I wanted to quickly tell my foot stories so far so I can move on to funner and better things!
Thus far, this is how I have discovered things work here:
- Hospitals: well... they leave much to be desired when dealing with waiting times. The students that cut his finger as was bleeding a lot had to wait 2 hours, the student who is highly allergic to peanuts and ate peanuts had to wait for 2 hours and finally decided to go home after taking a pill.
- How to actually get help: Hausartz. These are just general doctors who have practices and then when your issue does not fall under their specialty, they direct you to whoever you may need. So my goal was to find one of these, make an appointment, and see what he suggested.
So, Wednesday, I wasn't able to go to the doctor because I had classes until 2 and doctors close at noon here on Wednesday. So Thursday I woke up and called the University clinic, which didn't have appointments until April 23. Figured it wasn't worth the wait.... So then I called 8 different clinics and all of them were booked this week and 2 told me to just come in on Friday morning (today) and wait for a free slot. My last shot was a doctor's office close to here, that didn't answer the phone but had an email address. So I attempted writing an email. Thirty minutes later, I got a call that said if I came right now (10:30 am) the doctor could see me. Sooo... I flew out of my room and went straight to the doctors office.
The office was in just a regular apartment building. Very cute, well organized, and not too full, but with enough people to know that they clearly weren't killing people! Haha. So I gave them my insurance information and less that 10 minutes later one of the 2 doctors called me in. He was super nice and though I think he speaks English, we spoke in German. He asked me what had happened, to which I answered... "um.. I'm not sure... maybe it was the AWFUL choice of boots I made when I ran 3 times up stairs trying to catch 3 different trains..." After looking at my foot, he told me I would have to go to the hospital to get an X-ray. So I left his office and was handed a slip at the front desk. The slip was what I needed to present at radiology at the hospital. Since I had class, I couldn't go straight to the hospital. After class, I found the hospital and its radiology department... and this is where the fun began. Up to that point, I hadn't had to fill out any forms... but here... I got one with 7 questions... The only one I understood was "are you pregnant?" So... I just checked no for all of them and hoped for the best. Before I was done filling out my address to get the bill, someone was already calling me in! I got 2 X-rays done, and waited 5 minutes to get the CD with the pictures. It didn't take more than 30 minutes all together.
This morning, I was told to return to the doctor with the CD. I showed up... 5 minutes later I was called in and a lovely lady wrapped my foot. Then, the doctor came in and said he looked at the pictures and the foot isn't fractured (he actually said fractured in English, that's why I say he must speak English). He did say that it was probably something pulled or bruised (I think). But he was not very concerned and said he would look at it carefully this week with colleagues and gave me an appointment for next Thursday morning. For now, the sweet lady gave me another wrap to use when this one is overstretched (she told me to keep it a secret because they weren't allowed to do that). Too sweet!
Anyways, my foot is fine, still hurting a bit but manageable and NOT broken or fractured!!! For now, rest, ice, compression, and elevation! I will post on the lovely details of my first week later today or tomorrow. Bis dann! (till then)
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