Surgery Day plus 4

Hi all! Surgery went well. The doctor said the tendon was 95% torn, so practically a total rupture. That however does not change his opinion that I will probably be able to return to Mongolia within 45 days. The hospital was really great. I had a fabulous private room with a flat screen tv that had a bunch of channels in English. The food was really good. I picked my meals from a menu, and I could choose from western, asian, or vegetarian. They also have halal meals because they have lots of muslim patients. I can totally see why this hospital is a medical tourist destination. My whole stay at the hospital which included 3 nights and the surgery only cost about $6500. I highly recommend Bumrungrad if you have medical needs that your insurance won't pay for. I was discharged Monday afternoon. I started PT the day after surgery, and I've been going everyday. I have a giant cast on my foot that weighs about 5 pounds and is really uncomfortable. I haven't been out except to go to PT. And the hospital ferries me back and forth in a wheel chair. However, today at PT they told me I should walk with crutches as much as I can, so tomorrow I'm going to walk over (across the street). I don't have too much pain now. Mostly just discomfort. My mom arrives tonight. I am so glad she's coming. It'll be nice to get out of the hotel room even if it's just to sit at Starbucks for a little while. (and yes there's a starbucks at the hospital as well as a McDonalds). I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers.

surgery

Just a quick note before I'm admitted to the hospital. I have surgery tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7 AM. They're admitting me tonight to make sure I get a good night's sleep before surgery. I'm at the Bumrungrad International Hospital. It is a first class hospital. My hotel is across the street from the hospital, and the hospital staff wheels me over here in a wheelchair. And when I need to go back to the hospital, the hotel staff gets a hospital staffer to bring me over in a wheelchair. You would never get that kind of service in the States. The doctor thinks I'll be able to make it back to Mongolia within the 45 days, though I may have to return with a walking boot on my foot. I'm optimistic, and can't wait to get this done and back to Mongolia. My mom is going to come to Bangkok in a few days and stay for a couple of weeks, so I won't be without some help. Maybe we'll actually get to see some things too. We'll see--maybe a bus tour. Thanks for all your well wishes.

A Short Hiatus from Mongolia

Hi all! Sorry for not posting. I've been settling in quite nicely at my site. My job is going well. The people I work with are really great. Which makes it all the more disappointing that I have to leave my site for a while. Last Saturday I was playing volleyball with teachers from my school in a tournament when I ruptured my right achilles tendon. I have an 80% tear, so I am going to need surgery. On Sunday, PC flew me to Ulaanbaatar. Yesterday I had an MRI done (which is how I know it's an 80% tear). I'm still in UB but I've been approved to go to Thailand to have surgery done there. With recovery time, I will probably be there for 5 weeks. PC has a policy that you have 45 days to recover, and if you don't, then your service is over and they send you home. I am going to be the best patient ever, so I can make it back to Mongolia. I really want to finish my service. I love what I'm doing here. You know, I was the only non-Mongolian at the volleyball tournament. There were 8 teams of teachers and staff from schools around the city. Everyone was talking about me and asking my teammates about me (none of my teammates speak English). So, I was thinking to myself, Wow, I better be really good today, because all eyes are on me. It was our first game in the tournament about half way through, and I had to hop off the court and be taken away in an ambulance (though the ambulance was really a jeep with a light on top). I was so embarrassed. Such is life. I have received really good care. My sitemates and my counterparts met me at the hospital and helped me through. One of my sitemates, Geoff, speaks really good Mongolian. He translated for me, which was really helpful. When he arrived, I was looking up the word "tendon" in my dictionary, trying to talk to the doctor. There happened to be an American surgeon in my city at the time. He was doing a training trip with a surgical team from the University of Utah. He and the other surgeons from the hospital were all out in the countryside on Saturday. My counterparts doggedly tracked him down at his hotel and brought him to my apartment Saturday evening. His name is Dr. Price. He's a general surgeon. He brought with him his interpreter who is a doctor from UB, and the chief of surgery from the hospital in my city. The chief of surgery is an orthopedic surgeon. So they all looked at my leg and confirmed what I knew from the moment it happened--I tore the achilles tendon and would need surgery. They then went to a pharmacy and brought back supplies to put a plaster splint on my leg. The Mongolian chief of surgery did it in my apartment. It was kind of funny because while the doctors were gone to the pharmacy, the teachers from my volleyball team arrived. When the doctors came back, there were like 12 Mongolians in my apartment. They all watched the doctor put the plaster splint on my leg. Some of the teachers who came to see me come to my English class for teachers (I was teaching the teachers English 3 times a week), and they were very sad that we wouldn't have English lessons anymore. That made me feel good about the work I'm doing but really sad that I have to take this break. So, I'm trying to be optimistic. Everyone send good, healing thoughts my way. And if anyone's up for a vacation, I'll be in sunny Thailand by myself for 5 weeks.