) gas station in Spain and paid only 0.977 euro/liter, full service.
We ate supper in Perpignan, France, at a Chinese restaurant, from about 19:45 to 21:00. We got back to the hotel at 22:45. I asked for a little bit of ice, and he still have me a lot. Darin put some out in the car (with the cheese), so I had some of the night and even more for the car in the morning (after we ate the cheese).
24 March 2006
Darin and I woke up at 7:30. We left at 9:55 from the parking lot. We ate chips and cheese for breakfast in the car. We headed east toward Italy, starting out again on the toll road.
There were cherry orchards in bloom along the south coast of France.
We arrived in Monaco about noon. I think we drove on every road in the country.
We arrived in Italy about 13:45. (I took a picture of the border crossing, but no one was there.) We stopped at McD's for plain hamburgers and chicken nuggets and finished the cheese (eating again in the car, this time in the McD's parking lot). We drove up the Via Aurelia to San Remo, and then I couldn't tke the slowness, bumps, & bad drivers, so I asked Darin to go back to the A10 toll road. The toll road was filled with viaducts and tunnels for a nice smooth ride for N and me.
We got to the hotel about 16:30. They gave us 2 rooms for the price of one since a mistake was made and they thought we had only 2 kids instead of 3. We worked it out and got me settled. On my way in, I slipped and almost put my foot down. I managed to catch myself, but I tensed every muscle in my leg and it hurt. But now, after some ice, it looks and feels good.
Darin and the kids went to the beach for wading by 17:30. I laid on the bed with ice on my foot. They all came back by 18:25 -- soaking wet, partly from the rain but mostly from the sea. They washed up and we went to supper at the hotel. Dinner was from 19:30 to 21:30, four courses, the fanciest meal the kids have ever had. I took pictures.
After supper, Darin helped me take a shower in the girls' room because they had easier access to the shower, but I was tired and I felt like I was falling all the time. Maybe partly because of the earlier sliding. I need to remember to take showers earlier in the day.
25 March 2006
Breakfast was included with the room, so we went down to a very nice breakfast about 8:30 this morning. Then D and the kids went to the beach again. This time they wore their swimsuits. Darin said that everyone else out on the beach was wearing their winter coats. They came back about 10:00, and we left the hotel about 11:00.
We got back on the toll road and headed toward Milano. There was a 4 km traffic jam at a work zone at one of the tunnels. Other than that, we made pretty good time -- until we got to Milano and the end of the toll road. We paid our toll, but we couldn't find what we needed on the signs. We ended up driving through Milan. The signs all through Italy were not good, so it was difficult all the way through the town. We were there from 13:30 to 14:15, but finally found our way to the toll road to Switzerland. I realized at the border that one of the problems was that I was looking for signs to Lugano, Switzerland. But all the signs said "Chiasso" instead, and that wasn't on my map.
In Switzerland, they give you a sticker for your windowshield that covers all the tolls for the day, so we had to stop at the border and pay the toll lady.
Switzerland had some amazing tunnels, but also had some winding spots. We stopped at one of the parking areas, and the girls got out and played in the snow. It was so cool that earlier in the same day they had been in their swimsuits in the Mediterranean.
We crossed into Leichtenstein about 17:00, and Austria about 17:30. The Austrian border crossing was the only the second border we had to cross, to get back into the European Union. The police man told the girls to put their seat belts on correctly because they were all wearing their shoulder straps under their arms.
We found the Ibis hotel in Bregenz without much trouble, and we ordered in pizza/calzones to eat in the room. The girls and and I are watching the Ice Stating 2006 world championships in one room. Darin is watching news in the girls' room. The hotel gave us two rooms at the end of one hall, with the girls at the very end, and both keys opened both rooms, which Darin loves. Darin would always confiscate the girls' room key before bed so he could go in their room in the morning to wake them up.
26 March 2006
We checked out about 10:45. We crossed over to Germany about 11:00. We took route 12 to Isny, and the snow on the ground was making it foggy.
We stopped for lunch in Fussen, from what we thought was 12:30 to 14:00, but it turned out that it was really 13:30 to 15:00. (At first we thought we'd gone into a new time zone, which didn't seem right to me. We realized back in Luxembourg that it had switched to Daylight Savings time (or summer time) in Europe early Sunday morning. We get to do this all again when we get to the States.) Darin picked the place -- the Brauhaus, and the food was excellent.
We went to Hohenschawngau and Neuschawnstein, but the ticket offices were closed for the inside tours. I suggested that they could take the horse carriages up the mountain, but Darin was grumpy that it was so touristy. I had warned him that it was touristy there, and it's not **that** bad (not like Gatlinburg). But Darin was grumpy. He was just trying to ruin my favorite castle.
We spent the night at an Ibis hotel in Augsburg, west of Munich.
27 March 2006
Darin woke up at 6:00 (our time, we didn't change our watches), took a shower, and woke the girls up afterwards. He and the girls went out to the car at the parking garage at 8:30 while I waited in the lobby. Darin didn't come to get me until 9:15. Because of the one-way streets, Darin couldn't figure out how to get from the parking garage back to the hotel. Finally, they stopped at another Ibis hotel and asked directions.
Darin got up to 187 kph on the autobahn outside of Stuttgart. I didn't get a picture of that, but got one at a slightly lower speed.
We ate lunch at McD's at noon in Neustadt. I told Darin he would have to order, and he started to order, and then the manager came over, and he and Darin had a nice conversation.
After lunch I had us take a short-cut over to (Karlsruhe), and we drove through Frankenstein, Germany, which was neat.
