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Published: November 25th 2008
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As on my first hike to the Lagunas de Piñan I had not found a good way down, and as Anibal had suggested a good return trip ending in some hot
termas I went again to Iruguincho. Anibal had said the trip could be done in 2 days on horseback. As Anibal was not around, I found a local horse guide. It took some time to locate him and to get going, but finally we had gone to the pasture, he captured and prepared the horses and off we went. We did not go that far, though.... We climbed some steep path, persuaded the horses with some difficulty to ross a river, went underneath lots of bushes and up a steep trail again. Well, and then I was just thinking 'hey, the horse is toppling over to the right'. I threw an appalled glance at my guide and then... off I went. I can then only remember lying at the ground on my back, with pain in the right foot and on the right lower part of the ribs and the whole left underarm bruised.
The guide just repeatedly said 'it was your fault, you do not know how to
ride', but finally went to take the horses down and to get help. He came with two guys and a plank to carry me, but in the end I was able to walk, supported by the two guys. They then took me to a clinic in Ibarra, where I had a very painful hand-X-ray done, and a cast was put on my leg and I was given crutches, the doctor babbling something about damage to the ligamentums. He also said that after three days I needed to get a heel attached to the cast and that I could have it removed after 4 weeks.
When I went to a clinic in Quito three days later for the heel, they said that that is not done any more and that I should get some special sandal to put over the cast. In the next clinic where I was going to purchase that sandal, the guy selling the sandals told me that I did not need the cast much longer, as he could not see a fracture on the x-ray. And then the doctor there told me that I needed surgery as somw bones were dislocated. I was confused and told them that I was going back to Germany in a few days, and that I would have further treatment there, and they agreed.
Apart from the fact that I should never have gone onto a plane with such a tight cast and without thrombosis prophylaxis, the flight went perfect. In each airport (there were 4 of them), the airline provided a wheel chair with a person accompanying me. It was very well organized, the escorts were extremely helpful and I had a lot of fun with them as they were wheeling me through the airports (especially huge Barajas airport in Madrid). In Munich I was picked up by my brother Tom who took me to Großhadern clinic where they immediately (well, after 4 hours waiting) removed the cast. The foot was thickly swollen and covered with huge bruises. If I was hoping to get a diagnosis and a good treatment now that I was back in Germany I had the wrong impression of the current status of the German health system: what followed was a nightmare of seeing doctors who had to ask the asistants what to do, of waiting and waiting and waiting and then travelling to the remote coutnryside for an MRI scan, of being told again and again not to step on the damaged foot 'until we know more', of doctors saying 'why do you come here, I know nothing about feet' etc. etc. I got various diagnoses from bone bruise to microfractures, maybe a real fracture, edema, several ligamentums broken, torn etc. etc. With all the X-rays, CTs and MRI still it does not seem to be possible to make one diagnosis.... Obviously it was extremely difficult to handle life here on one leg and 2 crutches - getting all my stuff back into my flat and into the closets, shopping, even getting to the doctors etc. If I hadn't had the help of my great neighbours it would have been impossible. And the other great help I am getting is from the excellent physiotherapist I finally found. With her help the edemas are now going slowly away and the foot is getting better. I still can't walk for too long and can't do any running or much other sport, but I am finally positive that the foot will ultimately get back to nearly normal. I do hope so, as the first snow has fallen here and I am so much looking forward to go skiing....!
THE END.
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the irrepressible Sonja
Nice blog concluding a Great trip to Ecuador. 2 thoughts: 1) doctors are not unlike auto mechanics in the sense that any malfunction can be diagnosed in a number of ways on any given day, and 2) when will the Sonja book be available en la Mariscal?