My Russian Doctor
A week before Easter Spencer and I decided to take an active part in our physical well-being by running and doing yoga together. He had already gone on some really long runs with our German friend Benny who is really into Football, the European kind. Since it was Spring, and the chill from winter was beginning to leave, it was definitely time to go out and get active. Back home at SUNY Albany I would go to the gym with a friend of mine 3 times a week where we'd run on the treadmill then head on the floor for some strength training. Aside from that we also went to yoga once a week, and I had my Irish dance class once a week. To say the least before I came to Russia I was in fabulous shape. We decided to run down to the river by way of going to Sparrow Hills, which is a really pretty park behind the main building. When you get to the bottom of Sparrow Hills, you will be standing right along the shore of the Moscow River. As soon as I started running with Spencer I was able to feel just how out of shape I was. Spencer is a smoker, and was not even panting. I was the one gasping for breath. I felt embarrassed, but my excuse was: He is also over a foot taller than me, so I could not possibly keep an even pace with him! After the run, we went back to my room and had a nice 40 minute session of yoga. I was so tired that I really couldn't do anything else that night except sit in my bed and stare at the screen of my netbook.
For the next week, I noticed that my right calve muscle kept tightening up on me, and straightening my leg out so my foot was flat on the ground was painful. When the pain was too much, I would sit on the floor and stretch out my legs, which would relieve it for a little while. Next came the Easter weekend where I went to Vladimir, the Cold War bunker, and the Kremlin in Izmailova-Измайлова. When I was in the Bunker, after going down the stairs which was a total of 160 meters, we were maybe half way through the tour, when I started to go down another set of stairs, and a weird popping sensation started behind my right knee. I was a little weirded out, but didn't think too much of it at the time, because it didn't last long.
The next day I woke up, and I could barely walk. Whenever I put any weight on my right leg, the popping sensation continued. It wasn't horribly painful, just rather uncomfortable. So I did what anyone would, I googled it. All I found was that I could have ripped, torn, or frayed a ligament in my knee. It called for rest and ice. Well, the latter one was impossible, because Russians do not like ice, they are afraid that it will make them sick, plus I didn't have a freezer. Rest wasn't going to happen either, at least not that night. My group of Americans from МГУ were invited to an expat meeting by Josh from SRAS. We met up with the group of students from St. Petersburg that we went on the tour with, and went to a really nice Georgian Restaurant. The meeting was about living and working in Russia. Josh was one of the speakers as well as a club and apartment owner from Austraila, and another man who worked for various businesses in Russia. We not only got a delicious free meal, but some really good Georgian wine. You can imagine why I didn't want to miss it. I put on a cute grey dress that I bought from my shopping spree with Oleg and Rachel, and the pretty scarf that I ended up using as a shawl, that I bought at Izmailova. Everyone was of course asking me what happened, seeing how badly I was limping. Oh well, it was a nice night.
On tuesday, our excursion day, there was no way I was walking anywhere. After walking to the restaurant last night, my leg hurt, and was so stiff. I sent Marina an email, and she was able to make an appointment for me at the American Medical Center at the metro station: Проспект Мира on the circle line. I went the next few days worrying my poor mother, who made me promise that I would take Motrin or Aleve every 4 hours to keep my knee from getting inflamed, and to go buy a knee sleeve or at least an elastic bandage. I was kinda scared of that, so I went on to Google Translate, and to my surprise elastic bandage was simply: эластичный бинт (elastichni bint) I didn't really trust Google, so I went ahead and looked up the word for knee too for in case I had to explain what hurt.
First thing in the morning, I went to the Аптека - appteka (pharmacy), was totally nervous that I would screw up saying it, but it went well enough. When I went to class on Wednesday, Marina told me to call my insurance company, because these clinics prefer for people to pay up front, and then the insurance company would reimburse me, that is if I couldn't get a hold of them. I was covered by HTH which SUNY instructed me to take before I left for Moscow. I called the company in the morning, about 2 hours before I had to meet Marina, and they told me that they needed 24 hours advanced notice before they can cover me. Well, that's swell, no one told me that before.