We made the Lux border at 15:30, and back to Kehlen at 16:15.
My notes are below:
22 March 2006
Darin and I woke up about 8:00 this morning, a little bit later than usual for the both of us. There had been a dusting of snow overnight. Getting out of town and going south seems like a good idea.
Darin had wanted to leave by 9:00, but I knew that couldn't be done. I had to send some emails and some files to the office, finishing about 9:45. Darin worked on getting the car packed.
We didn't leave until 10:30, and we had to stop at the bank for some money. We got out on the autobahn (A3) and were at the French border when Darin remembered that we didn't have the camera. We turned around. We left Kehlen for the second time at noon, with 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us for the day. Darin was not happy. It was 3 degrees Celcius when we left at noon.
We drove south to France, and in Nancy got on the toll roads and started making even better time. (Toll roads from Nancy to Nimes cost us 42.80 euro today.)
We ate lunch at a covered picnic table at a rest area off the toll road. It was raining. I stayed in the car. I had gone to the restroom, and it zapped all my energy.
We arrived at Nimes at 20:30 and found the Ibis hotel easily. They gave us the last two rooms on the first floor closest to the parking lot. There were still four steps that I had to get up, and I was so tired.
We ate supper in our room. The girls slept in the room across the hall.
Darin asked the front desk for some ice, and they gave him some from the bar. It made a world of difference. My foot was so swollen after going to the doctor on Tuesday, and it hadn't recovered. I kept it elevated in the car, sitting in the back seat with it between Darin and Rachel in the front seat. With just an hour with the ice, I could see the difference in the swelling.
23 March 2006
After a late night, we decided to sleep in a bit. We ate breakfast in the room, and we left about 10:15 for Spain.
I hadn't taken any photos yesterday, so I started taking pictures out the car window. It has changed from winter to spring in just 1 day. The trees are blooming, and there are flowers everywhere. We're all wearing t-shirts and shorts today.
We took the toll road toward Spain. We ate lunch at a rest area near Rivesaltes, France, close to a castle/fort. While Darin went to explore, I took the long journey to the toilets, only to find they were all stand-up toilets. Darin got back in time to help me while the girls went exploring. We ate a picnic lunch at one of the tables. Darin meant to take a picture of me being out of the car, but he missed his chance.
We crossed the border into Spain about 13:30, and we got off the toll road at the second exit, before 14:00. We drove to Roses, and then to Cadaque, through a national park of some kind with lots of winding roads. Cadaque was right on the Mediterranean, and we drove around some, but we made Darin go back. We took some pictures at the top of the mountain down towards Roses and Port Selva. By the time we arrived in Port Selva, N and I were not feeling well. We took another winding road up to St. Pere Rodes -- we were there from 16:00 to 17:50. Darin and the girls explored the monestary. I sat in the car and watched boats come into the bay at Port Selva. It was a bad pasttime for someone who had to go to the bathroom like I did.
Next we drove up the coast, still on very winding roads, and found the last (open) gas station in Spain and paid only 0.977 euro/liter, full service.
We ate supper in Perpignan, France, at a Chinese restaurant, from about 19:45 to 21:00. We got back to the hotel at 22:45. I asked for a little bit of ice, and he still have me a lot. Darin put some out in the car (with the cheese), so I had some of the night and even more for the car in the morning (after we ate the cheese).
24 March 2006
Darin and I woke up at 7:30. We left at 9:55 from the parking lot. We ate chips and cheese for breakfast in the car. We headed east toward Italy, starting out again on the toll road.
There were cherry orchards in bloom along the south coast of France.
We arrived in Monaco about noon. I think we drove on every road in the country.
We arrived in Italy about 13:45. (I took a picture of the border crossing, but no one was there.) We stopped at McD's for plain hamburgers and chicken nuggets and finished the cheese (eating again in the car, this time in the McD's parking lot). We drove up the Via Aurelia to San Remo, and then I couldn't tke the slowness, bumps, & bad drivers, so I asked Darin to go back to the A10 toll road. The toll road was filled with viaducts and tunnels for a nice smooth ride for N and me.
We got to the hotel about 16:30. They gave us 2 rooms for the price of one since a mistake was made and they thought we had only 2 kids instead of 3. We worked it out and got me settled. On my way in, I slipped and almost put my foot down. I managed to catch myself, but I tensed every muscle in my leg and it hurt. But now, after some ice, it looks and feels good.
Darin and the kids went to the beach for wading by 17:30. I laid on the bed with ice on my foot. They all came back by 18:25 -- soaking wet, partly from the rain but mostly from the sea. They washed up and we went to supper at the hotel. Dinner was from 19:30 to 21:30, four courses, the fanciest meal the kids have ever had. I took pictures.
After supper, Darin helped me take a shower in the girls' room because they had easier access to the shower, but I was tired and I felt like I was falling all the time. Maybe partly because of the earlier sliding. I need to remember to take showers earlier in the day.
25 March 2006
Breakfast was included with the room, so we went down to a very nice breakfast about 8:30 this morning. Then D and the kids went to the beach again. This time they wore their swimsuits. Darin said that everyone else out on the beach was wearing their winter coats. They came back about 10:00, and we left the hotel about 11:00.
We got back on the toll road and headed toward Milano. There was a 4 km traffic jam at a work zone at one of the tunnels. Other than that, we made pretty good time -- until we got to Milano and the end of the toll road. We paid our toll, but we couldn't find what we needed on the signs. We ended up driving through Milan. The signs all through Italy were not good, so it was difficult all the way through the town. We were there from 13:30 to 14:15, but finally found our way to the toll road to Switzerland. I realized at the border that one of the problems was that I was looking for signs to Lugano, Switzerland. But all the signs said "Chiasso" instead, and that wasn't on my map.
