A Fractured LIVE - Fractured My Ankle on Carnival Spirit - In hospital in Cartagena

[ArchieCruise]

On 4/21/2022 at 10:31 AM, TravelBluebird said:

Plans, my cruise, and my LIVE! have gone awry.

 

I dislocated and badly fractured my ankle after tripping on the steps to the gangway this morning.

 

Dramatic fall, and unfortunately for me, dramatic scary dislocation. 

 

I am at the hospital in Cartagena.  I am awaiting the specialist.  Have been given pain medication.

 

If you have ever wanted to know what happens in this situation you will now find out in my Fractured LIVE!

 

In the bright side I have Allianz travel insurance.  And working internet (gotta keep it light)

 

Of course I’m devastated that my trip is over.  Just devastated.

 

More to follow after my ankle is put back in place.

I don’t know how bad your break was but I had a severe break a few years ago and if it is as bad as mine it will be a long road ahead.  If yours is classified as a Pilon fracture like mine be sure to search for “Pilon Fractures Suck” on another site for our support group.  

[Forchunut1]

I broke the bones in my ankle, dislocated the joint, and tore the ligaments.  Looked a lot like yours and I had two surgeries with screws and plates.  Just know that it will take a good 6 months to start feeling "normal".  Take it easy, keep it elevated, and don't try to do more before your doc advises.  Good luck!

[shof515]

6 hours ago, Forchunut1 said:

I broke the bones in my ankle, dislocated the joint, and tore the ligaments.  Looked a lot like yours and I had two surgeries with screws and plates.  Just know that it will take a good 6 months to start feeling "normal".  Take it easy, keep it elevated, and don't try to do more before your doc advises.  Good luck!

Last year, i slip and fell on ice. I fractured the patella in my knee. Surgery required a few screws. It took me about 6 months to somewhat feel normal. the first few months where the hardest 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Thank you for sharing all your experiences with how long the healing may take. Unfortunately between my Rheumatoid Arthritis and my Replaced Knee, I am a veteran of long recoveries and I know to keep working physical therapy hard, including to keep the rest of my body strong while my ankle heals. The most difficult part of this for me is how hard I have worked on my physical fitness in the past two years...walk over 10,000 steps each day, zumba or other dancing fitness class 5 times a week. In February on the Mardi Gras I was averaging over 22,000 steps a day and didn’t even feel it! Gaining this fitness level was SO important to me for cruising and travel...we are in our 60s now, hubby finally retired, and we will only have limited years to travel with full mobility (especially for me).

 

I realize that the fitness I gained will help THIS recovery and for that I am grateful, but I also know that not being able to continue being so active will set me back overall, just when I was feeling so body-competent. So, yes, I am maintaining my positive attitude, but I figured you all would want to know what I am struggling with. 

[TravelBluebird]

15 hours ago, Moviela said:

I hope your flight home is uneventful and comfortable.

 

I took your advice about travel insurance. I bought an Allianz AllTrips Premier policy for my wife and I today. We sail on Panorama tomorrow. 

 

Good coverage, including rental cars, and high limits for health emergencies. $485 for a year. I have ten cruises in the hopper and several flights. This will eliminate the fear I have of being sent to the ships medical office and have them jack up my trousers and rotate my wallet.

 

I am so glad you have done this!  Especially with so much travel coming up.  You have the exact policy we have, so it will be good information on how our claim is handled. So far we have started the claim and are collecting all the receipts. 

 

For some reason there was no charge for the ambulance, and so far no Carnival medical services bill (that we’ve seen). As I’ve said, we are in it for $10,000 with the hospital so far (and we still don’t know if that was a down payment only and if so how much the rest will cost us).  We also have the hotel and airline costs.

[TravelBluebird]

One thing that is getting my anxiety going is that we are going to both have to take a COVID test before we can fly back to the United States. I am terrified that one of us will have a positive test and we won’t be able to fly.

Then what? 5 or 10 days of quarantine here in Columbia???  

 

COVID is still complicating so much of our travel. 

[ColeThornton]

Before you know it you'll be home and recovering in your own home and bed, also excuse the correction but it's "Colombia", not "Columbia".   🙂

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

This morning I was out of bed for the first time but still awaiting the PT team with my crutches and instructions before I can leave the hospital.

 

The Doctor gave us the option of staying in the hospital an additional night or discharging and going to the hotel later today and we opted to discharge. At night there is not a lot of help and I need help to get out of bed, plus sitting in this bed is the most exhausting thing ever. Why is sitting//lying in bed more exhausting that moving around? At least in the hotel room I can get used to starting to move with my new situation before our flights on Monday. Hope this was the right decision.

