May 20 2008

Ai! Un incidente della caviglia di Meredith!

Published by at 5:56 am under Cinque Terre,Italy

We are now in Riomaggiore (one of the Cinque Terre) and have been since Saturday evening. We haven’t had much chance to blog, explore, or really, do much of anything though as we have had a hiccup. On Saturday, we arrived, checked into our apartment, then went up the hill to park our car. We were walking down the stairs from the garage to the street and as we got to the bottom, Meredith stumbled and rolled her left ankle. (I’m not sure if the Italian above is 100% correct but ankle = caviglia.) Luckily the garage was over the police station and we had paramedics there in about 2 minutes. We waited awhile to see if the pain went away but it only got worse.

To make a long story short: Meredith got a ride to the local “big city’s” emergency room in an ambulance and we spent 7 hours there, finally getting to bed in the wee hours. She now has crutches and a half-cast (rigid in back and bottom, soft in front). We had x-rays and nothing was broken but with the language barrier, it felt like 3 different doctors told us 3 different things (it seems like it’s one or more of a bad sprain, a dislocation, or a torn ligament). If you know anything about Italy, you know that of all places in the country that would be the worst to attempt with crutches, it’s the Cinque Terre. These are 5 towns built on the sides of hills leading down to the sea. We did see one guy wheeling his wife down the main road in Riomaggiore in a wheelchair backwards. That’s dedication. We’ve spent most of our time with a return visit to the hospital and dealing with the little things that become huge things when you can’t walk easily. It gives one perspective on daily challenges for handicapped people, especially when away from home.

We leave the Cinque Terre tomorrow morning and Meredith is in good spirits so I am heading out to explore for a day while she spends time in the room reading and perhaps writing her own blog post on all this. Now, we’re contacting hotels for the rest of our trip asking for accessibility and maybe ground floor rooms. In a week, we’ll go to a hospital in Bologna for a check up. If things go well, they will say we can take the cast off and use a splint so she will be more mobile. If not, the cast may stay on for several more weeks.

I have pictures of the event but this Internet point is so paranoid that I can’t even plug in a memory key with them so they’ll have to wait for a future blog post. We’ll keep everyone updated with any progress. Ciao!

– Dave

 

4 responses so far

4 Responses to “Ai! Un incidente della caviglia di Meredith!”

  1. Mom and Dad says:

    Update received. Weather here cold for May 40’s and 50’s. Golf game gone south and i wish i were too. Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery. Hang in there.

    Love
    Russ

  2. Lynn Spencer says:

    Way to go Meredith! I can’t believe it, you go all that way to hurt yourself! I hope it clears up quickly. I fractured my foot one time camping on an island in the middle of the Shenandoha River at a bluegrass festival when I was in college! It wasn’t pleasant!

    I’m enjoying the blogs and pictures! Thank you for sharing with all of us! Take care and take it easy!

    Lynn

  3. Maura says:

    oh Mer! My mind is cast back to when I got to push you around Mt. Auburn Hospital after one of your Africa trips. Suddenly I’m thankful that it’s much less hilly here than in the Cinque Terre!

    I’m sure the hearty Italian food will speed the recovery process, so eat up! (that goes for you too, Dave — I assume you’ll need extra energy for carrying around all the luggage!)

  4. Maddy says:

    Aie! No fun at all. It reminds me of when I was in Germany at age 14, and sprained my ankle pretty badly. All the doctors were speaking German and I had no idea what was going on, but just ended up with a splint and crutches for the next few weeks… Oh what clutzes we are! Happy healing… maybe a gelato or two will make you feel better 🙂