Before we came, I surfed the internet to try to figure out what life on our mission would be like. One of the people I talked to mentioned the white castle in Varazdin. I found a photo of it looking up the main road in town with this white castle at the end. Seeing that castle was high on my to-do list. But, COVID changed everything and we never got a chance to go there until just the past few months. We went there in August because the main border crossings into Croatia had big delays, up to several hours, while the small crossing near Varazdin had wait times counted in minutes, although slightly out of our way. When we drove through the flatlands into Varazdin, I finally got to see the castle, and found it to be unremarkable. To begin with, we have seen hundreds of castles while here. This one is attractive in itself, but the setting is not particularly enticing. So, my reaction was, "Ngha."
Contrast that with the cathedral in Celje. It is across the street from the LDS church, right next to the police headquarters. It is part of a continuous row of large buildings, which makes it extremely inconspicous. We enjoy seeing these old churches, partly because we both read a book centered around building cathedrals while we've been here - "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. So, we were waiting for the young missionaries one day and decided to go inside the Celje Cathedral.
It is closed off, so you can't go all the way inside except when they are conducting services. The remarkable chandeliers, and use of extensive, but focused, gold leaf are remarkable. More subtle is the extensive carvings on the ends of the pews. It was very difficult to see the art work, but I did not see anything about St. George, which is unusual.
MAJOR MEDICAL
Last week we were in our preparation for departure, which is making us frantic to get everything done. We had a packed schedule, including giving our farewell reports to the missionaries on a mission-wide zoom call, and had a Christmas Conference in Zagreb on Thursday and Friday, which only made it more intense.
Wednesday evening, Liz bent over to clean something off the floor and felt a pain in her knee - the one that hasn't been giving her trouble. When she stood up, it hurt quite a lot, and as the evening passed the pain got worse. She took both Tylenol and Advil and went to bed hoping it would feel better in the morning.
It was not better in the morning, and she needed both my cane and my supporting arm to get down to the car for the trip to Zagreb. That didn't do my bad knee any favors, but we managed it. When we joined the conference in Zagreb, it was obvious Liz needed professional help. She and Sister Field conferred and selected a private clininc, and we immediately drove there, after having the sisters unload the food we'd brought.
The clinic was awesome and we met an orthopedic specialist who examined Liz and had X-rays and MRIs taken. He diagnosed it as a burst meniscus. He said it will not get better, and if left untreated it would get much worse. He recommended immediate arthroscopic surgery. We agreed and he decided to stay a little longer at the hospital the next day so he could schedule her. They gave her a pair of crutches, and we returned to the party to find most of the food already gone. We got some ham and some salad, and the senior sisters had saved us the last pieces of Liz's carrot cake. Nice sisters.
We were going to stay in the Mission Home (the "palace"), but it has stairs of uneven height. We made a reservation at a hotel after Sister Field told us to submit the receipt for reimbursement by the mission. It was a nice hotel with elevators and we got a reasonably good night's sleep.
The next morning, we drove to the surgical hospital owned by the same private clinic where we had seen the doctor. Strangely, that surgery is located in Krapinske Toplice, which is almost half way back to Maribor. It is a tiny little town in an out-of-the-way corner of Croatia.
First thing, they gave me a phone number on a slip of paper. Then they told me was to go away and call back after 2:00 to see if she was ready.
I got some breakfast and drove over to Krapina (pronounced CRAP-eena) to check out the Neanderthal museum there, only to find it closed for the season. I was looking forward to seeing a cave where cave-men lived, but no luck.
By 2:00, I was sitting in the foyer of the surgery, and when I called the number on the slip of paper, the nurse told me to call Liz directly and she'd tell me all I needed to know. That was rude, I thought. Liz was getting physical therapy and had an hour to go. It turned out to be more like 2 hours. I saw the surgeon as he was leaving, and he told me the meniscus was oversize, so he cut off some before he sewed it back together. Also there was a lot of damage to ligaments, which he repaird while he was in there. Also, she had a stray tendon stretched across the knee cap, so he cut it out. Wonderful. In the US they probably would have scheduled another surgery for those other things.
Finally she came out with her leg bandaged and fitted to a brace whose purpose is to prevent her bending her leg too much. She will have to wear it for at least 2 weeks, which puts her wearing it on the plane home.
We had to drive back to the Zagreb church to pick up the Maribor sisters, and load up dishes, gifts etc. By the time we left it was dark. After we left town I noticed the lights were pointed way too low. I had noticed this before, but now with a full load, it was bad. I could get by when there were other cars around, but once out in the country it was not enough light to go highway speed. I slowed down a lot and still felt uncomfortable with how little I could see.
SO, here we are, closing the apartment (the next senior couple will be quartered in Celje) and finishing our packing, with Liz hobbling around.
Last Monday was P-Day, and the missionaries had permission to go to a movie, Sing 2. The talking was all in Croatian, which the young missionaries thought was a great immersive language school. Fortunately for me, I've seen Sing and the plot is similar. And most of the movie is music, which was in English.
=================================
Too Old to learn new tricks?
Over the last week, I've been thinking about those low headlights. It occurred to me that we had the whole front panel of the car replaced not too long ago. So, yesterday I drove back to the service center to demand they adjust the lights. When the service manager heard what I wanted he gave a big smile and said he could help me. He took me out to the car, turned on the lights and showed me a little wheel-control in the dash above my left knee. It is for adjusting the headlights when the car is loaded. Who knew? So, today we are returning to Zagreb for Liz's follow-up exam, and we will have fully functional headlights. Hurray!
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
And, finally, I took a photo of another Sloveneian bee house along the way to the service center.
I assume the whole house can be loaded onto a truck and moved.
No comments:
Post a Comment