Marina met me at the metro station, and took me to the clinic. The girls at the front desk spoke English decently, they had me fill out some paper work, and the doctor took me in. To my demise, his English was horrible, and I didn't feel comfortable explaining my ailments in Russian when I lack some of the vocabulary. Still no idea what "popping sensation" would be in Russian. Anyway, I had to speak super slow in English, but I think he gave up, and at least understood that there was something wrong with my knee. He had me lay on my stomach on the examination table, and he poked and prodded my knee asking where it hurt. He said 2 things: muscle rupture and hemorrhage. He told me to go buy compression tights, in which he circled the place on a map of where I could buy them, and told me to take Детралекс twice a day, which is some sort of herbal pill that works as a blood thinner, and to rub Лиотон 1000 on my knee everyday, which is a gel for anti-inflammation. The bill from the doctor was about $200, just for him to poke me and totally not understand me. The compression tights were another $150, but were well worth it. The tights are really hard to get on, but they hold everything tightly together, and go all the way up to my crotch, so the entire leg is encased in it. To say if the pills are helping at all, I have no clue. The gel however, definitely is making a difference.
May 1st-9th, we had off due to Spring break which included: Mother's Day, and День Победы-which I will explain in a later posting. During this week, my leg started to get better, I was able to put weight on my right leg again, and I was able to walk, however very snail-like. On May 8th, I was very excited about meeting the group for out last Spring fling before we would go home in 3 weeks. Josh from SRAS invited us to go on a Moscow river boat tour, where we'd be able to see great sights, take pictures, and drink beer or whatever else we pleased. I put my makeup on, and got all dressed up. I felt good about going. When I got off the elevator, I noticed that the main sector of the building was closed, which meant that my plans of taking a bus to the metro station was out. So, I had to climb down another set of stairs to get to the underpass which would have taken me to Sector Б which is a shorter walk then the sector I live in. When I started going down the second set of stairs, something popped in my knee. It felt like it turned into an elastic band, a very painful one. I took a step, and then another one, and there was a horrible grinding sensation above my knee. Well, that threw my plans for the day. I limped to the Столовая (dining hall) got food, sat down, and took a few deep breaths.
When I eventually made it back to my room, I ended up having to spend the rest of the day in bed with my leg up on some extra blankets. I spoke to my mother that night, and her having acquired the Google skills that every young adult can't live without, found something called patellofemoral syndrome. My mother being the super mom she is, was dead on. It listed all the symptoms and stages I went through, but I found out that it is only treatable through rest, physical therapy, and if that doesn't work surgery. Typically, I would feel better knowing what it is that ails me, but this time, I'm just miserable. It's finally sunny and 70 degrees Fahrenheit everyday in Moscow, and there is so much to see and do. Now I'm just stuck laying around in bed, resting. Woo...
I hate to be a Debby Downer, but when Moscow itself really is not disabled person friendly, it makes things that much worse. Now I'm just waiting to be able to finish my classes and go home where I can receive the help I need. I am lucky that I have some great friends here that do care about me, and try to plan things that I can participate in. I don't know what I'd do without Rachel, Oleg, and Karen. Thanks guys, for being awesome.
For the next week, I noticed that my right calve muscle kept tightening up on me, and straightening my leg out so my foot was flat on the ground was painful. When the pain was too much, I would sit on the floor and stretch out my legs, which would relieve it for a little while. Next came the Easter weekend where I went to Vladimir, the Cold War bunker, and the Kremlin in Izmailova-Измайлова. When I was in the Bunker, after going down the stairs which was a total of 160 meters, we were maybe half way through the tour, when I started to go down another set of stairs, and a weird popping sensation started behind my right knee. I was a little weirded out, but didn't think too much of it at the time, because it didn't last long.
The next day I woke up, and I could barely walk. Whenever I put any weight on my right leg, the popping sensation continued. It wasn't horribly painful, just rather uncomfortable. So I did what anyone would, I googled it. All I found was that I could have ripped, torn, or frayed a ligament in my knee. It called for rest and ice. Well, the latter one was impossible, because Russians do not like ice, they are afraid that it will make them sick, plus I didn't have a freezer. Rest wasn't going to happen either, at least not that night. My group of Americans from МГУ were invited to an expat meeting by Josh from SRAS. We met up with the group of students from St. Petersburg that we went on the tour with, and went to a really nice Georgian Restaurant. The meeting was about living and working in Russia. Josh was one of the speakers as well as a club and apartment owner from Austraila, and another man who worked for various businesses in Russia. We not only got a delicious free meal, but some really good Georgian wine. You can imagine why I didn't want to miss it. I put on a cute grey dress that I bought from my shopping spree with Oleg and Rachel, and the pretty scarf that I ended up using as a shawl, that I bought at Izmailova. Everyone was of course asking me what happened, seeing how badly I was limping. Oh well, it was a nice night.
