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Monday 2004-07-12 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
How about my foot?
Back in Amsterdam, alas. Early — as early as possible — I called my doctor for an appointment this morning, since my foot still hurts, and there’s still some swelling as well that never quite goes away. Maybe some physiotherapy can help. I can get an appointment for later this morning.
“In view of developments, let’s have an X-ray taken,” she says. When I look doubtful, she explains that sometimes a crack in the bone can be seen, even after 4 weeks; she gives me a referral. When I get back home I phone the hospital for an appointment: this Wednesday.
Later in the day, I bring my film rolls to the lab: 60 rolls in all!
Wednesday 2004-07-14 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Good news and bad news
To the radiology department in the nearest hospital in Amsterdam to have an X-ray taken of my foot; camera around my neck which I plan to deliver at the photographer’s to be thoroughly cleaned after all the desert dust it had to deal with: you can never completely clean that out with a little “blow brush”.
I have to wait to hear how the picture has turned out. When it’s done the assistant tells me the good news is the picture turned out well — but she has bad news, too: my foot is broken. I’m gobsmacked! I walked on it for four weeks, and never suspected that — a crack is the worst I considered.
She sends me straight on to the emergency ward, where the doctor takes a look at the X-ray, and tells me “If you’d come here immediately we’d have operated”: the bone parts aren’t even joined up properly! In fact, there’s a gap of over 4 mm. My mouth drops open: it certainly didn’t feel like that. He sends me on to the “plaster room” to have a walking cast fitted. An hour later I’m outside with my foot in a (walking) cast, and still a little dazed: I had never believed it was broken! The emergency room arranges an appointment with a surgeon in hospital for next week.
After waiting for my cast to harden completely, I go straight home, and call the photographer’s shop to say I won’t be bringing the camera today after all. Then I call my parents: I won’t be over this weekend after all: a disappointment to my mum whose birthday it was last Monday.
Now, I need to learn how to walk with this stiff thing at the end of my leg…
Wednesday 2004-07-21 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
“You’re a tough one!”
I’m back in in Amsterdam hospital to have a surgeon have a look at my broken foot. An assistant talks to me first, and hears my story, how I hurt my foot, and how I walked on it for another month. “Not a good start,” he says. Then the surgeon himself, a big gentle man, joins us, also hears my story, and tells me “You’re a tough one!”
He also explains about the risks of an operation which he prefers to avoid. Just to make sure we understand each other I explain how I missed doing things during the trip, such as the visit to the largely unrestored 10km stretch of the Great Wall near Beijing: I want to be able to do that next year, I say, not just walk in the city on nice, smooth pavement. That doesn’t change his mind: he doesn’t agree with the doctor of the emergency ward last week that an operation would have been necessary: “Let’s see first whether it starts to heal by itself now the foot is supported by the plaster,” he suggests. He gives it four weeks, so he can see me again after his vacation. In fact, I can go on vacation myself, he says — I’d planned a week with my parents in Germany — after all, I can walk on that cast, though not quickly or for very long. The prospect of going on vacation with my aging parents cheers me up though.
Wednesday 2004-08-18 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Four more weeks…
Back in hospital in Amsterdam for my checkup. First I see the surgeon again; I tell him I can walk but sometimes it still hurts. “Let’s see,” he says and sends me to the plaster room to have the cast taken off, and then on to radiology for a new X-ray. Then back to the surgeeon with fresh X-rays.
When I’m back, he calls me into his office where I can see the X-rays myself: it’s clearly visible a little bit of cartilage has formed in the gap between the bone parts, but there’s no ossification yet. Still, the fact that there is cartilage now indicates it’s started to heal and obviously the support of the plaster has helped. At least the prospect of an operation has receded. So… back to the plaster room for a new version — which is a different model and hurts when I stand up. Off it comes again, and a new one is fitted, more like the previous model. This one has to stay on for another four weeks.
Saturday 2004-09-11 - Mijnsherenland, the Netherlands
Reunion!
