ALTE COCKER TRAVELS
  • Welcome to My Website
    • How To Do a Home Exchange >
      • Doing the Logistics of a Back to Back Home Exchange Trip
      • Preparing for a Home Exchange >
        • Home Exchange Problems >
          • The Ticket Dance
          • Homeexchange.com: Too Much Hype, Poor Management
          • The Nasty Side of Home Exchanging
          • Why Home Exchangers Can Drive You Nuts
        • Going Crazy Before A Home Exchange--Tossing Stuff
        • Last Minute Departure on a Home Exchange
        • Shit Hits the Fan before Home Exchanges
      • Retirement the AlteCocker Way
      • Trip Drill for AlteCockers
      • When You Want to Home Exchange for a Long Time
      • Home Exchange vs. House Sitting
  • Europe Summer 2019
    • Prague July 20-30
    • Paris July 31-August 3, 2019
    • Brittany August 4-23, 2018
    • London August 23-August 30, 2019
  • Australia-New Zealand 2018
    • Perth Australia June 15-July 27, 2018
    • Broome Australia Outback Tour
    • Darwin Australia August 2018
    • Great Barrier Reef Australia August 2018
    • Melbourne Australia August 2018
    • Wellington New Zealand September 2018
  • Asia
    • Taiwan October-November 2015
    • Southeast Asia 2015-2016 >
      • Chiang Mai Thailand January-February 2016
      • Surin Elephant Round Up, Surin, Thailand, November 2015
      • Bangkok February 2016
      • 12 Days in Malaysia January 2016 >
        • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, January 2016
        • Borneo, Malaysia, January 2016
      • Singapore: December 12-17
  • AlteCocker in Southeast Asia November 2014-January 2015
    • Chiang Mai >
      • Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai
      • Farang Lantern Release Chiang Mai
      • Puppet Festival Chiang Mai
      • Day Trips Outside Chiang Mai >
        • Whitewater Rafting on the Mae Taeng with Siam River Adventures
        • Chiang Rai and Mekong Day Trip
        • Baan Chang Elephant Park
        • Lampang Elephant Conservation Center and FAE Elephant Hospital
        • Bhuphing Palace
        • Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens
        • Royal Park Rajapruek
      • Living the Expat Life in Chiang Mai
    • January 1-6, 2015: Chiang Mai, Thailand
    • AlteCocker in Bangkok, Thailand
    • Photos from Thailand November 2014-January 2015 >
      • Bangkok >
        • Jim Thompson House Bangkok
        • Grand Palace Bangkok
        • Kanchanaburi/Bridge on the River Kwai Day Trip
        • Flower Market Bangkok
        • The Lowdown on Mobile Passport
        • Evening Chao Praya Cruise Bangkok
        • Other Bangkok Sightseeing
    • Kayak Trip to the Andaman Sea
    • AlteCocker in Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), Cambodia >
      • Photos from Cambodia December 2014 >
        • Angkor Wat
        • Ta Prohm
        • Banteay Srei
        • Beng Mealea
        • Floating Village Outside Siem Reap, Cambodia
        • Other Non Temple Sites Siem Riep, Cambodia
    • AlteCocker in Yangon, Burma >
      • How to Get a Myanmar (Burmese) Visa from Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • Photos from Myanmar (Burma) January 2015 >
        • Shewdagon Pagoda Yangon
        • Karaweik Evening Entertainment Yangon
    • Final Thoughts on Planning a Trip to Southeast Asia
    • AlteCocker in Phuket, Thailand (Kayak Trip)
  • You Are What? Going to Australia Again?
    • Fiji to Sleep? 3 days 2008 (with photos)
    • Sydney, Australia, 2008
    • Kawana Waters Queensland, Australia, 2008
    • Brisbane 2008
  • Europe
    • 2014 Grand European Haj: Poland, Belarus, Turkey, Sweden >
      • Part 1: Poland and Belarus >
        • Krakow Home Hospitality Returned 2014
        • Warsaw Home Exchange 2014
        • Belarus--Brest & Minsk--A Visit to the Ancestors 2014 >
          • Getting a Visa for Belarus
    • France >
      • Bordeaux France 2013 >
        • Photos from Bordeaux 2013 >
          • St. Emilion
          • La Bataille de Castillon
          • Sightseeing Bordeaux City
          • Touring Vineyards Outside Bordeaux
      • Martinique Home Exchange May-June 2015 >
        • May 25-27, 2015: Two Days in Dominica
      • Paris France >
        • How to Eat at the Pre Catalan in Paris
      • Paris for a Week July-August 2015 >
        • Paris 2015 Photos
        • Pere Lachaise Cemetery
      • Toulouse France 2013
      • Scandinavian Adventures >
        • Photos from Toulouse Home Exchange >
          • Cordes sur Ciel Medieval Festival
          • Albi
          • Grotte de Niaux
          • Carcassonne
          • Day Trip to Greenland July 31, 2016
          • D'Artagnan's Home Town: Auch >
            • Loire Valley France >
              • Amboise: Leonardo da Vinci & a Mass Beheading
              • Chenonceau: A Mistress, A Queen, A Transvestite Ball