 

Otherwise I’m now getting pain in my ankle with the nerve blocker wearing off (ouch). I’m in an immobilizing splint for my ankle (from toes to right below knee)  because of inflammation especially with plane travel, my orthopedic surgeon at home will make the decision whether this will suffice or if a cast is needed.

 

The Carnival liaison Jair is going to pick us up at hotel on Monday, get us to our COVID test and then to the airport. That will be a big help.

 

 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

8 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

Before you know it you'll be home and recovering in your own home and bed, also excuse the correction but it's "Colombia", not "Columbia".   🙂

 

 

 Yes thank you for the correction; still on pain medication; it makes my brain foggy; it is a wonder I can write at all and I hate it when I have spelling mistakes//typos!

[TravelBluebird]

Our plane reservations are set; not the best, but I think this is another thing that COVID has messed up; the flights are SO FULL on this short notice.

 

We are flying American Airlines Cartagena to Miami and then have a 4 hour layover (not ideal, but we will have to go through customs) and then Miami to Knoxville.  We have not been able to get First Class for our first flight—but customer service was able to get a bulkhead seat for me with more leg room. We are going to bring 1 soft zippered carry on stuffed with clothes that hopefully I can set my splinted leg on (did I mention I’m short and some plane seats leave my legs dangling like a little kid??).  Also American is doing what they can to try to get a First Class seat if one opens up. We have First Class on the second leg of the trip; pretty sure the smaller plane will also not have a foot rest, but at least more leg room.  

 

The doctor is giving us a medical necessity certificate to fly First which will hopefully help with insurance

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

11 hours ago, Forchunut1 said:

I broke the bones in my ankle, dislocated the joint, and tore the ligaments.  Looked a lot like yours and I had two surgeries with screws and plates.  Just know that it will take a good 6 months to start feeling "normal".  Take it easy, keep it elevated, and don't try to do more before your doc advises.  Good luck!

 

Oh my; what caused your injury?  Yes, that is exactly what I did (broken bones, dislocated joint with torn ligaments). Went for the trifecta.  

 

What made you need the second surgery? And 6 months; ugh. How long before you could put weight on the ankle, and how long was it before you felt ready to travel again?

[TravelBluebird]

13 hours ago, ArchieCruise said:

I don’t know how bad your break was but I had a severe break a few years ago and if it is as bad as mine it will be a long road ahead.  If yours is classified as a Pilon fracture like mine be sure to search for “Pilon Fractures Suck” on another site for our support group.  

 I will look for the group when I get home...hard to tell here with the language barrier, but since there was no way in heck I could have put weight on it after the fracture and given the location it sure sounds like a Pilon fracture

[TravelBluebird]

One word about the language situation.

 

In the medical center when I was told we would have to disembark, I was pretty panicked. One concern I expressed to the medical team on the ship was the language barrier. I suspected it was going to be scary being in a hospital//having surgery when you don’t speak the language (and it has been).

 

Of course, the ship people said “no problem, lots of tourists in Cartagena and lots of English spoken.”

 

I can tell you that this is not the case.

 

We have not met one person at the hospital that is fluent in English, some speak some English, and although we have a nice ex-pat couple that translate for the hospital and they have helped us a couple times as needed, I have had many situations that without Google translate I could not have expressed my needs, and several times with no phone like in the surgery room, I was a bit panicked  (although the hospital did provide a doctor with some English to assist in the surgery, as I gratefully discovered after my initial panic attack).  

 

Thanks to a friend with a good Colombian friend, I have a very good translator for discharge.

 

I mean, this is Colombia, I don’t expect people to speak English...it’s just another thing you have to manage if you are in a foreign country with an injury or illness. Just something to be aware of.

[WhiteOptima]

I hope you are able to get some good coffee!  We were so disappointed when our November Panama cruise changed itineraries on us as I had planned on purchasing some.

[TravelBluebird]

25 minutes ago, WhiteOptima said:

I hope you are able to get some good coffee!  We were so disappointed when our November Panama cruise changed itineraries on us as I had planned on purchasing some.

 

I am drinking some good Colombian coffee my husband just brought me (the coffee at the hospital has a ton of milk and sweetener in it...I mistook it for hot chocolate the first morning!).  He also just brought me a delicious empanada from a little store near the hospital. 

 

We are at a hotel called Hotel Bahia. Husband tells me its an older hotel but good air conditioning and wifi, only 2 blocks from the hospital (the main consideration!). The hotel that the Carnival  liaison directed us to was booked solid, but my husband found this one. Its also not that expensive, and the hotel has been very accommodating (such as moving us later today to a room with a larger bathroom for my crutches).