In Switzerland, they give you a sticker for your windowshield that covers all the tolls for the day, so we had to stop at the border and pay the toll lady.
Switzerland had some amazing tunnels, but also had some winding spots. We stopped at one of the parking areas, and the girls got out and played in the snow. It was so cool that earlier in the same day they had been in their swimsuits in the Mediterranean.
We crossed into Leichtenstein about 17:00, and Austria about 17:30. The Austrian border crossing was the only the second border we had to cross, to get back into the European Union. The police man told the girls to put their seat belts on correctly because they were all wearing their shoulder straps under their arms.
We found the Ibis hotel in Bregenz without much trouble, and we ordered in pizza/calzones to eat in the room. The girls and and I are watching the Ice Stating 2006 world championships in one room. Darin is watching news in the girls' room. The hotel gave us two rooms at the end of one hall, with the girls at the very end, and both keys opened both rooms, which Darin loves. Darin would always confiscate the girls' room key before bed so he could go in their room in the morning to wake them up.
26 March 2006
We checked out about 10:45. We crossed over to Germany about 11:00. We took route 12 to Isny, and the snow on the ground was making it foggy.
We stopped for lunch in Fussen, from what we thought was 12:30 to 14:00, but it turned out that it was really 13:30 to 15:00. (At first we thought we'd gone into a new time zone, which didn't seem right to me. We realized back in Luxembourg that it had switched to Daylight Savings time (or summer time) in Europe early Sunday morning. We get to do this all again when we get to the States.) Darin picked the place -- the Brauhaus, and the food was excellent.
We went to Hohenschawngau and Neuschawnstein, but the ticket offices were closed for the inside tours. I suggested that they could take the horse carriages up the mountain, but Darin was grumpy that it was so touristy. I had warned him that it was touristy there, and it's not **that** bad (not like Gatlinburg). But Darin was grumpy. He was just trying to ruin my favorite castle.
We spent the night at an Ibis hotel in Augsburg, west of Munich.
27 March 2006
Darin woke up at 6:00 (our time, we didn't change our watches), took a shower, and woke the girls up afterwards. He and the girls went out to the car at the parking garage at 8:30 while I waited in the lobby. Darin didn't come to get me until 9:15. Because of the one-way streets, Darin couldn't figure out how to get from the parking garage back to the hotel. Finally, they stopped at another Ibis hotel and asked directions.
Darin got up to 187 kph on the autobahn outside of Stuttgart. I didn't get a picture of that, but got one at a slightly lower speed.
We ate lunch at McD's at noon in Neustadt. I told Darin he would have to order, and he started to order, and then the manager came over, and he and Darin had a nice conversation.
After lunch I had us take a short-cut over to (Karlsruhe), and we drove through Frankenstein, Germany, which was neat.
We made the Lux border at 15:30, and back to Kehlen at 16:15.
14 March, 2006
A Last Exciting Adventure
We've had a very exciting month, and I haven't had the chances to blog that I would have liked. I broke both bones in my leg just above the ankle and had surgery to fix it that afternoon (13 screws, 1 plate, 3 incisions, and 24 stitches), and spent a week in the hospital. It will be 4 months before I can walk without crutches, but at least I don't have a cast and I can take showers.
On Monday, 6 March, I left for work at 9:05 to catch the 9:10 bus, late, as usual, for a Monday morning, and especially after I've given my resignation and I just don't care anymore.
I had almost gotten stuck in the office on the Friday before. The snow was falling so heavily then that the roads were completely impassable for a time, but I found a bus to get me home. So I started out Monday very carefully on icy roads.
But careful doesn't really help someone who is as graceful as I can be, and I fell on the ice, just on the far side of the street from our house. I knew the second it happened it was broken -- I heard it crack. I was lying on the road with my knees pointing to the sky, and my right foot lying at an impossible angle. I was thinking about how to crawl back across the street safely, when I thought that maybe I should try first to flag down a car, if for no other reason than to protect me as I crawled back across the road. The first car I saw stopped when I waved. It turned out the driver was the British man who lives down the street, the one who works at Eurostat and has three daughters. He called for an ambulance, went up to the house to get Darin, arranged for his wife to look in on the kids for later, and translated for me the people who came along to help in various ways.
Darin brought some blankets from the house to keep me warm, and I suppose it helped, but I was still lying on a sheet of ice on the street. No one wanted to move me at all in case something else was wrong. I really thought that my bum was fine, and I could have rolled over enough to have some the blankets on my backside instead of just piled on the top. My leg really hurt, and it hurt even more when I shivered.
There was a man from the commune who brought me some kind of space-age metallic blanket, and he was calling to check on the various ambulances that were or weren't coming. He was also trying to make sure that no one ran over me with their cars. Someone called a local doctor, and he came out to check on me. He kept checking my pulse and asking "doctor" questions about previous injuries and allergies. I am allergic to codeine in its various forms, which is a pain-killer, so it's important to share that information when you are lying there in pain. Fortunately for me, the French words for "allergy" and "codeine" are the same as in English. He also kept telling me to stay calm. I would have been calmer if I'd been warmer and on pain medication.
