Day 115: Doctor's Appointment

Today is the day I go to the doctors. Since I didn’t do a pre-run (or pre-walk) to the office, I’m not quite sure where it is. No matter though, I will just leave 15 minutes earlier than I need to leave and look for the place. At least I know the general vicinity of where it is located.

While I’m waiting for my afternoon appointment, I worked on my blog and our finances and took out the burned out bulb from the bathroom light fixture in preparation for going to OBI’s on the weekend to replace all of the burned out light bulbs. I also decided to take the suitcases down to the storage area (on the same level as the laundry room). I put the largest and the smallest of the suitcases in the storage area and decided to go down to the bicycle room to get more yellow bags for recycling.

What I didn’t remember was that when it rains, the water and grease mix and are tracked into the marble entry way at the bottom of the long flight of stairs from the garage to the apartment. I had my flip-flops on and went to put my foot on the landing and went flying! Luckily I caught myself and didn’t fall BUT I think I pulled a muscle in the back of my thigh. I think it’s the hamstring and it hurts like the dickens. Well, taking more suitcases down to the storage is out of the question now. I still have to shower and get ready for the appointment. This is going to be tricky with this leg hurting like it does. Normally, it wouldn’t take me long to get ready but with this leg hurting the way it does, I realize I need to take some extra time. And walking to the doctor’s office is going to be a feat! No matter though…I just have to work through the pain until I get to the doctor’s office.

It’s hot and muggy outside and I’m not even certain I have enough Euros on hand to pay for the doctor, much less the Apotheke. I’m sure I’m going to be sweating before I get back.

Ted and I have commented that street addresses (that we could see thus far) are not any higher than two digit numbers. I easily find number 12, the doctor’s office. I had to ring the doorbell to have the receptionist buzz me in.

I ask if she speaks English and this time, it IS just a little. I’m starting to get nervous that the Doctor will not speak enough English to allow me to communicate what I need. She gives me over to what I would imagine is the duty nurse…but she has no white coat or white clothing on so I’m not completely sure what her role is. I didn’t have to do a history (like you would do for a new doctor in the states) but I have my medical history with me so if there are questions, we can refer to it and if need be, he can make copies of it.

The duty nurse takes my name and information from my passport. Luckily I carry it everywhere I go! She then puts me into an office with chairs and asks me to be seated that the doctor would be with me shortly.

He finally comes in, all dressed in white but with no lab coat or stethoscope around his neck (I don’t know why I would think he would have one…it’s just how I imagined he would be). He’s fairly young and begins to speak to me in German. He must have seen the distressed look on my face and I fumbled in saying that I didn’t speak much German and did he speak English. It turns out he speaks EXCELLENT English as he practiced medicine in London for six years. I’m SO relieved!!

We have a short conversation about why I’m in Germany and how I came to find him. I explained that I was going to go to Mamma Maria’s to ask about an English-speaking doctor in the area but they were closed so I ended up going to the Apotheke where they gave me his address and phone number. I am SO thankful for that!

The doctor then asks why I am there and I explain that I am on blood pressure medication and that I will be out by the end of the week. I bring my bottles and he looks at them. He knew exactly what the one drug was but he was unfamiliar with the other one. He said he thought he knew what it was and that what I have is a brand name. He asked me to contact my doctor in the states and check what the generic name is for the drug.

He asked me when the last time I got blood work done. I looked through my records and while doing so, I found the generic name for the drug. It was as he suspected, a brand name for a generic drug that he was familiar with. I’m so happy with this doctor and it turns out, he also does acupuncture! WOW! Two specialties in one place. I’m a very happy camper.

I tell him about my leg and what happened and he said he would prescribe me an anti-inflammatory drug to help with the healing. He asks if he can keep the medical records to read over and will return them to me next week when I go back for a follow-up appointment.

He also indicates that my diurectic pill should be increased by 10 mg to help with the ankle swelling. I’m all for that!

It’s about 4:30 when I leave the doctor’s office and I decided that I needed to take care of getting the drugs today so that it would be done and over with. I walk down the street (quite a ways, actually) to the Apotheke.

She remembered me and I thanked her profusely for giving me the information. She looked at my prescriptions (and here in Germany, they don’t prescribe one month at a time…here it’s three months at a time). She doesn’t have the one prescription I need but will order it and it will be in tomorrow. She gives me everything she has and tells me to pay for everything tomorrow. WHAT? She’s going to give me the drugs and wait until tomorrow for me to pay her when I pick up the final prescription? That’s unheard of! I wanted to at least give her 50 Euro but she wouldn’t hear of it. She said she trusted me! Now THAT would never happen in the states. They would merely tell you to come back when you have the money.

Since I was already in the area, I decided to go back to Schleckers and get a light bulb for the bathroom. That way, my dear husband doesn’t have to take a shower in the dark! I feel really badly that he has to use the hall light for light at night when he showers. Now it will be fixed and we don’t have to wait until Saturday to get it fixed.

And since I was nearby, I decided to go over to Plus (a market like Lidl) and pick up a few things. It was really hot by the time I started back to the apartment so I stayed on the right side of the street for two reasons: it was in the shade and the sidewalks were wider. When I reached Mamma Maria’s and waited for the signal to change, I looked over at the guest area parking at our apartment and saw that Ted was already home. I looked at my watch and saw that it was after five! It took me a long time to get the drugs and do a little shopping and get back home. He’s going to have to wait a bit for dinner, unfortunately.

When I got to our apartment, he was no where to be found. I thought perhaps he went looking for me as I forgot to take his phone with me. I’ve been without a phone for so long, it’s going to take an effort to get back into the habit of taking the cell phone with me.

Finally, he called and said that he was walking back to the apartment. He did indeed go looking for me. I don’t know where he would look since I didn’t give him the doctor’s address…why would I? At any rate, he quickly came up the stairs and asked me if I wanted to go to his company’s 60th anniversary party in the parking lot of his office. He said he had already eaten and wanted me to have some grilled bratwurst. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that or not but I figured it’s a party and he wanted to introduce me to a few people.

I decided to bring my own container of water since I wasn’t sure if they would have plain, run-of-the-mill water. It’s either they don’t have it all or it’s the bubbly, mineral water…of which I’m not a big fan.

It’s hot and I’ve been sweating from my walk but I figured the car’s air conditioning would get me cooled off and it did. But unfortunately, the parking lot at the Ted’s office was hot. They had pretty good food and they had a band. Ted and I mingled with some of his co-workers. When we both drank all of the water in my container, we ventured into the office to get more from the office cooler. Unfortunately that was almost empty as well.

I wanted to sit in a cool place so we sat at the kitchen table in the office where I met a few more of Ted’s co-worker. One was particularly striking. He was a former Navy Lt. Commander. He was young and very good looking but didn’t have a whole lot of respect for the German way of doing things. In that regard, he was a bit arrogant. I think he thought that he could get by with his looks and his smile. I wondered if he thought we should be impressed.

We talked with him for a bit and I was ready to leave after that conversation and so was Ted. We went over to Kelley to check on email before returning to the apartment.


Thursday 07/16/09