              • No Baguettes Here: Eating Whole Grain Bread in Tours, France
          • Colomiers France Home Exchange July 2013
    • Germany >
      • Total Eclipse? Well, Not Exactly
      • A Day out from Hamburg: Wedel and the Blankenese
    • Great Britain >
      • Museum of London: Not for History Nuts Only
      • Leicester Square Ticket Booth London--Nah!
      • Westminster Abbey--Do Not Miss Evensong!
      • Bergen, Norway
      • From Bergen to Oslo by Boat and Train
      • The Palpable Presence of Death: Verdun
      • Fredrikstad, Norway, 2012
      • A Day out in Yorkshire: Rieveaulx Abbey
      • Edinburgh: Doin' The Fringe
      • Doin' The Tattoo in Edinburgh
    • Iceland and Italy Summer 2016 >
      • Iceland July 12,-August 2, 2016
      • Lake Como August 3-August 30, 2016 >
        • Verona Opera Festival August 8-10, 2016
        • Corsica
      • Venice August 30-September 2, 2016
      • Florence September 2-11, 2016
    • Spain >
      • Barcelona August 2015 >
        • Bella Italia >
          • The Shopping Tour to Italy: Oops!
          • When a Vacation Turns Into a Disaster
        • Photos from Barcelona August 2015 >
          • Sagrada Familia August 2015
          • Park Guell August 2015
          • Casa Batllo August 2015
          • Casa Pedrera (Casa Mila) August 2015
          • A Short Exchange in New Orleans
          • Girona and Dali Museum
      • Salamanca Spain 2013 >
        • Salamanca Sightseeing >
          • Salamanca Cathedral
          • Plaza Mayor Salamanca Spain
        • El Corazon de las arribes
        • Ciudad Rodriego and Siega Verde
        • Through Portugal to Santiago de Compostella
        • Pena de Francia
      • Madrid Spain 2013 >
        • Art Galleries Madrid
        • Ambling around Madrid
        • Madrid Bullfight Ventas
        • Escorial and Aranjuez
        • Segovia
      • Salou, Spain, Home Exchange August 2015 >
        • Cistercian Route, Catalonia, 2015
        • Photos from Salou, Spain, Home Exchange, August 2015 >
          • Tarragona, Spain 2015 >
            • Castels (Human Towers) in Tarragona
            • Sant Magi Heads
          • Valencia Day Trip
          • Montserrat Catalonia 2015
    • Part 3: A Second Home Exchange in Stockholm 2014 >
      • Sweden Photos 2014
      • Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland >
        • Photos Mariehamn, Aland Islands, 2014
  • Costa Rica November-December 2013
    • Costa Rica Begins. AlteCocker Makes New Friends
    • Capuchin Monkeys on Kayak Trip Quepos
    • Sloth Sanctuary Near Limon
    • Costa Rican Hummingbirds Savegre
    • A Vist to Famous Matt & Jen in Puerto Viejo
    • Tortuguero, Costa Rica
    • Costa Rican Flowers/Lankester Gardens (Cartago)
  • Turkey: The Best Home Exchange Ever!
    • Off the Coast of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara: The Princes' Islands
    • To Eat in Istanbul Try "Istanbul Eats"
    • A Day at the Topkapi Palace with Photos
    • My Home Exchange Neighborhood in Istanbul, Cevezli
    • Cappadocia, Turkey, the Adventure Begins >
      • Alte Cocker in Cappadocia, July 2011 (Photo Gallery)
    • Why Edirne? >
      • Alte Cocker in Edirne, July 2011 (Photo Gallery)
    • Part 2: A Second Home Exchange in Istanbul 2014 >
      • Canakkale, Gallipoli and Troy
      • Three Days in Selcuk (Ephesus, Pamukkale) >
        • Istanbul Photos 2014
        • Photos from Selcuk Turkey 2014 >
          • Ephesus: Photos
          • Pamukkale and Hierapolis: Photos
          • Selcuk: Photos
      • Some Final Thoughts on Turkey
  • New Zealand North Island 2008
    • Auckland, New Zealand
    • Rotorura, Waitomo Caves, Lake Taupo, Tongariro Volcano
    • Cape Reinga
    • Bay of Islands
    • Kamo, NI, NZ Home Exchange
  • Miscellaneous Pearls of Wisdom from AlteCocker
    • So You Don't Speak the Language, Get Pimsleur!
    • Be Careful Whom You Travel With
    • Jewish Mormons? Only in America
    • Driving in Europe
  • Drumheller, Alberta: Land of the Dinosaurs
  • How to Get the Most out of Your European Trip Part 1
    • How to Get the Most out of Your European Trip, Part 2
    • A Modest Proposal to Solve Museum Overcrowding in Europe
    • Washington DC >
      • The 4th of July Fireworks in DC: NO!
      • How to Do the Smithsonian without Killing Yourself
      • How Not To Do a Tour of Washington DC >
        • A Short Exchange in New Orleans
    • How the Other Half Lives: The Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island
    • Salzburg Marionette Theater: Not to Be Missed!
  • Theme Parks in Europe
  • United States
    • Sonora California March 17-April 2, 2017
    • Wolf Trap Farm Park: Theater under the Stars
    • Kalispell, Montana, Home Exchange October-November 2017 >
      • Dog Sledding at Base Camp, Big Fork, MT
    • Eclipse 2017
    • Mardi Gras 2019