Because of all the snow and ice, there had been a lot of accidents and falls that morning. The ambulance from Mamer couldn't come, and they had to send one from Steinfort instead. The ambulance didn't come until about 10:10 or so, with me finally in the ambulance by 10:28. They first put my leg and foot in this balloon-thing and blew it up to keep it still. Then the guys acted like they were going to pick me up by my legs to put me on the stretcher, and I started to panic. But they got out the back-board, so that part was OK. They took the Autobahn most of the way to the hospital, but every bump hurt.
They took me straight to radiology, and I got to bump some people from the line since I was in the most pain. It was here that I finally was able to take off my coat and ask for some blankets. The technician tried to get me to put my coat back on, but then noticed how cold and wet it was. That's what happens when you're lying on the ice for more than an hour. They also took x-rays of my chest in preparation for surgery.
I was out of radiology and back to admitting by 11:30, and I kept asking for my husband (in English, German, and French) and pain medication, but no one would help me. It was a terrible feeling. No one wanted to speak English with me, and I couldn't think straight enough to try to understand anyone else's German or French. I really wanted Darin. They kept mentioning surgery, and I was afraid that Darin wasn't getting the word. At 12:30 they started the IV so I could finally get some pain relief. At 13:30 I finally saw a doctor, and I explained to him that I needed to talk to my husband. He mentioned that to a nurse, and she told him (in French) that I had already spoken to my husband on the telephone. But I hadn't. I told the doctor that my husband wasn't at home, he was somewhere in the hospital and no one would find him for me. When he told this to the nurse, she looked a bit panicked. At least someone eventually told Darin something. I didn't get to see him during the ambulance ride, and hardly at all at the hospital. I really wish they had let us be together more. I was so stressed and in so much pain, and I really needed someone to talk to who could understand me.
By 14:00, the pain meds had kicked in fully, and they started taking me to pre-op. The doctors seemed all very nice, so I was fairly calm, except that I was still worried that they weren't telling Darin anything.
I woke up about 18:30 in the post-op ward. I couldn't remember where I was or why I was there. I was looking for Darin, and I somehow had it in my head that I couldn't find Darin because they wouldn't tell him where I was. People around me were talking, but I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I remember thinking that something was wrong with my hearing. I eventually remembered that I was in Luxembourg and that I had fallen and needed surgery. And that I was right about Darin -- he wouldn't be there. I started crying and then throwing up. They gave me some medicine and I went back to sleep.
About 19:00 I was awake again, and some nurses came to take me to my room. The nurse said that when my husband realized he couldn't see me, he went home, but he had called already and he would call me again. That made me feel better somewhat, even though I still missed him. I was upset that Darin had spent the whole day in the hospital for nothing, when I knew he'd be worried about all the packing we still had to do back at the house. I knew that the kids would feel better if Darin was at home, too.
I had a terrible night that night, and a bad day on Tuesday, and another bad night on Tuesday night. I was throwing up all the time, mostly just dry heaves because I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink. I was so thirsty, and my hands had swollen.
Tuesday evening I got a new roommate who was really loud and annoying, but she was gone most of the day on Wednesday to have her surgery, so that helped me to feel better and get some rest also.
On Wednesday I asked to be taken off one of the pain medications. I tried not to push the button so much during the night on Tuesday night, and I woke up feeling slightly less nauseated. By lunch I was feeling better, and lunch was good: roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sandwich bread. So I made myself a roast beef sandwich. It reminded me of my Grandpa.
The physical therapist came by for the first time on Wednesday. She showed me some exercises to do, and we practiced for a little bit on my new crutches. I still had the IV in my arm and drainage tubes coming out of my leg, so it was very difficult for me to walk anywhere without help.
My pastor, Joan, came by to visit Wednesday, and she bought me a card for the phone. I could get incoming calls, but I couldn't call out without the card. She put 20 euros on the card, but I didn't use it all, so we got some back and paid her back. She also went to the gift shop and bought me a brush, some lip stuff, hand lotion, a National Geographic, and a Ladies' Home Journal.
Also on Wednesday, Darin took a break from packing to come visit. He hitched a ride with the British lady down the street and then later rode the bus back to Kehlen. It was really nice to see him.
Since now I have a phone, I called my office and left my number, and my boss called me this evening to ask if I could send a file to him. I told him that was impossible. The whole conversation was so funny. I was regretting that I had called the office after all. My boss had called the house on Tuesday looking for me. Darin told him I was in the hospital because of surgery, but Darin wouldn't give him my number then. It turned out that Darin had the right idea.
Wednesday afternoon the doctor decided that since I was eating and drinking now, they could take me off the IV. The doctor also had the nurses rebandage my leg and pull out the tubes. My leg was in a "splint" that was essentially just half a cast on the underside of my shin and the bottom of my foot, and then wrapped up in gauze and ace bandages. I kept telling people that the splint was too tight and it was hurting my little toe, a casualty of my broken foot from 16 years ago. They would ask me if I felt pin-pricks or ants crawling. I know they were asking about a lack of circulation, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the splint was crushing my little toes. I kept asking if we couldn't do something to not squish my toes. They kept telling me it wasn't too tight. I don't think it was a language problem as much as it was that they thought they knew more than I did about my own pain. I couldn't convince them that the toe was a previous condition. I suppose it would have been easier if they had spoken better English, or if I could have explained everything in French. So they took off the splint, rebandaged everything and put the splint back on, only without the drainage tubes. My little toe was very sad.
On Thursday, the physical therapist came about 8:00, and she had me walk down to the sunroom, and my nurses brought me breakfast there. It was a nice change. They I walked back and went to bed. It was really hard work.
