Recent Adventures

If the small sample of my Google Reader is any indication, most blogs out there recently have had some sort of "I've been a bit of a slacker about posting lately because _____" post. 

This one is not much different.  For me, it's definitely a little bit of spring fever, a large dose of trying to adjust to working from home, and most recently an unexpectedly eventful adventure in LASIK  and allergies.

I'd been toying with the idea of LASIK for a few years, and even had the testing done a couple of years ago while in the US for Christmas. In the end, I partly chickened out, and partly thought it might be better to get it done in the city where I lived and could get followup care. However, that also meant doing it in Germany and, potentially, in German.

One thing you'll learn about me is that I might take a looooong time to make up my mind, but when I decide, I go full steam ahead and quickly. There were about 10 days between me calling for an informational appointment and having the procedure. Contacts just don't work for me, and glasses are difficult where sports (especially skiing and diving) are involved, or wearing sunglasses. But recently, I realized that my photography style didn't work well with glasses either, as I was constantly having to remove and clean off my glasses where they were smudged by being squished against my eyelids by the viewfinder.  After a little internet research, I found that the LASIK place in the neighborhood had an English version of their site and (best of all!) offer a sedative before the procedure. Really, it's better for everyone involved if I have a sedative before something like that!

Good Riddance, glasses and contacts!

So, all went smoothly (the "mild sedative" was far too mild, in my opinion, but I made it through with no problems) with the surgery. However, I neglected to mention Neosporin as an allergy. I'm not allergic to any real drugs and all the German doctors here that I had told of the allergy laughed it off and said "we don't use that here." Nor did I think it came in eye drops...oh, but it did. After a day and a half of using the antibiotic drops, it kept getting worse. By the time we were able to see a doctor on Monday afternoon, my eyes were half swollen shut and the skin around my eyes was badly blistered. Would have been a good Halloween costume, but was a bit concerning.

After several trips to multiple eye doctors and an allergist, we luckily learned that it was all an allergic reaction, not an infection. Poor Herr J...it took an entire week for me to go from looking like someone had beaten me badly to just looking like someone had made me cry! I tried to cover with sunglasses as much as possible so that he wouldn't get any evil stares, but he was a good sport. I'm finally almost back to looking normal. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Herr J was kind enough not to document the horror show with photos. He did, however, bring me food and make me milkshakes when I felt too sick to eat. Such a great guy!

The German medical system being as thorough as it is, the allergist insisted I come back this week for three more visits, for allergy testing. Every day is an adventure here...even the simple things!  I'm really happy I don't go into an office daily, since they won't let me shower from Monday morning till Thursday afternoon! Washing up in the sink is a little odd, and I'm planning on a long hot bath tomorrow after all the tests are finished! 

Since it appears all the tests are normal (not a surprise), we can just have the entire experiment for our amusement. After removing the plastic and patches (days 1-2), the nurses went to town on my back with a permanent green marker (days 3-4). It's like some bad, homemade tattoo of a board game or something!.  

Day 1 & 2

After 3 visits this week - well over 2.5 hours waiting, with a grand total of around 10 minutes of actual meeting with a doctor or nurse - the conclusion was that I'm not allergic to anything other than neomycin (key ingredient Neosporin). In a very common German medical move, the doctor issued me an "Allergie Passport" that I'm supposed to carry with me at all times in case I have an accident. I could see this if I had a life-threatening allergy or a lot of them, but somehow I think that if I'm in a hospital without the ability to communicate, Neosporin is really not going to be on the drug list... However, I guess I'll keep it in my wallet. 

As for the LASIK, I'm loving being able to wear sunglasses outdoors and trying to get used to not wearing glasses. Except for the allergy, I've been completely pleased with the results and so happy I finally decided to do it!

Now trying to get back to to fun of enjoying spring in Germany and writing about it.

The Resort Doctor

In a previous post, I shared the challenging experience of being ill and going to a Company Doctor in Germany.  A couple of months later, while on vacation, I had a decidedly different experience going to a resort doctor on Rangali Island in the Indian Ocean.

It's about the halfway point on our holiday in the Maldives, and we had already been scuba diving six times and snorkeling just as often.  We had two dives scheduled the next morning (that were great).  After lunch we sunbathed and went into the gorgeous pool.  Later in the afternoon I went snorkeling for an hour to do some tests with Frau A's 10Bar underwater housing & her Panasonic LX3.  By this time, my ears had had enough water -- and became infected.  You've probably had swimmer's ear:  sore to the touch, swelling makes everything sound like it passes through a foot of cotton...

I was hoping to dive some more, but also wanted to have my ears back to normal before flying 4 hours to Qatar and then another 5+ back to Munich.  Luckily, the Conrad has a small clinic on site.  It makes good business sense for them.  They have 350+ employees that live and work on the island, and it's expensive and time consuming to take a water plane back to Male.  Guests can use it too.  So I stopped by.  Here's what it looks like:

In a paradise like this, you're already feeling better just walking up.  Soft, white sand paths lead almost all the way up to the front door!  The glass etched sign also communicates modernity, so you have confidence too.  Frau A noticed that the M.D.'s flip-flops outside the door were labeled "doctor" (pic below).  Cute.  And who wouldn't trust a barefoot doctor?  You, the doc, and his assistant are all barefoot inside to keep the sand out.

I had to wait about 6 minutes before the doctor saw me.  The doctor was polite, looked at my ears, made the obvious diagnosis, and immediately prescribed antibiotic ear drops, which he handed right to me.  No trip to a pharmacy.  Unfortunately, I was not allowed to swim, but Frau A did some more snorkeling and underwater photography.

Two days later, the ears weren't much better, so I visited the doc again.  This time there was a 14 minute wait (one person ahead of me).  He checked things out again, was unhappy with the progress, and handed over full antibiotic pills.  All of this at no charge!  He said it didn't make sense to mess around, especially since I was flying in 48 hours and the initial treatment didn't work as expected.  Sure enough, it worked.  He was fast, polite, and practical.

We loved the time on Rangali island, and give kudos also to great service by Conrad's on-site doctor!  Now it's back to work, and I'm gorging on vitamin C to avoid the company doctor this winter...