 

[AQW]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

I realize that the fitness I gained will help THIS recovery and for that I am grateful, but I also know that not being able to continue being so active will set me back overall, just when I was feeling so body-competent. So, yes, I am maintaining my positive attitude, but I figured you all would want to know what I am struggling with. 

 THIS BOLDED PART RIGHT HERE. Every single step, every single Zumba class, every single yoga pose has made you stronger, healthier, and better able to weather this setback. You've put in the work and it is going to pay dividends, both in unexpected ways (like aiding your recovery) and expected ways (when you get back out there traveling, sooner than you know it). 

 

Safe and easy travels home; hugs to you and your hubby.

[natefish95]

I'm glad your surgery went well and you are closer and closer to being in your own home! 

 

After reading your ordeal, I decided to book an 8 day on the Spirit last night for October and will toast to Bluebird's broken ankle onboard!  lol. If you can't get a good Colombian coffee, there is a Juan Valdez coffee shop in the Miami airport, which originated in Colombia. Delicious! 

[MizMoon]

Onward!  You can do this -- keep your chins up!  Glad you are sharing those real concerns (language, covid testing, costs, pain level, insurance coverage, getting home, etc.) - we're all human with a wide range of emotions and tolerance.  "Out-Loud" is not as scary for me as fretting silently.  Yep, this is gonna be one of those rungs on the ladder that bring adjustments in life - again, you can do this.  Really hope to meet you next April for Panama - 🛥️

[TravelBluebird]

We have received the final hospital bill.

 

$15,000 USD (in total, including the $10,000 we already paid).  Honestly could have been so much worse and that is well within our coverage amount.

 

We got a detailed bill. Allianz has also asked for doctor names and diagnoses and it does not look like the detailed bill includes all that (at least not the Dr Names) so we will have to see how that can be obtained.

[nwcruiselover]

I know it’s a small consolation, but you shouldn’t get a bill from Carnival for shipboard medical care.  When the medical care is because of an accident on the ship they don’t charge.  I have experienced that twice, once with DH and once myself.

[stjohnbeachlover]

I have been following along with your ordeal with your fractured ankle. About 15 years ago, my husband and I were in Barbados and he dislocated his shoulder. No travel insurance. We had two sets of x-rays, what the doctor called laughing gas, and the actual pulling the shoulder back into place. The total bill was $500 in Barbados money - $250 in American. Our health insurance ended up paying the $250. Lesson learned though - we lucked out. We now have travel insurance for every trip out of the country. Rest of the story.... about a month later the same shoulder dislocated again. We were in our local emergency room here in St. Louis less than an hour and the bill was in the neighborhood of $8000.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, stjohnbeachlover said:

I have been following along with your ordeal with your fractured ankle. About 15 years ago, my husband and I were in Barbados and he dislocated his shoulder. No travel insurance. We had two sets of x-rays, what the doctor called laughing gas, and the actual pulling the shoulder back into place. The total bill was $500 in Barbados money - $250 in American. Our health insurance ended up paying the $250. Lesson learned though - we lucked out. We now have travel insurance for every trip out of the country. Rest of the story.... about a month later the same shoulder dislocated again. We were in our local emergency room here in St. Louis less than an hour and the bill was in the neighborhood of $8000.

Oh my goodness RE the difference in Dr bills from Barbados to USA! But gosh that’s painful and two times!

 

But another good cautionary tale regarding  trip insurance.

[TravelBluebird]

2 hours ago, nwcruiselover said:

I know it’s a small consolation, but you shouldn’t get a bill from Carnival for shipboard medical care.  When the medical care is because of an accident on the ship they don’t charge.  I have experienced that twice, once with DH and once myself.

That is good to know—one less worry.

 

I received a call from someone at Carnival corporate this afternoon to see how I was doing so now I have a contact there as well.

 

Our local Carnival liaison is going to take us to get the COVID tests tomorrow so that is a big help.

[broberts]

2 hours ago, nwcruiselover said:

I know it’s a small consolation, but you shouldn’t get a bill from Carnival for shipboard medical care.  When the medical care is because of an accident on the ship they don’t charge.  I have experienced that twice, once with DH and once myself.

 

It happened on the gangway I believe. Is that considered part of the ship when it is touching land?

[TravelBluebird]

Turns out the hospital has an official English translator after all—she was just having emergency wisdom tooth pulled on Thursday and then dealing with a serious medical-flight of a patient back to USA yesterday (hope he wasn’t from the cruise ship!)

 

Anyway she is helping with discharge papers now, and then instructions and prescriptions.  Even better was able to arrange the hospital give us pre-flight COVID tests at the hotel early Monday morning.