When the doctor came, he told them to rebandage my leg again without the splint. I was so happy, for the sake of my little toe. They put lovely white support hose on both legs.
Lunch was stuffed chicken and rice, really good, with really good soup. We usually get something really nice for desert also, and Thursday it was something made from strawberries. Breakfast was usually a hard German-type roll with packs of butter, jam, and sometimes Philly cream cheese, and fruit and yogurt. Supper was usually some kind of cold salad, like tuna or salmon with vegetables, good soup, and fruit for desert. Generally speaking, the hospital food was much better than any hospital food I'd ever had in the States.
Liz from church called and then came by in the afternoon. She said she is addicted to Suduko puzzles, and I should like them since math people like logic puzzles. She brought probably twenty of them, clipped from the newspaper. Some of them weren't clipped out yet, so I was able to read some news from England on the back of the "puzzle page."
Then Marco called from the office, and he asked if there was anything from the office that I needed. I told him it would help if he could bring me my CDs I had left in my desk because then we could get them packed in the container. So he and Gabriella came by this evening, and not only did he bring my CDs, he had bought me a small CD player for me to use in the hospital, and 3 cans of Coke Light. Gabriella bought me a big yellow flower in a cute little pot. While they were there, someone came with a big bouquet of pink rose buds and pink lilies. I took the card, and Gabriella asked who sent them. I told her that she had because the card said they were from the "team", but obviously sent by my boss. They were really pretty. I love pink lilies and roses.
That evening Joan and Chris, our pastors, had the kids over for dinner and to meet their dog (who likes to eat girls, they were told), and then Joan brought the girls to the hospital for a visit. It was really nice to see all the girls. I taught them my exercises so that they could help me, and we talked about how the packing was going. I gave them most of my CDs to take home so they would be packed in the container.
Thursday night felt very lonely.
The nice night nurse, the one who speaks English was me, wasn't around on Thursday night and Friday night, and when I complained about pain, I didn't get the usual shot in the bum for pain, but only the fizzy tablets in water.
My parents had been calling me every night at about 18:00, and on Friday, Darin's parents called me, too, so that was cool. Daddy said that my friend Kathy had been trying to get in touch with me. He called her "your Kathy" because he had temporarily forgotten her married name. I didn't need a last name -- I knew who he meant when he said "your Kathy." I was glad he told me about it, and I was glad that Kathy was thinking about me, but it made me sad that I couldn't call her. I really wanted to talk to her.
Saturday they wanted me to get out of bed for breakfast, but I wouldn't get up. So for lunch, they set the tray on the table for both me and my roommate, forcing us both to get out of bed. The nurses were complaining that we were being lazy. My roommate finally spoke to me some. She had said earlier that she didn't know English, but her English was fine. (Lunch was a salmon pastry thing that was very good.) At supper, they did the same thing, making us eat at the table. (Supper was cold tomatoes and cheese.) We decided to show them that we could move if we wanted, and the two of us took a walk down to the sun room, rested, and then came back.
Then this one nurse I didn't like, partly because she didn't even try to speak anything except Luxembourgish, and partly because she wouldn't stop talking, decided I needed my bandages changed. I told her that the doctor said they were fine, but she insisted. The bandage changing was fine, but she almost killed me trying to get the white support hose back on. I had told my roommate at supper about my earlier accident, and how much the splint had hurt my little toe, and how I couldn't seem to explain to the nurses that they needed to be careful of both my little toe and my ankle. So my roommate explained it to this nurse in Luxembourgish, and she still managed to bang up both sides of my ankle and almost tear off my little toe.
Then my roommate wanted to watch "Deutschland Superstar", Germany's version of "American Idol", and she said if I didn't mind, we could watch it together (we had separate TVs, but I hadn't ever gotten mine to work). It was down to the final three contestants, so the singing was pretty good. The first guy, Mike, started out singing "Mandy", not my favorite song, but it reminds me of that Ray Stevens song. The girl sang something I can't remember, and sang it like she was nervous. The next guy, Tobias, sang "Are we having fun yet?", and did a good job. Then Mike sang "Against All Odds", a song that always makes me cry. Then Jessica sang Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love", another song that makes me cry, except that Jessica sounded bad at the end. Then Tobias sang a sad song about how his girl will always be there with him even though she's gone. When they went to commercial, I rang for the nurse to get my pain pill for the night, thinking the show was almost over. After the break, they all got to sing a dedication song. Mike sang to Jessica "She's so Beautiful to Me" and had Jessica crying, and then I was crying. Then Jessica sang a song for her sister, a song I didn't know, and it was in German, but she sang it really well, and the words were so beautiful, and I was thinking about Kathy, and then I was really crying, with tears running down my face and neck. Right when the song ended the nurse comes in, and I ask for my pain pill, and she's worried because I'm crying. I'm explaining that it was a really beautiful song on the TV, and my roommate is trying to explain it to her also, but she's still worried about the both of us. It was pretty funny, except that we couldn't stop crying.
So when the show was over, I'm still thinking about Kathy, and feeling sorry for myself. But then I decide that thinking about Kathy should make me happy because there are so many good memories, so I start thinking about happy things (like that "insane, but preppie" email). Many of my happy memories involve all my friends at Census, so I fell asleep that night thinking about Kathy, Joe, Amy, Suzanne, and Lynn, and I feel asleep laughing.