On tuesday, our excursion day, there was no way I was walking anywhere. After walking to the restaurant last night, my leg hurt, and was so stiff. I sent Marina an email, and she was able to make an appointment for me at the American Medical Center at the metro station: Проспект Мира on the circle line. I went the next few days worrying my poor mother, who made me promise that I would take Motrin or Aleve every 4 hours to keep my knee from getting inflamed, and to go buy a knee sleeve or at least an elastic bandage. I was kinda scared of that, so I went on to Google Translate, and to my surprise elastic bandage was simply: эластичный бинт (elastichni bint) I didn't really trust Google, so I went ahead and looked up the word for knee too for in case I had to explain what hurt.
First thing in the morning, I went to the Аптека - appteka (pharmacy), was totally nervous that I would screw up saying it, but it went well enough. When I went to class on Wednesday, Marina told me to call my insurance company, because these clinics prefer for people to pay up front, and then the insurance company would reimburse me, that is if I couldn't get a hold of them. I was covered by HTH which SUNY instructed me to take before I left for Moscow. I called the company in the morning, about 2 hours before I had to meet Marina, and they told me that they needed 24 hours advanced notice before they can cover me. Well, that's swell, no one told me that before.
Marina met me at the metro station, and took me to the clinic. The girls at the front desk spoke English decently, they had me fill out some paper work, and the doctor took me in. To my demise, his English was horrible, and I didn't feel comfortable explaining my ailments in Russian when I lack some of the vocabulary. Still no idea what "popping sensation" would be in Russian. Anyway, I had to speak super slow in English, but I think he gave up, and at least understood that there was something wrong with my knee. He had me lay on my stomach on the examination table, and he poked and prodded my knee asking where it hurt. He said 2 things: muscle rupture and hemorrhage. He told me to go buy compression tights, in which he circled the place on a map of where I could buy them, and told me to take Детралекс twice a day, which is some sort of herbal pill that works as a blood thinner, and to rub Лиотон 1000 on my knee everyday, which is a gel for anti-inflammation. The bill from the doctor was about $200, just for him to poke me and totally not understand me. The compression tights were another $150, but were well worth it. The tights are really hard to get on, but they hold everything tightly together, and go all the way up to my crotch, so the entire leg is encased in it. To say if the pills are helping at all, I have no clue. The gel however, definitely is making a difference.
May 1st-9th, we had off due to Spring break which included: Mother's Day, and День Победы-which I will explain in a later posting. During this week, my leg started to get better, I was able to put weight on my right leg again, and I was able to walk, however very snail-like. On May 8th, I was very excited about meeting the group for out last Spring fling before we would go home in 3 weeks. Josh from SRAS invited us to go on a Moscow river boat tour, where we'd be able to see great sights, take pictures, and drink beer or whatever else we pleased. I put my makeup on, and got all dressed up. I felt good about going. When I got off the elevator, I noticed that the main sector of the building was closed, which meant that my plans of taking a bus to the metro station was out. So, I had to climb down another set of stairs to get to the underpass which would have taken me to Sector Б which is a shorter walk then the sector I live in. When I started going down the second set of stairs, something popped in my knee. It felt like it turned into an elastic band, a very painful one. I took a step, and then another one, and there was a horrible grinding sensation above my knee. Well, that threw my plans for the day. I limped to the Столовая (dining hall) got food, sat down, and took a few deep breaths.
When I eventually made it back to my room, I ended up having to spend the rest of the day in bed with my leg up on some extra blankets. I spoke to my mother that night, and her having acquired the Google skills that every young adult can't live without, found something called patellofemoral syndrome. My mother being the super mom she is, was dead on. It listed all the symptoms and stages I went through, but I found out that it is only treatable through rest, physical therapy, and if that doesn't work surgery. Typically, I would feel better knowing what it is that ails me, but this time, I'm just miserable. It's finally sunny and 70 degrees Fahrenheit everyday in Moscow, and there is so much to see and do. Now I'm just stuck laying around in bed, resting. Woo...
I hate to be a Debby Downer, but when Moscow itself really is not disabled person friendly, it makes things that much worse. Now I'm just waiting to be able to finish my classes and go home where I can receive the help I need. I am lucky that I have some great friends here that do care about me, and try to plan things that I can participate in. I don't know what I'd do without Rachel, Oleg, and Karen. Thanks guys, for being awesome.
Comments
Post a Comment