The Trip from Hell

Picture
Alte Cocker's roomates in the hospital
What do you do when your trip turns into a disaster?

There I was in Rome on December 5, 2011, a day that changed my life forever.  It was, of course, another home exchange.  I was walking toward the Trevi Fountain with a girlfriend as I started to show her the sights of Rome.  I had been there before and had everything organized to share with her.  It was raining.  We passed a vendor.  The cobblestones were wet and I fell.  At that very moment, in agonizing pain, I realized I had had a major accident.  I announced to my friend that I thought I had dislocated my shoulder.  I wish.

The ambulance came and my interaction with Italian socialized medicine began.  In pain, the ambulance, without sedation (not allowed in Italy in the ambulance) transported me to the main hospital on the island in the Tiber while giving my girlfriend a tour of things she could see out the back window of the ambulance.  I was diagnosed in the first hospital and saw my horrible x-rays (x-rays I would never see again, by the way) and then, after my girlfriend left, sent to Vannini Hospital in the Rome suburbs where I was put in a ward with 2 other women (photo of them above).

My girlfriend had no idea where I was. Fortunately, she is not a person who panics easily.  She had the one phone that went with the home exchange.  I kept asking for a computer to send an email to her.  She was about to call the American Embassy to report the problem of a missing American when a kind doctor lent me his cell phone and we sent her an email with my location and phone number.  Was I ever relieved to hear from her!  I told her that the vacation was over for me but she was to visit the excavation under St. Peter's the next day without me.  She went and said, as I knew she would, it was wonderful.  I told her not to come to the hospital as she had better things to do--as in going to see the Vatican Museum.