In the morning, I had this dream that Darin and I, Kathy and her husband Dave, and Joe, were in Kathy and Dave's RV on our way to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I was still on crutches. And Joe's wife didn't want to come with us. Joe suggested we stop at a Walmart on the way to buy souvenirs. I stayed in the RV. Joe came back from shopping and showed me this really ugly, wild Hawaiian shirt, and said, "I bought this for Steve, but now I'm not so sure. Is this too gay, or should I buy him a dress instead?" I woke up then, laughing. It was my best night so far. I slept straight from 23:30 to 5:50. (By the way, the dream won't make any sense to Joe either, I'm sure. I have no idea who Steve is, or what the dream means, but it did cheer me up.)
Sunday morning my roommate started throwing up and had a really bad day. Wendy from church came by, but my roommate had lots of loud visitors, sometimes as many as 8 in our really small room (with no curtains to pull either, so to keep some modesty, I have to stay under the covers even though it's hot in the room).
But my little toe is feeling a lot better. And I'm really thankful for my friends, even if I'm too far away from home for them to come visit.
Monday morning I proved to the physical therapist that I could be released by walking up and back down a flight of stairs. It was really tiring. My doctor said I'm making good progress, and he released me. Fortunately, there were no stairs at our house in Luxembourg, and now that I'm at Mom and Dad's, I can just crawl up the stairs. Luxembourg does not seem to be very handicapped and wheelchair friendly, compared to the US. I think that I'll find a way to avoid stairs for the most part.
Kathy called me at the hospital on the afternoon I was released. It was so good to hear her voice. If she only knew how much I've been thinking about her. I wonder if she knows how much I appreciate her? I really appreciated the regular phone calls from my parents also. It really gave me something to look forward to every day.
So I celebrated my 52nd Monday in Luxembourg by coming home from the hospital.
My doctor says I can't work for six weeks, and he was totally OK with our going back to the States. So just about the time we forced my boss to agree to our schedule for a final day, I didn't go back to work anyway.
ttfn
On Monday, 6 March, I left for work at 9:05 to catch the 9:10 bus, late, as usual, for a Monday morning, and especially after I've given my resignation and I just don't care anymore.
I had almost gotten stuck in the office on the Friday before. The snow was falling so heavily then that the roads were completely impassable for a time, but I found a bus to get me home. So I started out Monday very carefully on icy roads.
But careful doesn't really help someone who is as graceful as I can be, and I fell on the ice, just on the far side of the street from our house. I knew the second it happened it was broken -- I heard it crack. I was lying on the road with my knees pointing to the sky, and my right foot lying at an impossible angle. I was thinking about how to crawl back across the street safely, when I thought that maybe I should try first to flag down a car, if for no other reason than to protect me as I crawled back across the road. The first car I saw stopped when I waved. It turned out the driver was the British man who lives down the street, the one who works at Eurostat and has three daughters. He called for an ambulance, went up to the house to get Darin, arranged for his wife to look in on the kids for later, and translated for me the people who came along to help in various ways.
Darin brought some blankets from the house to keep me warm, and I suppose it helped, but I was still lying on a sheet of ice on the street. No one wanted to move me at all in case something else was wrong. I really thought that my bum was fine, and I could have rolled over enough to have some the blankets on my backside instead of just piled on the top. My leg really hurt, and it hurt even more when I shivered.
There was a man from the commune who brought me some kind of space-age metallic blanket, and he was calling to check on the various ambulances that were or weren't coming. He was also trying to make sure that no one ran over me with their cars. Someone called a local doctor, and he came out to check on me. He kept checking my pulse and asking "doctor" questions about previous injuries and allergies. I am allergic to codeine in its various forms, which is a pain-killer, so it's important to share that information when you are lying there in pain. Fortunately for me, the French words for "allergy" and "codeine" are the same as in English. He also kept telling me to stay calm. I would have been calmer if I'd been warmer and on pain medication.
Because of all the snow and ice, there had been a lot of accidents and falls that morning. The ambulance from Mamer couldn't come, and they had to send one from Steinfort instead. The ambulance didn't come until about 10:10 or so, with me finally in the ambulance by 10:28. They first put my leg and foot in this balloon-thing and blew it up to keep it still. Then the guys acted like they were going to pick me up by my legs to put me on the stretcher, and I started to panic. But they got out the back-board, so that part was OK. They took the Autobahn most of the way to the hospital, but every bump hurt.
They took me straight to radiology, and I got to bump some people from the line since I was in the most pain. It was here that I finally was able to take off my coat and ask for some blankets. The technician tried to get me to put my coat back on, but then noticed how cold and wet it was. That's what happens when you're lying on the ice for more than an hour. They also took x-rays of my chest in preparation for surgery.
I was out of radiology and back to admitting by 11:30, and I kept asking for my husband (in English, German, and French) and pain medication, but no one would help me. It was a terrible feeling. No one wanted to speak English with me, and I couldn't think straight enough to try to understand anyone else's German or French. I really wanted Darin. They kept mentioning surgery, and I was afraid that Darin wasn't getting the word. At 12:30 they started the IV so I could finally get some pain relief. At 13:30 I finally saw a doctor, and I explained to him that I needed to talk to my husband. He mentioned that to a nurse, and she told him (in French) that I had already spoken to my husband on the telephone. But I hadn't. I told the doctor that my husband wasn't at home, he was somewhere in the hospital and no one would find him for me. When he told this to the nurse, she looked a bit panicked. At least someone eventually told Darin something. I didn't get to see him during the ambulance ride, and hardly at all at the hospital. I really wish they had let us be together more. I was so stressed and in so much pain, and I really needed someone to talk to who could understand me.
By 14:00, the pain meds had kicked in fully, and they started taking me to pre-op. The doctors seemed all very nice, so I was fairly calm, except that I was still worried that they weren't telling Darin anything.
