The trip I never wanted to take!

 On Wednesday morning my friend Trudy who was visiting here with us and I were out on our morning walk at 7am.  About halfway through when we were crossing over the bridge I moved quickly to the right  to avoid a bicycle.  I tripped and almost caught myself before falling hard on my left elbow.  Huge pain.  Trudy tried to help me up but I just needed to lay there. Just then a truck with three Mexican men stopped to offer assistance. They had no English and me minimal Spanish.  The driver quickly called a lady who spoke English and I asked her if they would take me to the Marina Mazatlan Hospital which was close.  I asked Trudy to go back and tell Eric.  So..off to the hospital and the driver helped me in to the hospital. He then called the lady who spoke English and she asked if they could be of further assistance and I said no.  The absolute best good Samaritans and so very gracious.

Onward to x-rays, temporary splint, IV drips, Cat scan, ECG, blood work, chest xray and covid test as it turned out the elbow was broken and needed surgery!  The surgeon came to see me to tell me he could do the repair at 4pm.  Now we needed to get the insurance on board. Eric had called them from home before coming to the hospital. A report was sent and I waited as they tried to decide what needed to be done.  As we all know insurance companies don't like to pay.  We are Medipac customers and this is our first claim in 15 years.  I did not want to go ahead with surgery until Medipac gave me the okay but when the surgeon gave me a ball park figure of 140,000 pesos which us about 8750.00 canadian I said do it now.

Surgery went well and there are now a bunch of metal pins in it as well as having two bone chips removed. A solid splint on the back from hand to shoulder, padding and wrapping to keep it stable. The surgeon said it went very well and hopefully I'll get full function back. He said it is the most common elbow surgery and he does many of them.

From surgery to a private room and an Iv for pain and fluid.  I hadn't eaten that morning but there was some fresh fruit and chicken noodle vegetable soup beside my bed. They said only liquids but I ate the bit of food. The anesthetic did not bother me and food was what I needed.

Thursday morning the surgeon and the head doctor came to see me and said the surgeon Dr. Mojarro wanted me to stay until to Friday to make sure everything is okay.  Plus he wanted me on antibiotics.  The anesthesiologist also came by to see me.  He said sedation for me was light and I woke up quickly. He said for my age..72..my exercise, lack of obesity and good health made the surgery and anesthetic much easier.  Good to know. Lots of nurses and doctors in the hospital all eager to help.  However all of this comes at a cost!

Thursday was spent trying to get the Insurance company to pay direct.  The insurance doctor on my case is not the easiest to deal with and seems a bit disorganized. She sent emails saying they needed my medical records before they would pay direct. They want to make sure you haven't lied on your application so they can weasel out of paying.  I'm not sure what could predispose me to falling and breaking my elbow! Then they wanted us to pay the bill, collect all the records and submit the claim to them for reimbursement.  Now I was mad!  I sent an email saying that I did not appreciate all the added stress of what they were asking while I was injured and laying in a hospital bed.  

On Friday morning I had the liason woman from the hospital come to see me and she was very helpful. She checked with hospital insurance department which helped get that in order.  The head doctor Dr, Roja came to see me Friday morning and he agreed to discharge me.  That of course depended on payment being made!  Turns out the bill ended up being $20,000.!  No way I was paying that and waiting for reimbursement!

On Thurs the insurance doctor had called Eric and said she'd faxed my GP doctor at home about medical records and hadn't received  a response.  I then called my doctor's office in canada to explain the situation and she said they hadn't received a fax but that the insurance doctor had just called about the records. Perhaps she didn't send a fax or sent it to the wrong doctor!!  Later in the day Eric called to say the insurance doctor called him and said now they would pay the hospital.  Eric gave her our credit card for our 5000 US deductible.

Our friend Trudy flew back to Canada Friday and over the last few days I sent her out to do the things we had planned.  We walked the lighthouse with Linda and Connie on Tuesday ( blog to follow) and Wednesday was Ladies Lunch at El Presidio that Trudy went to. Thursday evening was bingo and happy hour at Torres and she went with the ladies.  There was no point in her missing out because of my misfortune.

I was discharged Friday at 4pm and our friend Frank brought Eric to pick me up. I left with antibiotics and pain meds. Next Thursday I go back to have the giant heavy cast splint unwrapped to check the incision.  Hopefully we can replace it with something lighter.

First order of business when I got home was a shower.  Luckily our house has a large walk in shower that we could put a chair in as my arm needs to be supported. Did you know that you can't wash your right arm with you right arm??!!

So today is Sunday and I am still finding out all the things that require two hands.  My fingers are exposed on my left hand but I'm not allowed to use them.  Eric is doing what I can't do such as cut things up to cook, hang out or put away laundry and sweep and he's learning how to cook.  None of this is easy and there is a fair amount of pain.  Hopefully the splint cast will be off by the time we head home in 6 weeks.  Then on to physio to try and restore full function.  The elbow is the worst joint to break for loss of function.  I've been walking here for 15 years and this the first time I've broken anything.  If I had osteo it would have been much worse.

We've got lots of good friends here who will help with anything we need.  

The giant heavy albatross!

My selfie !

Breakfast on Friday.