Losing veins, keeping kidneys

This week I've been dealing with veins. Sorry, this is a little gross. I am not old (by most people's standards) nor am I obese (that's pretty much for sure) and I don't smoke. But somehow the veins in my legs were big and blue and angry. They needed to come out.

So that brought me into a new experience with the German health care system (don't worry, there will be no photos in this post).

When I first went to the doctor, it was clear that he wasn't too confident in his English. He did seem very confident in my German, however, so we rolled with it and I did the whole thing in German. I must have communicated well enough, because as far as I know I still have both kidneys. I was hoping there wouldn't be any surgery. I was envisioning some kind of laser, or maybe a saline solution. The doctor was envisioning knives. And he won. So I went under the knife Monday for what's considered a very minor surgery.

After it was all over, I woke up in a recovery room with my legs all bandaged up, my plastic booties back on and a blanket over me.  It seemed as if all my internal organs were in place. In case I had forgotten in my drugged up state that I was living in Germany, I remembered pretty fast. When I was thirsty, the medical assistant poured me warm fizzy water from a glass bottle. She told me I had to stay for 2 hours and would not be realeased until I ate at least one half of a bread roll (brötchen) and drank some tea. I could choose from a roll with cheese and Wurst or just cheese. I asked for one plain, and was told it was not possible. There are a lot of kinds of Wurst. Some are sliced like salami, some are in links, some are in coils, and others are suspended in gelatin like a jell-o mix gone wrong. There was no way to know what kind would come out on my brötchen. I went with cheese.


Since then, I am in no pain but I am not very good at being sick. I am annoyed by sitting still and I really want to go for a run. In short, this whole thing makes me cranky. Imagine what would happen if I had a real medical problem, or if I'd misunderstood and the doctor took out a kidney instead.