Even getting up and going to the toilet required assistance.  There were 3 women in the ward.  We helped each other.  There was no privacy.  If a doctor wanted to insert a catheter, everyone got to watch.  Some nurses were good but a special place in hell is reserved for the nurse who slammed my bed down one night.  I used the toiletries in the bathroom thinking they were hospital toiletries.  I only found out at the end of my 6 day stay they belonged to one of my ward mates.  What did I know?  In Italy they bring clothes and medications from home.  Since you are liable to be sent anywhere there is a bed, old people keep a bag of necessities by the door.  For much of my stay, my roommates were an elderly woman named Yolanda (who we quickly named "Mama Yolanda") and a Romanian woman with some sort of back problem.  Mama Yolanda is the one in the foreground in the photograph.

There were an unending series of different doctors and instructions not to eat as I was in the queue for surgery.  I might have surgery today, maybe tomorrow, don't eat.  Then, from not eating, my blood sugar crashed and they decided I had diabetes and started sticking me to test my sugar levels all the time.  It was from not eating, stupid!  When I finally could eat, they took half my food away.  I finally stopped the finger sticking by refusing it.

On December 7, 2011, I had surgery to insert a rod and pins (more like enormous screws if you ask me; I still have them as a souvenir from the trip).  When I was wheeled into surgery, I realized an intern was administering anesthesia and the doctor?  He was not one of the ones I had seen.  When I woke up, they took me back to the ward and my girlfriend was there with some clothes and, accidentally, my camera was in the bottom of the bag.  Was I ever glad to see her but they had pumped me full of fluid and would not allow me to go to the toilet.  Of course, what goes in has to come out and she soon left and left me to my misery.  I was not happy when the nurses got upset with my frequent cries for the bedpan and threatened me with a catheter if I didn't stop.  Duh.  Missing some logic here?

The Italian hospital system is sort of a direct opposite of the American system.  Instead of releasing you post op, you have to fight to get out.  Finally, I lied about my departure date in order to get released.  I was in the hospital for a total of 6 days.  One of the questions I wondered about was how I would pay for all of this.  Bless the Italian hospital system.  It's socialized.  They have to treat everyone if they have an emergency.  I did sign some sort of paper but I don't know what it said.  They just pushed it in front of me and said, "Sign".  I should tell you that I now have travel insurance--a bit late to the party.

When I finally got out of the hospital a few days remained of my wonderful trip.  On one day I managed to go into town.  I took my girlfriend to Piazza Navona, where, at Christmas, there is a nice Christmas market.  While she strolled through the busy market, I sat down in fear of accidentally being bumped on my very sore shoulder.  Who do I know in Rome?  No one.  I looked up and who did I see?  The family of Mama Yolanda from the hospital.  We gave each other big greetings in a mixture of languages and they asked how I was.

After that excursion, I never left the exchange apartment again.  It was just too exhausting for me and I was in a lot of pain.  I did see to it that my girlfriend saw things, however.  She did get to the Vatican Museum and Ostia Antica.  As for me, what I needed was bed rest--not sightseeing.  I was never so glad to end a trip and go home--albeit worrying about passing out on the airplane and being put off the plane.

When I got home I saw an orthopedist who eventually took out the rod and pins in a second surgery.  He said the arm had healed and I began physical therapy.  I wish I could say that this was the end of it, but it wasn't.  The fracture repair broke apart and I eventually had what is called a reverse total shoulder replacement on September 12, 2012.  It has fairly normal function now, but there is still some discomfort.  Full healing, I am told, will take about a year, but at least I can change a light bulb in the ceiling!

The main lesson I learned here was to never travel without travel insurance.  I have an annual Travel Guard policy now because I do go out of the country more than once a year on average.  Sometimes I also escort groups to Canada.  How could I have been so stupid as to not have it?  I was very fortunate to have had this happen in Italy where medical care is free--as, in my opinion, it should be everywhere in emergencies.  But, I could have gone broke over this if I were a foreigner in the US.

The other lesson is not to panic.  Bad things sometimes happen on vacations because you are busy looking around instead of looking where you are stepping.  When they do, you have to deal with them and that is the way it is.  Sure, you'd rather be at home, but you're not.  Somehow or other it will all work out.

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