Adventures at the Krankenhaus

For about the past week, I've been feeling a bit under the weather...sore throat, runny nose, cough, headache. I tried to pump myself up with Vitamin C and Zinc, hoping to get it before it me, but I failed in my attempt. Instead, it's only gotten worse and my cough is ruining my life right now.

Monday, I woke up feeling horrible so I decided to take some cold medicine even though I despise the stuff. It worked for everything except for the cough. I even felt good enough to go for a workout. Since the cough was getting worse on Monday night I decided to take some cough syrup also. Well, it didn't work. I basically just rolled around in bed all night coughing my head off and clearing my throat, which also was keeping Kevin up so he went and slept in the spare room. I finally got a few hours of sleep in between coughing spells.

Kevin had goalie training Tuesday morning, but when he got home he told me we were going to go to the Krankenhaus (that's hospital in German) to see their team doctor. When we got there we obviously had no idea where to go or what to do and since we can't read the signs, we walked around for a good 10 minutes looking like idiots. Luckily, I ran into Sylvia (the blood lady at the hospital who is also a regular at the hockey games) and she pointed us in the right direction.

Well the team doctor was busy so he told me his wife, who is also a doctor there, would see me. She asked for my medical book, but I don't have one. She asked for my residency card, but I don't have one. So we gave her the long story about my visa situation and how we were still processing everything and yada, yada, yada and she said not to worry about it since Kevin had all his stuff. And I think the fact that Kevin is her son's coach helped too.

I got the usual exam. She asked about my symptoms, listened to my breathing, checked my throat, and checked my ears. Then came time to feel the glands in my neck. I had noticed a few days ago that one of my glands was abnormally large. I mean, it's so big you can actually see it sticking out of my neck. Well, when she got to that one she was all over it. She asked me how long it had been like that and if it hurt and then she said we needed to do an ultrasound on it. What?

My gland is not quite this big, but it's pretty close. Kind of gross, huh?

Of course, nine thousand things start running through my head, all of them being the worst case scenario. The doctor squirted the cold gel all over my neck...and shirt and hair. And then she started checking everything out, but didn't say anything but "okay" while snapping the pictures. "That's it, I'm dying" was my initial reaction. She told me to get up and then handed me a paper towel to clean my neck off with. And then she broke the news to me...I'm going to live and my gland is just swollen as a result of the infection and virus my body has.

But now she needs to get a sample of my blood. Great! Now I have to worry about not passing out. For some reason, the past few times I've had blood taken, I have passed out or been on the verge of it. So we were off to see Sylvia, who stuck a needle in my arm before I even knew what was going on. She took two vials and, luckily, I was still conscious.

My doctor was going home for the day, but her husband was going to finish up with me. We were told to go take a coffee in the bar while we waited for the blood sample results. They said it would only take about an hour so we headed to the bar. An hour passed so we walked out to the waiting room to sit. The doctor came out and told us the results still weren't back yet so to go take another coffee. How many coffee does this man think I need to drink?

After about two hours, the results came back and the doctor called us in. After an exam, an ultrasound, and blood work, I was diagnosed with a virus. Something I knew before I walked in the hospital three hours prior. And the doctor told me there was nothing he could do for me. No drugs, no prescription. I was told to rest and drink tea, coffee, and plenty of water. Although, I'm pretty sure you are supposed to avoid caffeine when you are sick. He did give me some type of powder substance to put in my water in the morning that is supposed to flush my system though. All of this for a grand total of €1.80, which is what it cost us to park. I don't even want to imagine what all this would have cost me in the States, especially without insurance.

Needless to say, I coughed all night and Kevin slept in the spare room again. I think in total I got about three hours of sleep, but I woke up this morning and had 2 cups of tea, 4 bottles of water, and my powder...just what the doctor ordered.