This morning, I meet up with Carla behind Central Station in Amsterdam; Thom picks us up there with his car, and in Rotterdam we pick up the “girls” from the north who took the train to here (with a detour: they managed to get into the wrong carriage, so we have to wait a bit for them). Then on to Henk and Vera’s house in Mijnsherenland where we are received with champagne! The two of them went to an awful lot of effort to entertain us with lots of delicious food, nice drinks, and funny glasses that serve as conversation pieces — as if we needed that! — to drink from.
We admire each other’s photos, order prints from each other, watch video and slides, and Caroline adds a bit of Turkish spice with a professional belly dance performance! And everyone “admires” my plaster foot of course: most are as suprised as I was that it was actually broken. We all go out for a little walk around the neighborhood, expertly guided by Henk and Vera with interesting background information about what we see.
It’s really nice to spend some time all together again — the “family” feeling is still there, and there really isn’t enough time. Travelling together for over two months really brings you close (if you don’t spoil it by being totally obnoxious, that is). We all agree we’d like to have a second reunion and a tentative date is set for that.
Wednesday 2004-09-15 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Feeling naked
Back to hospital again — straight to the plaster room this time to have the cast taken off, then on to radiology again for yet another X-ray, then to the surgical department, where I talk to the surgeon’s assistant, one I haven’t seen before. He wants to hear my story first and I tell him it seems to be slowly getting better — but I’m obviously not there yet: it still hurts every now and then, especially when I walk more than a little. Then he looks at the X-ray and declares he’s satisfied: there’s ossification now and the original 4mm gap even seems to have become a little smaller. Looking at my sturdy hiking boots, he tells me I can go without a cast now, just wear those shoes, and gradually walk a little more. (Gulp!) Do I have to wear them inside, too? “See how it goes,” he says, “and come back in two months.”
Now while that’s encouraging, not having that sturdy cast around my foot I suddenly feel very naked and vulnerable — and extremely aware that it hasn’t quite healed yet.
Afterwards
The first few days I have to literally think with every step I take to carefully place my foot — otherwise it hurts again, almost as much as in China… Gradually it goes better, but I usually feel no warning signal when I put too much load on it: It will just hurt the next day! So, obviously I’m very careful. I do increase the distance I walk, but when it hurts the day after, I give it a rest again for a day or two. And I’d love to visit my parents but don’t dare, since I’d have to travel by train from Amsterdam to Groningen: especially the thought of getting on and off the train (without the support of the cast) scares me right now.
Sunday 2004-11-14 - Utrecht, the Netherlands
Almost back to normal
Yesterday I felt extremely tired, but I went to bed early and when I got up today I felt fit enough (and my foot felt good enough) to face a major undertaking with a not-quite-healed broken foot: I’m going to the “HCC dagen:” a big three-day computer fair organized by the HCC, the largest computer club in the world. Always great fun, lots of bargains, and interesting discussions. I actually have a shopping list for some small hardware and accessories - but is my foot up to it? Just to be on the safe side, I take along not only a backpack and a small trolley but also pain killers in case I have to quit and head back home sooner than planned.
Surprisingly, the train to Utrecht is quiet, and it doesn’t look crowded on the fair, mainly because it’s set up with a lot of room: there are actually quite a lot of people around but because it’s so roomy I can walk quietly without being crushed or having to jump out of the way; my foot certainly agrees with the relaxed stroll this allows, and I’m enjoying myself enormously. Even better, I get everything on my shopping list, and for a good price. That includes a headset which will enable me to get started with Internet telephony.
I end up spending well over four hours there, with only two breaks to have something to drink and eat and rest my foot; by the end of the afternoon, both my feet are hurting, but that’s pretty damn normal, especially considering I haven’t walked much the last few months! I’m expecting my broken foot will hurt tomorrow, though…
Monday 2004-11-15 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Setting up Skype
I’m stiff and sore all over after my adventure yesterday. That’s OK. Even better, the fully-expected pain in my broken foot never appears — has it finally healed now?
In spite of my sore muscles, I crawl under the computer desk to plug in my headset (correctly, after a lot of fiddling) and install the Skype software: now I can exchange phone calls with other Skype users all over the world - for free. I also create a profile and register at the Skype user’s forum so people may find me; I include a link to this blog as well. When it’s all working I go to bed, tired but satisfied.
Wednesday 2004-11-17 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
So has it healed now?
