How I Made it Home for Christmas-ish...

Well, I'm home in Canada for a few weeks!!! Just decided I wanted to be home for some of the holidays, and get some shopping in!!

Jokes!
Except the first part...I am in Canada for a few weeks...not by choice..

It was a warm, nice and not too hot, Boxing day afternoon. My friend Kristy who had come to visit over Christmas, had just finished making sugar cookies while I watched(it's a regular Christmas tradition, her baking, me watching), and we were in the midst of serving the kids supper. I was headed upstairs with a glass bowl to replenish the spaghetti supply, when I either slipped or tripped and fell forward, causing the bowl to break on the step in front of me and shatter into my hands. Somehow, I survived with only one cut on my left thumb, which was bleeding on behalf of all the other non-cuts. I ran upstairs to tend to it, and soon Pat came to see what the source of the bang had been, and started to help me. Kristy got wind that something had happened and joined us in the bathroom. And turned around and walked out...it was gross...

After my thumb stopped bleeding, I noticed that "oh my goodness, I can't bend my thumb at the tip!!". All that physio anatomy I have stored up somewhere back there came flooding back and I immediatly thought "tendon!". After getting it all disinfected and wrapped up, I went to the computer to pull up some hand anatomy pics, and shortly confirmed my self diagnosis of a flexor tendon laceration...at least as far as I could tell.

Then began the sega of contacting my travel insurance company through Kristy's mom and SKYPE, as all 3 phone options were on the blitz!

Have you ever wondered "who actually ever uses their travel insurance?". Well, now you know someone, and it's kind of a non-perfected crazy process!! Especially for people who are in third world countries!!! But, I'll leave all that for another day!!

We did discover I needed a docs report to get pre-approved travel coverage, so that encouraged us to begin to seek out a more professional opinion. The best care we knew of was at the UN base, so that's where we headed. After a barrage of questions and walkie-talkie conversations in the language of the Nepalese, they allowed us entry to the Nepalese base in Mirebalais. We were met by their doctor who looked at my thumb and honestly admitted he could not be sure, but would refer me to the surgical UN hospital in Port-au-Prince. So, surrounded by a painting of Mt. Everest covering one wall, and a Nepalese village on the other, he and his assistants disinfected my thumb again, gave me some antibiotics and painkillers and a handwritten refferel to the other UN base. I was very impressed with their kindness and sincerity in helping us...not to mention that the doctor was not too sore on the eyes!

I'll post this now, as I previously lost the longer version, and continue with the story on the next posting.