4/16/11

Forgotten in Germany....


I was forgotten…doesn’t happen often…but it happened yesterday.  To quote Jason last night, “These things can only happen to you?”  I guess he is right but that is why my life is always entertaining, an adventure and usually fun. I'll start at the beginning of yesterday's "fun"...

My back continues to want to lead a different type of life than the rest of my body…a stagnant one.   Therefore I am once again partaking in physical therapy but in a different country.  My doctor’s prescription is for 10 appointments that include; Manuel therapy (a type of massage), Fango, and Krankengymnastik.  I wasn’t sure about this treatment at first-the names were all new to me.  The only ‘Fango’ I knew was ‘Fandango’ the App that gave me information on movie tickets.  I knew both movies and Gymnastics were not part of my physical therapy in Alabama.

Twice a week, I ride my bike to the Physiotherapie building.  They have assigned one therapist to work on me each appointment because she speaks a little English.  My appointments are usually pretty humorous since I don’t know a lick of German relating to the body.  (But I am learning quickly during these “intense German lessons”) We make our way through the appointment using German, bits of English and a lot of Charades.  Yesterday the communication was so bad; she had to bring in a big ole skeleton model to try to show me what she was trying to communicate.  I couldn’t stop laughing and she never started so we moved on to the Fango. 

While she goes to prepare the hot mud treatment, I self-consciously undress down to my panties.  Once I am correctly positioned on the hot Mud, I am wrapped up like a mummy and the timer is set.  At the end of the 25 minutes, she returns cleans all the mud of my back and I feel like my back has never hurt a day in my life!  That is most days…..

Yesterday, after I was mummified, my therapist said, “my colleague will come clean your back”.(or at least that is what I thought she said)  As I laid all snuggled up in the tight warm blankets concentrating on breathing, I glanced up at the clock and realized my 25 minutes were finished.  After 35 minutes I began to realize that it sure seemed quite on the top floor where I was all wrapped tight.  As the clock hit the 1-hour mark, I realized it was almost time for me to pick up the kids... not to mention I had to ride my bike home first.  With a mother’s determination, I worked one arm out of the mummy wrap and worked hard to reach my cell phone.  Finally, cell phone in free hand and I was able to call Jason.  We have a code-if I call twice in a row, it means I really need to talk with him and he will answer no matter what he is involved in at work.  I guess he forgot our code.  The conversation in my head went like this-OK Kirstin, you are smart enough to figure out how to get out of a mummy wrap.  I mean really-you let someone mummy wrap you.  OMG-I can’t breath...why is it so quite in this building…breath…breath…why isn’t Jason calling me back? I have to get out of this mummy wrap.  This isn’t funny anymore.  Breath. I guess she really didn’t like me laughing at the skeleton.  I finally was able to get both hands free and thanks to my I-phone’s Internet could find the phone number to call Physiotherapie front desk.  NO ANSWER.  I kept pushing “redial”.  Finally a lady answered and thought in my flustered German that I wanted to make an appointment.  I finally very loudly said, “ICH BIN HIER JETZ!!!”  (I am here now).  She hung up and I heard her running up all the stairs to my room.  As she apologized over and over in German and explained, "Yes, they had forgotten me as they had gone to lunch since I wasn’t there normal client because my therapist had left early but this has NEVER happened before.  I decided the best thing to do- smile at her and say, "Macht Nichts-das is leben!"  (Doesn't matter-life is short)  Because you know what-It is!


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Stuttgart, Germany, Germany
We are living as non-military expats for a second time in Stuttgart Germany. The first time, we moved from Alabama to Stuttgart, Germany in December 2010 for three years and now are back after six years.. This is a great adventure for our whole family that we enjoy sharing.
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