The longest nightmare ever...

I wish i could write good words about my situation, but every time i find something else out, its another roller coaster ride into hell...!
I have heard nothing this week, and have received no reply back from my lawyers, even though i have tried to contact them thursday and friday!
So, this morning i decided to phone them again and see what is going on.
The story seems to have changed again now!
Apparently they have heard nothing from either the insurance company or the drivers lawyers yet.
I thought there was supposed to be a meeting with the insurance company, but this doesn't seem to be happening. Same as the last 2 weeks i was led to believe the same thing!
I asked why we haven't heard anything from the drivers lawyers to sit down with them, as we go to court with them in 2 weeks time!
Apparently we need to know how much the insurance company is going to pay out before we can go after the driver, as he will only need to pay the difference?!
I thought if you make a case against someone, you also put forward a total that you expect to receive, and then you take it from there??
Well this is apparently not the case here! God only knows why?
So, the short of it is, according to my lawyers, that i can only make a case against the driver if i first know the total that the insurance company will give me.
It sounds pretty damn crazy, and is the opposite of what i was told when i paid $400 to my lawyers to get the case set up in the first place!
It could be as much as another 6 months before anything is even discussed, let alone settled!
I was told "again", that the easiest way to leave here is to come up with 50% of the hospital's money and they will give me my passport back and let me leave!
Where the hell that is coming from i dont have a clue!
What is almost certain now, is that i will be stuck here for the foreseeable future!
Happy days...!
My lawyer told me that there are some very important things he needs to talk to me about! Why they haven't been discussed before i dont know, but apparently i will get a visit from them next week.
This whole damned mess just gets more messed up by the day!

The only positive thing to happen is that i managed to locate a pair of crutches, so i can start learning to walk around on them at least.
I have a fair bit of pain associated with the area that is where my fibula was broken. And this is just with my leg dangling when i try to walk on the crutches. I haven't even started trying to put weight on my leg as yet...

Oh, and Digna found a piece of wood for me for my laptop so that i can sit outside with my laptop a bit more easily now...

Till next time...
Who knows what the next post will contain...??  8(

A little news...

Well, the last few days have at least revealed some things.
I didn't really have much news until this afternoon.
I got hold of the driver's wifes number and tried to phone her repeatedly over the weekend, but didn't get any answer. Left voice message in Spanish, and also text message, but no response.
Meantime, Digna went to the clinic i had been told to visit by the doctor to get the crutches.
Turns out they only have children's crutches in stock, and they dont know how much longer it will take to get more in.
So, today she shopped a little more, and no one seems to know where to get any in La Romana?? It seems crazy the nearest pair of crutches for sale is in the capital, 2.5h drive away!
But we will keep looking...
My lawyers called me this morning and said that they are coming to visit me.
They arrived here after visiting the driver's wife's work. She was not there, but they left a business card with a message to contact us asap if she doesn't want this to go to court.
I gave them the number i had for her, and they phoned it, and got through to a guy, taking calls for her. We left a message with him as well.
Seems that the payment story was a hoax to threaten me into paying the hospital some money.  I'm not sure?
Speaking of which, my contract states that i owe the hospital only after the 6 month period is up. I am not obliged to make any payments before that time.
So they cant hassle me for money. They countersigned the contract.
We will wait now and see if we can make a setllement out of court soon with the one case.
My lawyers were sitting down with the insurance company rep today to discuss getting everyone round a table next week sometime. So, that sounds promising. We'll wait and see.
The specialist in SA has also said that the cast must come off now. 3 months is already overkill.
Also, my mom spoke to a physio back home, and they agreed with my thinking that i need to get out of this cast so that i can start exercising my ankle.
It hasn't moved for 3 months now.
So, tomorrow around lunch time i will head to the local clinic near me in town, and get them to cut the cast off.
Then i just need my crutches and i can start getting around a bit!
Would like to go for a walk every day to strengthen my legs and enjoy some fresh sea air.
The days tick down til i need to be in Sao Paulo for my return flight home...lets pray things get resolved quickly...

            CLOSE SHAVE OF THE WEEK:

                               WEEK 2

1 step forward and 2 steps back...

To say yesterday could have gone better would be an understatement.
I got through to the clinic around 2.30pm, and was number 2 in the queue.
I only waited about 45min, and then the doc showed up, and i was seen straight away!
A good start i thought. Maybe this was my undoing?
He wrote me a prescription to get my xrays taken, and then i was wheeled through to where you need to pay for the xrays. Then it was off to the queue outside the radiology dept.
This was an hour and a half wait while everyone else went first.
When i finally got to the front of the queue, the woman shut the door, telling me to wait a while.
Half an hour later, with no one else even waiting to go in apart from me, she let me in.
I climbed onto the table where the xrays are taken, and proceeded to sit there for another 20min while other people that had started arriving in the queue, just walked in and chatted to her, then she disappeared off with them to do something else?!
Eventually it was my turn, and the xrays were taken.
As she was finishing up, my doc walked in and looked at the xrays with me.
It was a little strange because normally i would head back to his office to discuss things, and get my cast off on this particular visit...
So, we looked at the xrays very briefly, and i asked him if the gap between the bones on my repaired tibia was a good thing or not.
He replied that i should put full load bearing weight on my left leg so that the weight of my body on my leg pushes the bones together and they can mend properly!!
What???
I couldn't believe what he was telling me!
The specialist in SA had told me that i was to put very little weight on my left side, as my hip was still fragile and should be looked after.
Then he asked me to sit on the edge of the table with my legs dangling over the side, and told me that my exercises i have been doing are not good, as i should have a lot more range of motion in my left knee by now.
In the sitting position, he took one hand and held my quad firmly down on the table, and with his other hand he forcibly pushed my leg inwards, effectively bending my knee.
Obviously my knee did not have this much flex in it, and it hurt like hell, then he straightened it again, and then pushed back in again!
This carried on for about a full minute while i screamed in pain.
He told me that i should be doing proper physio every day.
Well, this is impossible as the physio is in La Romana, 40min from where i stay, and i cant afford to hire a car every day to drive thru for this! Plus find someone to drive me every day!
So i will have to try figure something out at home??
And that was it.
"Thank you for coming, and by the way, pop back on monday to pick up your xrays!"
Yeah, sure, i'll just hire a car, find someone to drive me and pop in again on monday?!!
So, 4.5 hours spent getting 4 xrays taken, and my cast stays on for another month!
I think that the cast didn't come off because he was in a hurry to get home, which is why he arrived early.
And is also why he came to see me in radiology.
So, thats great...another month of this damned cast!