I woke up about 18:30 in the post-op ward. I couldn't remember where I was or why I was there. I was looking for Darin, and I somehow had it in my head that I couldn't find Darin because they wouldn't tell him where I was. People around me were talking, but I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I remember thinking that something was wrong with my hearing. I eventually remembered that I was in Luxembourg and that I had fallen and needed surgery. And that I was right about Darin -- he wouldn't be there. I started crying and then throwing up. They gave me some medicine and I went back to sleep.
About 19:00 I was awake again, and some nurses came to take me to my room. The nurse said that when my husband realized he couldn't see me, he went home, but he had called already and he would call me again. That made me feel better somewhat, even though I still missed him. I was upset that Darin had spent the whole day in the hospital for nothing, when I knew he'd be worried about all the packing we still had to do back at the house. I knew that the kids would feel better if Darin was at home, too.
I had a terrible night that night, and a bad day on Tuesday, and another bad night on Tuesday night. I was throwing up all the time, mostly just dry heaves because I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink. I was so thirsty, and my hands had swollen.
Tuesday evening I got a new roommate who was really loud and annoying, but she was gone most of the day on Wednesday to have her surgery, so that helped me to feel better and get some rest also.
On Wednesday I asked to be taken off one of the pain medications. I tried not to push the button so much during the night on Tuesday night, and I woke up feeling slightly less nauseated. By lunch I was feeling better, and lunch was good: roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sandwich bread. So I made myself a roast beef sandwich. It reminded me of my Grandpa.
The physical therapist came by for the first time on Wednesday. She showed me some exercises to do, and we practiced for a little bit on my new crutches. I still had the IV in my arm and drainage tubes coming out of my leg, so it was very difficult for me to walk anywhere without help.
My pastor, Joan, came by to visit Wednesday, and she bought me a card for the phone. I could get incoming calls, but I couldn't call out without the card. She put 20 euros on the card, but I didn't use it all, so we got some back and paid her back. She also went to the gift shop and bought me a brush, some lip stuff, hand lotion, a National Geographic, and a Ladies' Home Journal.
Also on Wednesday, Darin took a break from packing to come visit. He hitched a ride with the British lady down the street and then later rode the bus back to Kehlen. It was really nice to see him.
Since now I have a phone, I called my office and left my number, and my boss called me this evening to ask if I could send a file to him. I told him that was impossible. The whole conversation was so funny. I was regretting that I had called the office after all. My boss had called the house on Tuesday looking for me. Darin told him I was in the hospital because of surgery, but Darin wouldn't give him my number then. It turned out that Darin had the right idea.
Wednesday afternoon the doctor decided that since I was eating and drinking now, they could take me off the IV. The doctor also had the nurses rebandage my leg and pull out the tubes. My leg was in a "splint" that was essentially just half a cast on the underside of my shin and the bottom of my foot, and then wrapped up in gauze and ace bandages. I kept telling people that the splint was too tight and it was hurting my little toe, a casualty of my broken foot from 16 years ago. They would ask me if I felt pin-pricks or ants crawling. I know they were asking about a lack of circulation, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the splint was crushing my little toes. I kept asking if we couldn't do something to not squish my toes. They kept telling me it wasn't too tight. I don't think it was a language problem as much as it was that they thought they knew more than I did about my own pain. I couldn't convince them that the toe was a previous condition. I suppose it would have been easier if they had spoken better English, or if I could have explained everything in French. So they took off the splint, rebandaged everything and put the splint back on, only without the drainage tubes. My little toe was very sad.
On Thursday, the physical therapist came about 8:00, and she had me walk down to the sunroom, and my nurses brought me breakfast there. It was a nice change. They I walked back and went to bed. It was really hard work.
When the doctor came, he told them to rebandage my leg again without the splint. I was so happy, for the sake of my little toe. They put lovely white support hose on both legs.
Lunch was stuffed chicken and rice, really good, with really good soup. We usually get something really nice for desert also, and Thursday it was something made from strawberries. Breakfast was usually a hard German-type roll with packs of butter, jam, and sometimes Philly cream cheese, and fruit and yogurt. Supper was usually some kind of cold salad, like tuna or salmon with vegetables, good soup, and fruit for desert. Generally speaking, the hospital food was much better than any hospital food I'd ever had in the States.
Liz from church called and then came by in the afternoon. She said she is addicted to Suduko puzzles, and I should like them since math people like logic puzzles. She brought probably twenty of them, clipped from the newspaper. Some of them weren't clipped out yet, so I was able to read some news from England on the back of the "puzzle page."
Then Marco called from the office, and he asked if there was anything from the office that I needed. I told him it would help if he could bring me my CDs I had left in my desk because then we could get them packed in the container. So he and Gabriella came by this evening, and not only did he bring my CDs, he had bought me a small CD player for me to use in the hospital, and 3 cans of Coke Light. Gabriella bought me a big yellow flower in a cute little pot. While they were there, someone came with a big bouquet of pink rose buds and pink lilies. I took the card, and Gabriella asked who sent them. I told her that she had because the card said they were from the "team", but obviously sent by my boss. They were really pretty. I love pink lilies and roses.
That evening Joan and Chris, our pastors, had the kids over for dinner and to meet their dog (who likes to eat girls, they were told), and then Joan brought the girls to the hospital for a visit. It was really nice to see all the girls. I taught them my exercises so that they could help me, and we talked about how the packing was going. I gave them most of my CDs to take home so they would be packed in the container.
Thursday night felt very lonely.
