Don’t Cry for Me Croatia

 

Skradinski Buk water fall KRKA National Park

Hello friends!  It has been awhile since my last blog.  This is due to me sustaining a major injury on September 9th while in Croatia that required surgery and a four day hospitalization in Sibenik.  I fractured my ulna ( bone ) in my right arm which not only resulted in making my right arm and hand inoperable for many months but also knocked the funny right out of me. I am not sure what hurt more!

I know what many of you are thinking….Ita hit the wine too hard and slipped on the boat.  To avoid spilling her magic juice, she cradled her wine glass as she fell and broke her elbow as she hit the deck.  That would be a great drunken sailor story but, alas, it is not the truth.  The accident was really the result of wearing flip flops in a dark alley on the way to dinner. The front of my left flip flop got caught on the frame of a very weirdly placed small metal door in the road  we were traveling. Down I went, using both my arms to protect my head as I fell.  I heard a cracking sound as I landed which was the ulna in my right arm breaking in two.

What I have to relate to you next took many months for me to process and is why I was reluctant to blog until I had plenty of time to recover from this trauma.  Without hesitation, I need to say I am thankful for the care that I received at Sibenik Hospital. The surgeon who repaired my elbow by inserting a titanium plate and screws to put my elbow back together was top notch. The anesthesiologist who recognized the fear on my face as I was placed on the operating table held my hand and told me in broken English that she would take care of me.  Nurse Nora, who recently returned to Croatia after 17 years living in California and spoke perfect English, became a fast friend. 

 There were, however, some odd and disturbing things that  occurred while in hospital and on my return for follow up visits.  First off, I was placed in a ward with five older women, three of which were dying and bedridden.  Each morning at 6 am, a battery of nurses marched into the ward screaming something in Croation to wake us up. The bedridden patient was stripped naked, diapers removed and replaced with new ones. I know this because there were no privacy curtains to avoid witnessing this unsightly daily ritual.  Next came the realization that there were critical supplies you needed to bring with you when hospitalized.  Namely, toilet paper, hand towels, food and beverages! I was initially puzzled by the number of toilet paper rolls the lady in the bed next to me had on her night stand.  Puzzle solved the first time I got up to use the bathroom! An emergency call was placed to Fred to get TP delivered pronto to the hospital!  Ditto for the hand towels. 

Food that the hospital provided was limited or I am just used to a higher daily caloric intake.  Breakfast consisted of a slice of white bread and a pad of butter and a bowl of lukewarm sweet tea. Since I could not use my right hand or arm, I had to open the butter pad with my teeth and use my left hand to spread the pad of butter on my bread.  The tea was undrinkable. Lunch and dinner were no better.  Remarkable to me was that no one read my chart to see that due to my injury I was not able to cut my food. Hence, I got used to picking up my food with my left hand and chewing away! UberEats could make a killing just delivering food to the patients at this place!  Sadly, no such service exists in Croatia. 

Probably the most unsettling memory I have is when Fred and I had to return to the hospital after my discharge for follow up visits with my surgeon.  As I am now no fool, I brought my own TP and hand sanitizer with me because, as you know, these amenities are not provided. Oddly enough, toilet seats were also not a standard feature in bathrooms at this facility!  Upon entering the clinic, patients stood in line to speak with a middle aged woman who stood  behind a glass partition in a little office.  She had a surgical mask covering her face as did all the patients, per COVID protocol.  Once at the glass partition, I witnessed Croatians, young and old, slip appointment paperwork to the masked lady who would briefly glance at the paper then yell something in Croation to the patient who promptly yelled back.  This would go on for a few minutes with both the masked lady and patient locked in a screaming match.  Then the masked lady would come out of her office, mask now below her nose, and go toe to toe with the patient. More yelling ensued and then the defeated patient would walk away and leave the clinic. We were always apprehensive when approaching the glass partition.  The masked lady did yell at us once but because we could not speak Croation, we could not yell back.  She must have either felt sorry for us or liked the fact we were non confrontational and let us move on to see the surgeon.  The masked lady encounters reminded me of the Soup Nazi episode on the Seinfield Show!

There is an upside to needing medical care in Croatia. The cost of the surgery, hospital stay and follow up visits came to about $2,400 US dollars!!!  That would only pay for the pain meds if hospitalized for four days in the US. 

 

All I can say in closing is, while my injury was a setback, I still loved spending time in this beautiful country! I am now back on our boat in Greece after spending six months in Winchester, MA doing rehab to gain movement back in my right arm.  As we continue to sail the Med this summer, we hope to be joined by our family and friends, minus the flip flops!

Post hospitalization dinner at Konoba Zakan on KORNATI National Park

P.S.  Visit our website at : www.cokema.com