texans on the autobahn

Always wear clean underwear . . .

On Monday, Vera took me to an orthopedic doctor in the town next to ours. It ends up that Dr. Buehler speaks English with a British accent, comes highly recommended and is incredibly nice . . something I wasn’t expecting from a German doctor. By the time I arrived at the doctor’s office my knee was the size of a size 3 soccer ball. As I thought I would surely have an xray at the doctor’s office I wore stretchy athletic pants so I could just pull the pant leg up. However, I was wrong. . .the doctor told me I’d need to remove my pants and that’s when I went into a panic as I wasn’t wearing what I would call “full coverage” underwear. In German he told Vera he was glad that I was direct because too often he had to see underwear that wasn’t so nice. But it wasn’t that my underwear wasn’t nice, there just wasn’t much too it, enough said! Mothers should now tell their children not only to make sure to always wear clean underwear but make sure it covers you too!

Dr. Buehler left the room and I thought I was safe and could just pull my pant leg up, but Vera said no, you have to take the pants off. Again I panicked. He had not given me a gown, a towel, a blanket or anything! Of course, Vera was cracking up. I did my best to cover myself with my pants when the doctor returned. At that point, my underwear was the least of my problems. Dr. Buehler used the sonogram and showed me all the fluid built up on my knee and proceeded to tell me that he’d need to drain it with a needle! What? Huh? You have to do what? I was in a panic again. I asked him if he’d first give me a local and he said of course. Vera held my hand and he proceeded to removed 3 tubes of fluid from my knee. I think Vera and I both almost passed out! She even watched the whole thing while I kept my eyes squeezed tightly shut. He then gave me a injection for thrombosis or blood clots, not sure what that’s about except that he said something about needing it since I can’t bear any weight on my knee. At this point he’s not sure what I have injured in my knee because it is too swollen to examine so they wrapped it with some special cooling stuff and told me to return on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Robin went with me. The doctor said he thinks I have damaged my MCL, not the ACL which is good because the MCL can heal on it’s own, however he is concerned that I may have also damaged the meniscus which if that’s the case will require surgery. So, I am scheduled for an MRI on Thursday and on Friday he will read it to see for sure what damage there is. But I have to say, the scary part on Tuesday came when the doctor recommended another injection for thrombosis and it wasn’t the doctor who was going to give it to me. The nurses took us into a room and proceeded to let us know that I either had to give it to myself or Robin had to give it to me. “Nein, nein, nein” was my response! I wasn’t sure that was going to happen. The nurse demonstrated to Robin and then sent us home with 2 more needles. I can’t even imagine this happening in the US!

On Wednesday morning, Robin woke me up saying he had a cup of cappuccino, a muffin and a shot for me! As I was still asleep I shot straight up in bed and said NO WAY! The doctor said “morgan abend” not “morgan” meaning tomorrow night. I think Robin thought it would be funny to wake me up this way, but I didn’t. Later I returned with Vera to Dr. Buehler’s office to be fitted with a brace so that it would keep my leg in a position that would help. As the man who was fitting me was working on the brace on my leg, he kept saying in German “yes, meniscus” over and over again, not making me very happy. Apparently he has had both of his mensicus’ operated on and seems to consider himself an expert.

Robin is really tired from having to work his job and take care of me and the boys when he gets home. I think he knows how much I do to make his life easier when he gets home from a hard day at work. And yes, I allowed him to give me the injection tonight, and he did a better job than the nurse who demonstrated for him and left me with a bruise. I have a wonderful husband who even brought me a cup of hot tea and English biscuits after dinner tonight.

As he is trying really hard to not fall asleep next to me right now I know how lucky I am to have him, even though I enjoy teasing him mercilessly about his inability to multitask.

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 4:03 PM