I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

As the year wound down, the temperature came down as well. Our Vietnam tans began to fade and unfortunately, our pictures from the trip were either lost on one computer, which was infected by a nasty virus, wiping out all files or stuck on the other computer, which got left in the taxi on our way to Ho Chi Minh City. Thankfully, we had an honest taxi driver, who brought the computer to the resort. Our new friend, Phuong, has a brother who's going to school in Shanghai. He's coming home at the end of January for several weeks and has agreed to bring the computer back with him. We'll see...
Larry went back to work and had to go to Korea for the week. The girls played with their new toys and things were fairly dull until Friday. I was chatting with my parents when I lost the connection. As I got down on my knee to see if the cable had come loose, I felt the worse pain and something in my knee give way. I tried to stand up, but fell back down. Katie was coming down the stairs at that exact moment and came to help me. I couldn't straighten my leg and was starting to panic a bit. This same thing had happened not that long ago, but only lasted a few minutes and I was able to 'unlock' my knee. But after icing it and then soaking it in a hot bath to no improvement, I waited until Larry got home to do something about it.
Wendy went with me to Kowloon. She and Mr. Tan helped me with all of the translations, but my injury was beyond the capabilities of the ER doctors. Frankly, my first impression of the place was sheer horror. Nothing was sterile, the table I was examined on was filthy and had blood stains from the previous patient. The x-ray technician wasn't much older than Katie and didn't understand that I physically could not straighten my leg and kept insisting I try. It took me screaming in pain for him to stop. After several hours and three doctors, I was told to come again the next day to have an MRI. Then he proceeded to put a cast from my butt to my ankle on and then send me on my way without crutches. He told Wendy I would have to buy some from a medical center. Funny, I thought a hospital was a medical center. I had to turn in my passport to get a wheelchair while I was at the hospital and as I was being wheeled from floor to floor from doctor to doctor, I passed this huge room, which looked like a waiting room. No, it was a treatment room. Each chair had an IV pole and probably close to a hundred people in there were being treated. I've never seen anything like it. I pray I never need IV fluids while I'm here.
My cast looked like one of the twins' paper mache projects that had gone horribly wrong. Larry was furious they'd put a cast on it since it was so swollen. By the time, I'd made it to my new home, the couch, the evening was a bust. Needless to say, we did not ring in the New Year with great joy.
Wendy arrived the next morning to take me back for my MRI. We went to the VIP wing that is for expats. Seriously, the only difference is bigger chairs, but if you need an IV you will be sitting in the main waiting room for all the world to see. Privacy is not an issue and neither is cleanliness. The fourth doctor kept hacking up giant wads of phlem and spitting them into the trash can next to my table while he viewed the MRI. He asked Wendy if they'd taken one of my other knee so he had something to which he could compare it. I knew right then and there, I was destined to see yet another doctor. He put on yet another full leg cast and told me it would be four weeks before I'd be able to straighten it, but never told me what was wrong.
Larry made an appointment with an outfit in Shanghai, so Monday morning we loaded into the van and saw doctor number five. He admitted right off the bat he was not a specialist and we'd have to come back the next day to see the orthopedic specialist. Finally, doctor number six seemed to have a clue that something was not as it should be and surgery would be necessary to correct the problem. He tried his best to manipulate my knee into a straight position, but when I screamed in pain, he immediately called one of the nurses to start the insurance approval process. He also gave me a medicine, which actually diminishes the pain for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, the stupid insurance company dragged their feet and I'll have to wait another week before the surgery. Guess I'll have plenty of time to blog...