"Science Experiment" Day 42 - Mainz Germany

The last 14 days here have been a complete blur. With project camp and everything in between. Before I try to organize my thoughts on all of those events I want to tell you a story.

This is a story of my awesome ingorance/arrogance and Gods provision. What did I do that was so foolish? My friends, if you have a wound and you think it might need stitches - go to the doctor. Even if you do not actually need sticthes the visit is worth your time. If you ignor a wound and a week goes by without signs of improvement than you are an idiot and you need to go to the doctor.

Some of you may remember hearing about me falling on the stairs in a recent blog. Though the wound was not that impressive I now know I should have gone to the doctor.

For those of you who know me well enough you know that I fall quiet offten. To be honest I have ignored far worse flesh wounds and gotten away with it in the past....

...not this time though.

It never healed, it only got more and more infected. Then the infection spiked. Gross really. Swollen, unique fluids, inflamed, hot to the touch, the whole nine yards. So I did what I should have done a while ago, I went to the doctor.

Day one took six hours. I got X-rays and blood tests. Both affordable and both telling good things. The bone was fine, and the infection hadn't spread into my blood yet. The doctor asked me to come back the next day. They would need to remove the infected area. To save money he suggested they do it as an out patient procedure, but when I returned the next day the doctors no longer felt that was an option. The infection had worsened, the plan was to removed the infected area around the wound and under my skin then streach my skin and stitch it shut. I would need to stay in the hospital for two days to make sure that infection didn't set in again since some bacteria may be left.

Ok here is the miracle. Other than the fact that despite my not going to the doctor when I really should have I wasn't sick from infection yet. There is no way I could have afforded this opperation. Just the two nights stay would run me over two thousand dollars. Fimiliar with my situation and wanting to help the doctors designated me a "science experiment" and all the costs of the opperation were covered.

Today I have little pain, just a few stitches where the billard ball sized chunk of shin skin used to be, and on Saturday I might not even have those. My credit card is about $500 heavier from the checkups and pre opperation costs, but that is much much lighter than I ever imagined.

A huge thanks to...

God, all things for the good...
The German doctors, although I could not talk to anyone while I was there their generousity and skill were great hospitality.
Natanja, my faithful translator who enabled every conversation.
The anastesialogist... you do good things
Marco my room mate for those two days. Thanks for the good laughs and broken english. Marco also fell on stairs. He broke his right arm which is now also infected badly. He has had multiple opperations and has been there for about three weeks now. Pray that he regains full mobility of his hand. He is in the picture above.
My parents... sorry to call you one night leaving a voice mail saying that I am going to the doctor tomorrow and then not contact you again for three days. Promise I had not planned on staying! Love you guys!

Please pray that the infection does not re-surface and that I can loose the pretty blue stitches Saturday.