Icelandic Medical Bills

Just received the medical bill for the hospital in Reykjavik.  I was billed $6,746 US dollars.  That was for two nights in the hospital and my surgery, X-rays and medication.   The previous bill for the first hospital translated to $2,592.23 (most of that was for ambulance services).

Interesting how low the cost is compared to US medical.  And the doctors here said they did an excellent job on my ankle.  I am in love with socialized medicine.

Another picture from my trip.

Cold Picture for a Hot Day

Supposed to be in the 90s so I thought we needed a cold picture from the Iceland trip.

On Thursday it will be 11 weeks since my ankle surgery.  As of Saturday, the Doc said I can put 20% of my weight on my leg.  Hard to figure what 20% is.  Yes I can do the math but even trying to get on a scale and trying different pressures - it is hard to translate that to the walker.  But I must admit it is less painful on the hip of my good leg to be able to put some pressure on the left.

I can see the end of the horizon.

Cold and Quiet

Currently reading a book titled Cold by Bill Streever.  Interesting quote I found, "Inupiat frequently pause when they talk, leaving what might seem like an uncomfortable silence.  I have been told that the pauses give them time to think and therefore avoid the mindless patter of whites."   Maybe we should try to emulate them more.

While not a picture of Alaska - home of the Inupiat, the following is one of the pictures from my Iceland trip.  Picture looked like cold and quiet to me.

Why Am I Smiling (or is that a Grimace)?

I returned home from Iceland on Saturday as planned - just not how I planned.  Let me just say that I LOVED Iceland.  It is one of my favorite places of all time.  It has been on my bucket list for years and I wanted to see it while they still had the glaciers.   I went on a small group photography trip.  There were 12 of us all together, nine clients, the bus driver, tour guide and photography guru.

Terrain was rugged with many of our stops requiring a bit of walking over uneven rocks.  I even participated in a glacier walk, complete with crampons and ice ax with no issues.

But last Wednesday, I along with others climbed the 500+ steps to the top of a hill to photograph the Skogafoss waterfall.   I was almost to the bottom when my foot slipped on the gravel between the steps.  Needless to say I dislocated/broke my ankle in two places.

This is me waiting for my rescue.  You can see a bit of the waterfall on the left and the platform I came from on the top.  It doesn't look dangerous but the EMT guy and the Doctor at the first hospital said that many people hurt themselves on those steps due to the loose gravel.  

The bus driver and tour directer had to help me down from this point to the bus which seemed forever away.  Then a longer than I wanted to deal with wait for the ambulance.  Trip to the first hospital in what I believe to be Selfoss was over an hour - (thank God for morphine).   They fixed the dislocation and sent the X-rays over to Reykjavik.  Spent the night waiting to hear back from them.  In the morning they got back to the doctors in Reykjavik that the ankle was too bad to send me home and that I needed to come to Reykjavik for surgery.  Another 45 minute plus ambulance ride to the University Hospital, surgery, then 2 nights in the hospital before my revised flight home.

Am I ever glad that this trip required trip insurance.  They took care of all the arrangements, from a limo to the airport, a first class ticket for me on Delta (since doctor said I needed to keep my leg up) and a limo ride home.  Since Frank did not come on this trip with me, the insurance company did not want me to fly home along.  So they paid for a first class ticket for the photo guru/tour guide Sandi Wheaton to fly home with me.  I thought I didn't need her but I was very thankful she came with me.   She also came with me to the first hospital so I didn't need to do that alone.   She resides in Windsor so it worked for both of us.  

So now my life as I know it is different for quite a while.