My Surface Hippy Adventure

Day 3 (after Surgery)

This morning after breakfast when I was visiting Joan, Mohan came to get me and said that I must go to the immigration office. He told me to gather our passports and "plane tickets". We could not fin our boarding passes from heathrow to chennai, and we think that dad left them in the London touring book which he left on the plane. I gave Mohan my itinerary and we hoped that would be fine. I did not understand why I was going to this office, as it was not made clear to us. Me and a woman who is originally from London but lives in Dubai (her husband was having surgery at the time) took a car for quite a long distance until we reached the immigration bureau. We waited awhile, and then when I got to the desk the woman asked me to make two piles, one with all of my papers and one with dads. When she saw the papers, she said that the hospital did not include my name on the front page of the packet with the doctors signature, so I would have to have them fix it and come back again. It was on other papers but not that one. I argued and said that I would like to have them do my dads passport today, but she kept saying no and that I should come back on Monday (we'll be at the resort out of the city by then). I tried to move onto the next room, but needed a chip with a number on it in order to do so, so I ended up going back and saying that I just wanted my dads today over and over and that I had to wait for that other lady to catch my ride back anyway..until she gave me a chip. I knew the hospital would not be happy if they sent me there and I didn't come back with anything done. So when my number came up on the screen, I had the man register (or whatever he was doing) just my dad's visa. The slip that he gave me said to come back on July 7th (the day we are leaving). We left and the woman from Dubai said that she was given the same slip but that she is staying longer. When we returned I told Mohan about them giving me trouble and saying that I should come back to register our visas together, and he said that I won't need to get mine registered at all since it is a tourist visa and not a medical visa. I'm glad I got my dad's registered, but the whole thing was confusing. I will still have to go back (I think with my dad when he can) but Mohan is going to get the day moved closer hopefully. After this, the day was normal. It went by pretty quickly, as we just rested, ate, used email, and dad did his physical therapy exercises. He can walk with the regular crutches, but the physical therapist said to only use the walker for today (on his own). He tries to go too fast with the crutches sometimes and occasionally loses his balance when he starts/stops, but otherwise is fine. When Dr. Biz visited Dad had lost track of the time and thought it was two days earlier than it is. He asked him when he was going to be discharged when he found out how long we had been here. He was worried because today is day 5 in the hospital, and usually patients get discharged then, but Dr biz explained that the day of surgery is day 0, so 2 days do not count. It is only technically day 3. I also told dad that it is Friday which means that we have been in India already for about a week! He was very confused (tehehe) so I told him he lost time being knocked up for surgery, slept more than he thought afterwards, and that all of the days here (since they are so similar since we don't do too much) blend in, which is true. Then Mohan brought a couple into our room and asked dad to talk to them about the surgery. The man who was considering surgery was from Illinois and worked in Alabama and was on vacation visiting his family in India. He already had a total hip replacement and is considering extending his vacation in India to get a resurfacing done here. They discusses details, and their main problem by the end of it was the question of insurance coverage, which truly is a pain for many reasons. It would be cheaper for them to cover it here but they don't because of things like.. semi-private rooms aren't available which they cover, but since these are 'private' rooms, no coverage.. and the specific Dr. is not 'in-network' even though Apollo hospital is..etc. Stupid U.S. Anyways, they left and soon after Dr. Bose, Dr. Biz and a nurse came in to do their nightly round and dad whipped out a picture of Dr. Bose as a joke, which no one got to see, since Dr. Bose snatched it and had it folded in his pocket immediately after viewing it. he was laughing - apparently it is an embarrassing picture that a professional photographer whom dad met over the online surface hippy group took during her stay here. Not too much else is new around here - apparently a lot of people here have diahreah (sp?) today so there must have been a problem with the food yesterday. Right now me and dad are watching Mr. Bean as I have been typing this. Will update tomorrow! Thanks for checking the blog and for your comments!

<3Julie

posted by Gary Klein @ 8:08 AM