Today is the big day - back to the hospital here3 in Amsterdam. I’m very optimistic after last Sunday’s experience. For some reason it’s extremely crowded today at the surgical department, so I have to wait for a long time. At last I can talk to the surgeon himself, and I tell him it feels a lot better now, and how I walked for hours last Sunday. He sends me back to radiology again, for a new X-ray, then back here.
Another long wait … then he calls me into his office to look at the X-ray. Good news and bad news: the good news is that it’s now “fixed” at one side of the bone. The bad new is that not only is there still a gap at the other side, but that some osteoporosis has set in in my foot: “it looks like a foot of a bedridden patient,” he tells me. It turns out I’ve been too careful, and actually haven’t put enough weight on it! And if it breaks again, he’ll want to operate, he adds. Darn — if only that assistant two months ago had told me to ignore it when it hurts and walk anyway… I’m getting orders now to put full weight on it: give it six weeks, then I should be in the clear. No new appointment; but of course I can make one if it doesn’t feel good by the start of next year. But with the half-bad news, my good mood has disappeared. Knowing that the prospect of an operation still hasn’t gone doesn’t help.
Suddenly walking feels tricky again. On the one hand I’m very aware again that it hasn’t healed completely, and — especially with that osteoporosis — there is a real risk it’ll break again; and I’m not exactly looking forward to an operation with the associated risks. But on the other hand I have to walk on it now, or it won’t heal. So, OK. I walk home from hospital instead of taking the tram, stopping along the way for a tasty Turkish lamacun to cheer myself up a little and have a rest at the same time.
Saturday 2004-11-27 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Back together again, and making plans
Our second reunion for the 65 days across Asia trip, this time at Carla’s place in Amsterdam. I figure out the shortest route and walk over there in just half an hour — good practice for my foot! We’re all there (even Thom, who arrived back from Egypt late last night!), and the “family” feeling that resulted from traveling together for over two months is immediately back. We exchange presents, and photos that we ordered with each other. Carla prepared snacks and a meal with an Uzbek theme (really delicious plov!), and I was able to make small contribution by bringing the herbs-and-spice mix that I was given by a friendly and hospitable local on my first visit to Bukhara; it turns out not to be just good on cucumber but also on the plov.
Unavoidably, we talk not only about our past trip together and earlier adventures, but also plans for next year. We’d already heard from Marie Josee, our travel companion (who seems to be in Damascus right now), that the Chinese are working hard on the railroad to Lhasa; in fact, it looks like they’ll be finishing it even before the planned date. This railroad is expected to make much of original Tibet and Tibetan culture disappear at an increased pace, mostly by a greater influx of Han Chinese; meanwhile we’ve seen the breakneck speed of renovation in Kashgar, and I expect the same to be happening in Lhasa as well — so I’m not surprised to hear the “four girls” want to go to China and Tibet; they want to organize it themselves. I also want to go to Tibet for the same reasons (like now, before it’s all gone), but I prefer an organized trip (no hassle about transport and lodging, more time to explore) and so does Carla who would like to go as well. We also have the same preference for overland travel instead of internal flights; we’re planning to go to the Vacation Fair in Utrecht in January and we’ll likely be able to agree on a trip and go together! And with a bit of luck (September seems to be the best time of the year) we’ll meet the girls there, too! Nothing firmly decided yet, but Tibet is looking extremely likely now.
Friday 2004-12-31 - Groningen, the Netherlands
Bidding on Ebay
New Year’s eve, I’m staying with my parents in Groningen to celebrate the change into a new year with them. At 23:00 my cell phone rings (too early for new year’s wishes — who could that be?). When I answer I get someone on the line from Ebay in the UK (OK, it’s only 22:00 there): they have someone placing a lot of bids using an email address @iamback.com. So they’re checking (after obviously having gotten my phone number from the domain registration database) whether it’s a valid email address or I have authorized it.
Well, neither, I explain. It’s certainly not me, and I control the domain and the email server, so no one even could be using an email address @iamback.com and actually get email. Try sending an email, I suggest. That satisfies the caller — who then apologizes for calling so late on New Year’s eve, and wishes me a pleasant evening.
Weird…
