Sometimes paradise is just like being land based with its problems; such as aging and finding a place to live. Lately we have had other things rather than cruising on our minds.
Sea Star remains at Club de Pesca. It’s really comfortable. For a small fee (he! He!) we can use our air conditioning, lounging below while the hired boat boys clean and polish Sea Star and Dan heals and ices his knee from his recent arthroscopic knee surgery.
In my last post I mentioned that cruisers often come to Cartagena to access medical services such as dentists and general health care check-ups, and also schedule Lasik eye surgeries, and plastic surgeries of all types. If one has the money health care is available, and quite a bit cheaper than the “same” surgery elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Dan had one knee that was not "right" and causing him pain when walking. He had it looked at when we were in MA in November, had a shot of cortisone and went back to Panama. When we arrived in Colombia he knew he had to do something about it.
I’ll abbreviate a little here but the steps went something like this- He went to one doctor, a surgeon named Valiente ($40.00) who suggested an MRI which he had the next day( $420.00). Doctor suggested surgery.
Went for a second opinion($50.00). Was told to take some medication for a week and therapy and see the doctor again in two weeks. The result was surgery recommended.
After Christmas and New Years struggling to walk around the Walled City, Dan decided- ok, surgery -and decided to go back to MA to utilize insurance there. We would need a place for the boat, tickets, a place to stay, and rental car but we would be “safer” with the US standards so we believed.
After mentioning plans to more than one other cruiser we were given lots of moral support and heard stories-all positive- about the medical access in Cartagena. In the meantime we found a slip for Sea Star. We re-considered our options and decided to go ahead and have the arthroscopic surgery in Cartagena with the second Doctor at Medi-help Clinic in Boca Grande, a clinic with a good reputation that encourages and helps foreign tourists who are medical shopping.
NEGATIVES for us were:
* We didn’t get to see our friends and family in Massachusetts where three nurses are in the family.
* We had some confusion because of our limited Spanish language ability.
* Staff at the clinic do not speak English at all except one office girl during the day and another young man at night. When Dan ran a fever of 101.7 F and we tried to contact Doctor Rivera, his cell phone wouldn’t work and we had to call the clinic. The language barrior was significant.
* We live on a boat- with stairs, that rocks.
* The hospital Johny kept untying and outpatient wards seem to be unisex.
BUT POSITIVES were everything else:
* Dan is healing well, working on his muscles and planning our next adventures!
* Total costs of operation, Doctor fees, anesthetic (local) and medication under $2000.00. Under my HNE insurance the same operation is $14,000!
*Doctor Edgardo Rivera Martinez is very competent and caring. He has presented at conferences in US and spoke enough English to make us comfortable with his recommendations.
* The Medi-help Services Clinic was clean, seemed well equipped, efficient, well staffed with very helpful people.
*Our Spanish tutor, Oscar Quintana, gave up his entire Saturday from 10:00AM to 5:00PM to support us. He stayed with me, giving me my regular Spanish class and waited during the operation, and three hours of recovery time. He ran out and purchased the crutches and medication, and helped us get Dan into our hotel room when we arrived there by taxi. I was worried although we had reserved a first floor room, as there were three large stone steps and no railing at the entrance to the hotel. Dan did fine getting in.
*We stayed at a great hotel- Casa de Las Palmas for three nights and a lavish breakfast was included- a place I could walk from to check on the boat.
* IT'S ALL OVER- but for the hard work Dan has to do to strengthen his muscles around the knee and see if the pain of movement goes away- We are very hopeful.
I’ll just mention one episode that seemed kind of funny to me, a difference between the United States and Colombia. Dan was still wearing his Johny, cute blue hair cap and blue booties during recovery. When he was to be released from the clinic he was handed a prescription for pain medication and for three days worth of injections to prevent swelling in the knee. When Oscar returned to the clinic with the medications, the prescription read, “inject one time a day for three days.”
Duh…Who was going to Inject?!
The young and pretty nurse(remember-lots of plastic surgeries are completed in this clinic) at first could not understand us, then could not understand our concern. I confessed that I had never before given an injection-and the nurse looked in disbelief. She agreed to administer the first one; I could watch and thus be ready to give numbers two and three.
She took Oscar and me behind the curtain where Dan was waiting for his intramuscular injection. She took the needle (sold at the corner drugstore as part of the prescription!), broke the vial, loaded the syringe - and meanwhile Oscar is translating.
She showed me how to find the proper spot, to be careful about hitting a nerve, getting the air out of the syringe - now I’m really getting nervous!
"Draw a line across the rear and a perpendicular line where the nerve is and a 45 degree angle from that then get ready to insert the needle in the corner of what would be a square"…..
“yeah, OK”, thought I. "Maybe I can do this."
"But be careful because the medium is oil and you have to draw back the syringe like this until a little of the liquid comes out and you must release the plunger really slow or it’s going to hurt a lot and just keep it steady, but not too fast and" …..
“No way,” thought I “I really cannot do this!”I seemed to recall when my sister, Barbara, was studying to be a registed nurse and she told me "Even the orange screamed when I practiced my injections!" This was to be my first needle and given on my handicapped husband. Not a good idea.
Well, shot number 1 was done- and before it was time for shot number 2,we had two options. I had located a cruiser nurse, and another great cruiser woman from Texas who used to shoot up cattle.
The nurse, who is a friend, came to our hotel and gave the shot and all was well. The Doctor gave the third shot in his office and took the used disposable syringes off my hands. I wasn’t going to leave them in a hotel wastebasket!
When I asked the Doctor if many patients in Colombia have people in the home to give them injections he replied, “Yes, it is very usual.”
“Well”, I said to Dan, “it is Colombia after all!” My reference being to the narco-trafficers or users we hear are everywhere in the cities.
The arthroscopy was on Saturday, and we stayed off the boat until Tuesday afternoon after Dan's Doctor’s appointment. We had a taxi bring him close in to the Club de Pesca where, with the crutches, he could walk down the dock about 10 boats to Sea Star. I pulled the lines in to bring the side of the boat close to the finger pier and he could step on to the rail, then hold on to the bimini supports while easing into the cockpit seat. After that it was through the hatch, sitting down and lowering himself the four steps and he was back aboard safely.
A few more weeks on the crutches, probably some physical therapy and we’ll see how things are with the movement. Next post - back to fun and games in Cartagena.
Pics of hotel, and Dan!
 |
| Lounging -Colombia-OL |
No comments:
Post a Comment