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FEBRUARY 2, 2024
LIFE TURNS ON A DIME
Very early Sunday, January 21, three days before our scheduled departure for Spain in the RV, Wanda woke up just past midnight. She was very sick. By morning, she felt no improvement. Being a Sunday with the regular clinics closed, we decided to take her to emergency intake at Wertingen Hospital. Five days in the hospital, ten thousand blood tests, an ultrasound, and a colonoscopy later, it was determined to be ischämischen kolitis (ischemic colitis). This is a restricted blood flow to a part of the colon. If caught early, it can be reversed without surgery. If advanced, it can be life-threatening.
Naturally, we had hundreds of questions. The language barrier made getting exact information difficult. It was difficult for us to determine how severe Wanda’s case was. Was it in the early or later stages? What we did hear over and over again was that going to Spain at this time was not a good idea.
We decided to cut our travels short, go home, and find a GI specialist to consult with. The care that Wanda received in the hospital was excellent. The diagnosis and immediate treatment she received were dead-on. We are not part of the German insurance program. We are self-payers. It will be interesting to see what the final bill will come to. A five-day stay in the US would be astronomical. Heinrich assured us that this is different in Germany.
Fortunately, our Medicare supplemental insurance covers 80% of foreign-based health treatment up to a lifetime of $50,000. I used my supplemental insurance to cover my laser eye treatment earlier in our trip.
After Wanda was released on Thursday afternoon, she booked a flight home, contacted the GI department of Aspirus Healthcare, made an appointment, translated all the test results, and emailed them to Aspirus. She was a woman possessed and feeling significantly better.
Flights from Munich to Chicago were costly on such short notice. Wanda used our credit card points and got a great deal. For 24,000 points and $500 each, we got a non-stop flight on United. That saved us about $3000 or more.
The sad part about all this is the loss of the exciting travel plans we had set up. Not only would we miss out on RVing to Spain, but we would also have to cancel our month-long Airbnb stay in Barcelona and our two-week cruise from Barcelona to Miami. That hurt!
However, in a weird twist of fate, it was good that Wanda’s illness forced us home early. We discovered that our primary heating source had died when we arrived home. We don’t have a typical furnace. We have electrical heat. A GE Zoneline airconditioner-dehumidfier-heater-heat pump combo heats our entire upper floor. It works great when it works. Thank goodness Wisconsin has had a warm winter so far. No pipes were frozen. (As a precaution, I did turn off the water pump before we left.) Whew, we dodged a bullet on that one.
GE Zonelines are generally for commercial use. Finding a replacement took me two days of frantic phone calls. I have one on order and should get it on Tuesday. In the meantime, we turned up the lower-level heaters way up. Heat rises, and it has permeated up to the upper level. In fact, we have reached 68º upstairs. Of course, if it were -20º, that wouldn’t happen.
Wanda’s appointment at Aspirus went well. She got the best prognosis possible. The GI specialist reviewed all the test results, including the colonoscopy pictures. It appears that Wanda’s condition is reversible and well on its way to mending. Dehydration and low blood pressure were the most likely culprits. That explains why the hospital immediately rehydrated her intravenously. Treatment recommendation: drink enough water and use electrolytes. Prognosis: Excellent.
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