News...of the good kind...!

Finally, today, i got a call from my lawyers, to say that they had some good news for me!
They were in court for another case today, and they phoned the insurance company again to try set a date to sit down with them.
The insurance company were evasive as usual, so my lawyers did a bit of threatening to try get them to meet with us. They agreed that we could set up a meeting within the next week!
Then, the driver's lawyers contacted us as well, and said that they were willing to meet all of my medical expenses since leaving the hospital if the insurance payout wasn't enough to cover everything.
This is a start at least! Definitely good news.
The best news of all, is that my doubts over my lawyers can be put to rest.
With a lot of time on my hands, and not many answers to questions over the last 3 weeks, it has been difficult to stay positive about events, so it is reassuring to know that i do still have someone on my side out here!
But, i wont get too excited just yet. I have had good news in the past, and nothing has come from it, so i will wait and see what the next week holds in store.
I feel like i have said those few words a lot over the last 3 months..."wait and see..."
Hopefully we have reached a turning point in all this now?
Exercises are going well.
My ankle is 60-70% back to normal already, after only a few days out of the cast. All the constant moving it around when i had the cast on has definitely helped.
If anyone reading this wants a hint, do as many small little rotations inside the cast as you can. I was constantly doing this for the 3 months i had mine on. The movement was small, but has made a difference i think.
Still moisturizing my foot every day too. The skin is still new, and dries out within a day if not treated.
Soft too. Gonna have to toughen up a lot before i can walk comfortably again one day.
Well, thats all for now...

The waiting game...

Yesterday morning i got a call from the lawyers.
They have been very busy the last week so they couldn't get chance to speak to me...
According to them no-one wants to talk to us at the moment. As in, neither the insurance company or the drivers lawyers.
Apparently we need to make the case with the insurance company first because we need to know how much they will pay us before we can recover the difference from the driver's case.
So, it is still a waiting game...
I have contacted South African Airlines and asked them to please postpone my trip back home by a month. I hope that they will be able to do this for me...
Looks like i am stuck here for the foreseeable future.
I suppose there could be worse places to be stuck huh? Caribbean...doesn't sound bad.
Just wish the circumstances were different.
Anyway, we blessed with sunshine every day of the year here, so, from this week i will be heading to the beach in the afternoons with a friend, to get some sun-tanning done.
It'll be a nice bit of practice on the crutches too every day!

For those interested in my exercise regime, I am now doing 2x sets of 25 dips in the wheelchair, followed by a final set of as many as i can. Around 40-50. Repeated morning and evening.
Also still doing a set of 30 raises with the 5kg water weight on my right leg twice a day.
Also been doing 30-50 situps each evening before bed.
Flexing my ankle throughout the day as much as i can. It does get sore after a while, so i need to take a break before carrying on.
For my knee, i am sitting in the wheelchair, and trying to put my left foot flat on the floor. At the moment, I can only just manage this. With my right leg, I am putting it over my left leg and pulling it into a bent position as much as i can. Doing this twice a day, morning and evening. While my knee is bent at its maximum, I am massaging the muscle around the knee, and also the quad area.
Sundays is my day off from exercise to give my muscles a rest.

Home improvement!

Well, 4 days on, and nothing much has changed...
I haven't heard anything from the lawyers this week yet, and the week is half way through.
Obviously some extremely important news that needed be told??
I did try yesterday to get hold of them, but they didn't get back to me yet...very strange behaviour?
I was waiting on my doctor to let me know whether i could get the cast off as well, but no answer there either...
Good news is that on monday i got myself a pair of crutches.
Monday night i headed out, my first "walk" in over 3 months!

It felt great to be in the upright position again!
The crutches did cause some bruising under my armpits, but this is totally normal. After a while i will get used to this. Also my forearms got tired real quick, but this too is normal, as i am using muscles that i haven't used in months.
Today, after another newsless day from the specialist in SA, i decided to take matters into my own hands.

Cast Removal 101 :

I think it went pretty well, and can safely say to anyone in the same situation, this can be done by yourself in just a few hours.
My leg was pretty dirty inside, but mainly from dead skin, as you can see in the photo's.
With the lack of movement, obviously blood flow has been restricted, and as such all the skin has died.
But i cleaned my leg up ok with some soap and water, and after, some surgical alcohol to protect it from bacteria. I also rubbed some moisturizer into my foot where i had removed all the dead skin.

Exercises are still going well. My upper body is getting nice and strong now. Just the fat around my waist to cardio off when the opportunity arises!
My ankle is really stiff after 3 months, so i am doing slow rotations of the ankle, and flexing up and down. So we will see how that goes...

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