The nice night nurse, the one who speaks English was me, wasn't around on Thursday night and Friday night, and when I complained about pain, I didn't get the usual shot in the bum for pain, but only the fizzy tablets in water.
My parents had been calling me every night at about 18:00, and on Friday, Darin's parents called me, too, so that was cool. Daddy said that my friend Kathy had been trying to get in touch with me. He called her "your Kathy" because he had temporarily forgotten her married name. I didn't need a last name -- I knew who he meant when he said "your Kathy." I was glad he told me about it, and I was glad that Kathy was thinking about me, but it made me sad that I couldn't call her. I really wanted to talk to her.
Saturday they wanted me to get out of bed for breakfast, but I wouldn't get up. So for lunch, they set the tray on the table for both me and my roommate, forcing us both to get out of bed. The nurses were complaining that we were being lazy. My roommate finally spoke to me some. She had said earlier that she didn't know English, but her English was fine. (Lunch was a salmon pastry thing that was very good.) At supper, they did the same thing, making us eat at the table. (Supper was cold tomatoes and cheese.) We decided to show them that we could move if we wanted, and the two of us took a walk down to the sun room, rested, and then came back.
Then this one nurse I didn't like, partly because she didn't even try to speak anything except Luxembourgish, and partly because she wouldn't stop talking, decided I needed my bandages changed. I told her that the doctor said they were fine, but she insisted. The bandage changing was fine, but she almost killed me trying to get the white support hose back on. I had told my roommate at supper about my earlier accident, and how much the splint had hurt my little toe, and how I couldn't seem to explain to the nurses that they needed to be careful of both my little toe and my ankle. So my roommate explained it to this nurse in Luxembourgish, and she still managed to bang up both sides of my ankle and almost tear off my little toe.
Then my roommate wanted to watch "Deutschland Superstar", Germany's version of "American Idol", and she said if I didn't mind, we could watch it together (we had separate TVs, but I hadn't ever gotten mine to work). It was down to the final three contestants, so the singing was pretty good. The first guy, Mike, started out singing "Mandy", not my favorite song, but it reminds me of that Ray Stevens song. The girl sang something I can't remember, and sang it like she was nervous. The next guy, Tobias, sang "Are we having fun yet?", and did a good job. Then Mike sang "Against All Odds", a song that always makes me cry. Then Jessica sang Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love", another song that makes me cry, except that Jessica sounded bad at the end. Then Tobias sang a sad song about how his girl will always be there with him even though she's gone. When they went to commercial, I rang for the nurse to get my pain pill for the night, thinking the show was almost over. After the break, they all got to sing a dedication song. Mike sang to Jessica "She's so Beautiful to Me" and had Jessica crying, and then I was crying. Then Jessica sang a song for her sister, a song I didn't know, and it was in German, but she sang it really well, and the words were so beautiful, and I was thinking about Kathy, and then I was really crying, with tears running down my face and neck. Right when the song ended the nurse comes in, and I ask for my pain pill, and she's worried because I'm crying. I'm explaining that it was a really beautiful song on the TV, and my roommate is trying to explain it to her also, but she's still worried about the both of us. It was pretty funny, except that we couldn't stop crying.
So when the show was over, I'm still thinking about Kathy, and feeling sorry for myself. But then I decide that thinking about Kathy should make me happy because there are so many good memories, so I start thinking about happy things (like that "insane, but preppie" email). Many of my happy memories involve all my friends at Census, so I fell asleep that night thinking about Kathy, Joe, Amy, Suzanne, and Lynn, and I feel asleep laughing.
In the morning, I had this dream that Darin and I, Kathy and her husband Dave, and Joe, were in Kathy and Dave's RV on our way to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I was still on crutches. And Joe's wife didn't want to come with us. Joe suggested we stop at a Walmart on the way to buy souvenirs. I stayed in the RV. Joe came back from shopping and showed me this really ugly, wild Hawaiian shirt, and said, "I bought this for Steve, but now I'm not so sure. Is this too gay, or should I buy him a dress instead?" I woke up then, laughing. It was my best night so far. I slept straight from 23:30 to 5:50. (By the way, the dream won't make any sense to Joe either, I'm sure. I have no idea who Steve is, or what the dream means, but it did cheer me up.)
Sunday morning my roommate started throwing up and had a really bad day. Wendy from church came by, but my roommate had lots of loud visitors, sometimes as many as 8 in our really small room (with no curtains to pull either, so to keep some modesty, I have to stay under the covers even though it's hot in the room).
But my little toe is feeling a lot better. And I'm really thankful for my friends, even if I'm too far away from home for them to come visit.
Monday morning I proved to the physical therapist that I could be released by walking up and back down a flight of stairs. It was really tiring. My doctor said I'm making good progress, and he released me. Fortunately, there were no stairs at our house in Luxembourg, and now that I'm at Mom and Dad's, I can just crawl up the stairs. Luxembourg does not seem to be very handicapped and wheelchair friendly, compared to the US. I think that I'll find a way to avoid stairs for the most part.
Kathy called me at the hospital on the afternoon I was released. It was so good to hear her voice. If she only knew how much I've been thinking about her. I wonder if she knows how much I appreciate her? I really appreciated the regular phone calls from my parents also. It really gave me something to look forward to every day.
So I celebrated my 52nd Monday in Luxembourg by coming home from the hospital.
My doctor says I can't work for six weeks, and he was totally OK with our going back to the States. So just about the time we forced my boss to agree to our schedule for a final day, I didn't go back to work anyway.
ttfn
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