Digna, my helper, is in La Romana today, and i have given her a shopping list to buy me some crutches, and also the pain meds that the doc prescribed to be taken before physio! This evening will be my first "proper" physio session then...

As far as the legal side of things goes, my lawyers spoke with the hospital, and then spoke to me after.
They have no idea whether the driver's wife has paid any money to anyone. They will be investigating this further in the next few days.
They have also advised me to pay the hospital some money. Even though my contract states i have 6 months to pay them even 1 cent, my lawyer said that our case would be better if i paid them something, and we got a signature from them with a receipt...

So, all in all, nothing really positive to take away from this visit.
Apparently my lawyers are having talks with the insurance company next week, but i was told last week, this was happening this week, so i wont hold my breath...

Hopefully the next few days will hold some sort of answers...??

Next turn on this roller coaster ride!

Unbelievable!
Just when you start to think there is some sort of semblance of normality in all this, i have another confusing morning!
The hospital has phoned me a few times in the last week asking for my address here.
I eventually gave them a near enough address, and they managed to track me down this morning...
The same woman who shouted at me in Spanish and waved documents under my nose in the hospital, and her male colleague just finished a half hour visit here.
Everything was conducted in Spanish, which i understood most of anyway.
They were here because they have apparently spoken to Katushka, the drivers wife, yesterday, and she told them that she had given me money to pay the hospital??!
Also, they were here to discuss me giving them a false passport. Apparently they had information that i had a duplicate UK passport???
What the hell?!!
After assuring them my only passport was the one which they had safely locked away in their offices, we moved onto the issue of payment!
She said she gave me the money. She might have meant she gave it to my lawyers to give to me to give to the clinic?
No matter who she gave it to, if she did indeed give it to anyone, i know nothing about this, and have no clue where the money is, or how much it is??
I phoned my lawyer, and after a long time, he phoned back and spoke to the clinics lawyers, arranging to meet them tonight at 5pm at the clinic.
Luckily this ties in with me having arranged a lift to the clinic today to get my plaster cast off, so i will also be there around that time. At least i can chat to my lawyer straight after and see what the hell is going on?!
I spoke with him now on the phone, and obviously asked him where the money was, and what she was talking about?
He said he doesn't know anything about this, and that if she had given money to my lawyers, maybe she gave it to my first lawyers, who still haven't gone away!
This would just create a bloody nightmare situation, because they still want their $4k that they say were the expenses for the 3 weeks i lay in hospital and they didn't lift a finger for me!
Problem is, if they have gotten a payment from her, pretending to still be my lawyers (which technically they still are), then they will probably insist on keeping their $4k out of however much she paid them!
Ah shit man, this is just an ongoing bloody nightmare!
I dont have Katushka's number to speak to her directly, but have left a message for my friend to please get her to contact me urgently so that i can at least know what has happened before i hear anything from anyone later on.
I suppose the only positive i can draw from this is that if she is telling the truth, then a payment has been made, and we can at least try to get the clinic off my back?!
But, as far as a client has a contract with his attorney, they should speak to me before accepting any amount of money from any of my cases, as i am ultimately the one who decides if the offer is good enough!
This is all well messed up again now!
Today should provide some very interesting information...
Stay tuned...!

A week of promise...

Well, after speaking to my lawyer on the weekend, he has told me that this week he is set to sit down with both the insurance company and the driver too.
I am hoping that i will be a little bit closer to wrapping things up by the end of the week, but i have learnt that with this country comes the reality that things take their own time here.
So i wont hold my breath on this one. We'll wait and see...
He did say that in his experience, once we have sat down with them, the cases should get wrapped up soon after, so, like i said, we'll see what gives...?
My mate who has helped me in the past with the trip to the doctor, has just started a new job today, so he wont be around to help me this week to head through to get my cast taken off.
Another mate has a day off on thursday, but doesn't know if he will be able to drive me.
I have 1 more person to call on, otherwise i am not sure how i will get there? It will happen, but maybe not this week then?
I have also decided to start a "Close shave of the week" photo section of the blog, for while i am still here in the DR.
My first "Close shave of the week", you'll find below!

Just a bit of fun to while away the time, and shock anyone that may choose to visit me!
Haha!
I'll be in touch with anymore news as soon as it breaks...