Recovery!

We are now settled into our new post surgery routine. It’s 2 weeks and counting, my recovery is going very well and I couldn’t be more pleased. I have a cane (my stick) that I use when walking on land. It gets forgotten in it’s little corner more and more as the days go by. We go up to the swimming pool in the afternoons where I perform my weird water therapy exercises. People look at me like I’ve lost my mind, until they realize I’m not a wanna be water ballerina, but rather recovering from surgery. They coach me along as I stretch, tread water, and march in place. Steve gently prods me along for which I am grateful because sometimes my recliner is just a little too comfortable!

I have had many of you ask me ‘why didn’t you just stay in Miami to have the procedure done. ‘ Well it’s pretty simple actually, since we don’t live in the states I don’t have a primary care physician (PCP). It would take time to find one, time to get an appointment, then time to get an MRI done. Then there’s the referral to an orthopedic specialist. After a referral comes through it takes even more time to get a specialist appointment, more testing and then wait for a surgical date. Having been through this before, I estimated it would take 2-3 months to just get to the surgery date. But here’s the biggest factor, cost! Having this procedure done in the states would have cost much much more. So there’s the answer(s), time and money. Cruisers are generally cheap people, if we can get the same for less, we go for it every time.

Another question I’ve been asked is “would you do it in Puerto Rico again”? Absolutely, but with different expectations. I now know that things work differently in PR. Doctors, hospitals and testing facilities have their own expectations that the patient needs to adapt to. For example: Their insurance system process is different from the insurance system process in the states, and now we know the surgery holding area does not allow “visitors”, but nothing was said about an interpreter. I would have taken Millie in with me and to hell with the rules. A lot of the problems I encountered there could have avoided if I had my patient advocate with me. If nothing else I would have had help to the bathroom. 😉

‘Would you use the medical tourism company again?’ Again, absolutely!!! Alexis and Millie were with us every step of the way, advocating for me throughout. We consider them both friends and highly recommend their services to anyone needing medical care in Puerto Rico. Millie is still working for us, going from office to office collecting itemized billing statements for our insurance reimbursement. That folks is above and beyond what anyone else would do. They could have waved bye bye from the airport and called it done, but we still have Alexis and Millie working on our behalf to close things out.

The last question has been kind of interesting, and this is it: ‘Isn’t recovering harder on the boat and are you going to move to a real house?’ What??? no way. It’s no different here than it would be in a house. The only difference is my house floats, thank God. Getting out is actually better here because the shower cabana is at the end of the dock, so I am forced to get off the boat and walk. The pool is past the shower cabana, so again I have to get out and walk. But the best thing is the rum punch is just past the pool, more incentive to grab my stick and take a hike!

So in a nut shell, my recovery is progressing nicely. We still love Puerto Rico, maybe now more than ever because we have friends there. If and when medical care is needed, routine or otherwise, there would be no hesitation on our parts to pick up the phone, call Alexis and tell him we’re on our way.