BatmanJones Hurt in Amsterdam

I think there is a conspiracy against Fatty on this board. I don't know what that conspiracy might be, but it is fun to believe in them. Or it could be the gay mafia.

 

Sorry to hear about this. I have had my leg broken several times and can relate - in addition to this all the stress of this happening in a foreign country with an unfamiliar health system and apparently a hospital that can't get things right - that's something nobody should have to go through. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

 

Thanks to all. I'm home again. Will update when I've had a chance to rest.

 

Nice to hear you got back safe, wish you a speedy recovery.

 

damn your a truwarier

 

Welcome home Batman. May comfort and recovery find you quickly.

 

I'm glad to hear you are back home. Good luck

 

Thanks, arno_ed. When I come back let me buy you a beer.

Having surgery on the 18th. Surgeon wants to let the swelling go down first. Fine by me. I could use the break now that I'm home. And I've finally got some good pain meds. At the Amsterdam hospital they were literally giving me aspirin for pain.

The injury's not as bad as I'd thought it was. Certainly not as bad as rockets judoka's injuries (I can't even imagine going through that). The breaks are only on the ankle, though they are on both sides so I'll need a plate and some screws.

I have great friends and parents and they delivered a ton of food to us, met us at the airport to help my girlfriend with our bags and lots of other stuff. We are being well cared for.

I really appreciate all the concern here on the board. Now that I'm finally back home I'm feeling a lot better.

 

Glad to hear it man. Let us know what the grace period is before we can start baggin on ya.

 

Thanks, Yonkers. Let the bagging commence.

 

They gave you aspirin????? At what hospital were you?? Every time I was in the hospital they gave me proper pain killers.
I'm glad you are home. I can imagine how it sucks when you have to stay in a hospital in a foreign country.

Are you planning on coming back to the Netherlands? Let me know if you are and when, So we can see if I can show you around.

 

Wish you a safe trip home & get well soon.

I had my feet run over by car once and was in coma for 2 days, I know the pain.

 

Good to hear Bats. Sorry for the nonsense I created. As I stated, I had an horrific ankle injury a few years ago. It took a year, but it went away.

You'll be good soon, bro.

 

No worries, Fatty. I didn't think you said anything wrong; I knew you were joking. And, though the last week has totally sucked and I expect the next few months to suck as well, I'm not sensitive about a broken ankle. Thanks for the encouraging words. To everybody here.

 

Seriously, mine was excruciating. Badly. And I know this doesn't necessarily help now, but I was able to kinda sorta walk on it after two months. I had a hobble for a full year, but I'm nearly as good as new.

As I said, I'm guessing you'll be thankfully laughing this off a year from now.

 

Did you have surgery? They told me I could avoid it if the break was only on one side but since it's on two sides I have to get a plate. The surgeon told me I'd be seriously down for six weeks after but could probably start walking a little after 3 months.

Tonight's been the first time I've had to totally fend for myself. My girlfriend went to sleep several hours ago -- she had to do all the heavy lifting today and she busted her ass. And she was up for 23 hours straight. I've been up about 27 hours now except for a short nap on the plane, but I'm so happy to be on my own couch I don't want to go to sleep yet.

But I got really thirsty and wanted ice water. It took me about 30 minutes and a great deal of creativity and strife to get ice from the kitchen to the living room on crutches. This is going to be a long summer.

 

I know it's a bit late but a big "get well soon" to you and I'm sorry for all the trouble you've been to. Glad you got back home, there's nothing like being at home, especially when you're in pain.

Get Well.

 

Heh reminds me of when I was on crutches as well. I had a knee injury that had me on crutches for about 9 months, and making lunch or dinner certainly required some creativity. You'll eventually get pretty good at it.

Good luck man, you'll learn a lot about yourself from dealing with this. I certainly did with my injury.

 

Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis. The patient in the bed next to me there told me its a good hospital if you're a citizen. He was also in for a taxi related accident. He was riding his bike and a cabbie opened his door and sent him flying over it. He shattered his ankle. But after he told me it was a good hospital he had surgery and came back and couldn't get good pain meds so he got very angry and told the nurse to go away from his bed and not talk to him. He told me he was so angry he was trying to find another hospital.

I've heard from a few people now that the Dutch don't really believe in using proper pain meds like we're used to here - vicodin, morphine, demerol, etc. - unless its really severe. They did give me morphine to knock me out before they re-broke my ankle when I first came in by ambulance but after that, yeah, aspirin. I have friends who have lived there and they told me that the Dutch believe pain builds character. Maybe you'll disagree with that characterization and you certainly have more authority on the subject.

But I also found the general population there to be pretty insensitive and sometimes downright rude compared to what I'm used to here. Almost no one ever offered to give me a push or open a door or hold the elevator door for me when I was in a wheelchair with my leg extended out in front of me. As a result, the elevator door closed on my leg more than five times in the hospital. Also, no one ever got out the way as I was rolling toward them. I always had to cede the right of way to able bodied people and I found that pretty amazing.

Also the hospital staff wanted me to do everything for myself, though I was clearly in terrible pain. When I was trying to check out I asked how I could get some crutches and they told me I could go across the street to buy some. I didn't mind them charging me, but they wanted me to go alone in the wheelchair to a store five floors down and across the street with a broken ankle and nothing for pain but aspirin. It truly blew my mind. Ultimately, they suggested that I might be able to buy some at the ER if I could get them to let me in and that did work but I still had to go find them myself and it took more than an hour of hard physical labor to get them. None of that would ever happen, citizen or not, in America.

When I was finally leaving I started to wheel myself out of my room and they asked where I was going with the wheelchair. I told them I was being discharged and needed to get downstairs. They very reluctantly allowed me to use it after my girlfriend promised to bring it back after. That also blew my mind. Here someone would push you in the wheelchair to the cab and help you in. There they were angry that I wanted to borrow the wheelchair to even use the elevator.

I had to haggle with the taxi driver to get him to help my girlfriend with our five bags. He wanted to stand around and let her do it herself while I struggled across the street on crutches.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this already, but the lady from the financial department was horrible. She came to my bed when I was in a great deal of pain and asked me how I was going to pay and I told her I had insurance but would pay whatever the deductible was. She said I needed to pay cash and get the insurance company to pay me back. The bill then was already over 5,300 euro. I told her I didn't have that much cash and then she started making jokes about how I must be lying about being there on business since I didn't have cash and joked that I probably didn't have insurance either. That pissed me off so much I told her to **** off and that I would leave right then if she wouldn't call my insurance company. She said I wasn't allowed to leave and I told her to call the police then. She laughed and left the room talking in Dutch.

And while I was in the hospital when people asked me what happened and I said I was in a hit and run accident with a taxi driver not one single person said they were sorry, expressed surprise or acted like it was in any way abnormal. They all acted like it was a totally normal thing, either looking for a way to blame me or saying nothing at all.

Meanwhile, the person who caused all this and then fled the scene - the person who cost me three months of work including a hard won grant from the Swiss government to make a play in Kosovo - has three weeks to respond to a letter from the police before they will even contact him in person. I have never heard of such a thing. He hit me with his car and ran away and they don't arrest him??? They have him on videotape doing it and they won't even knock on his door for three weeks. While I'm expected to pay cash for my hospital stay.

I'm sorry to say it arno_ed since you seem like such a nice guy but I swear I've never experienced such a rude group of people or such a backwards system in my entire life.

I am bound by my job to return there, but if it was up to me I'd never set foot in that country again.

 

^^

Wow that's ****ed up.