So our darling youngest child – yes I call him my youngest even though he is only the youngest by about 5 minutes – anyway back to the story, my darling youngest child decided that after only living in Germany for 5 months he wanted us to get to know the medical system just a little bit better and in the midst of a Global Corona pandemic no less. Our boys still do not have their own bicycles but play with the children in the street and they swop there skateboards for chances on the neighbors bicycles. On Saturday Günther decided it would be fun to ride a balance bike down a hill – he got a speed wobble and decided that stopping by flying over his handle bars was more effective than putting his feet down to stop.  Needless to say he used his hands to break his fall and broke his right wrist in 2 places – luckily he was actually wearing a helmet so we didn’t have to deal with a head injury. We did not know on Saturday that his wrist was actually broken – I suspected that it might be – but seeing that it was a Saturday afternoon and we were in a foreign country – and we didn’t  know what to do in an emergency, we opted for the head in the sand approach. We put some arnica on, wrapped it up and gave him a dose of anti-inflammatory medication. On Sunday it wasn’t looking any better but again not actually knowing where we are suppose to take the poor child in an emergency we decided to wait till Monday and take him to the Kinderartz (Pediatrician).  Because of the Corona virus it was a little bit different to our usual visit to the Kinderartz but was still fairly painless – we get the safety first vibe so we good with that – we arrived at 8 am and they put Günther in a room to be seen by the doctor straight away – after confirming that it did in fact look broken she gave us a referral to an Orthopedic surgeons offices for x-rays. Off we went to their offices and again a few extra hygiene measures in place (hand sanitizer/social distance etc) we were seen to quite quickly. The nurse came and did the x-rays, then we waited to see the Doctor, he confirmed that his wrist was broken in 2 places and he instructed the nurse on what to do and told us to come back next week for a check-up and then the nurse put the cast bandage thing on Günther’s arm.  And we were sent home.

We interrupt this blog with an insert from my husband. His version of the story: my son broke his arm falling off a bike – we went to the doctor – 2 hours later we were home – the end. (he doesn’t get the process)

Considering this the second time that G has broken his arm we have something to compare our experience too.  This experience was very pleasant. It was efficient and professional and quite painless.  Best of all there was not even one discussion about money – it’s just covered. It was amazing not to have to try figure out where we are going to get money to pay for the x-rays if he isn’t admitted to hospital because despite medical aid in South Africa you still have to fork out a fortune when there is an emergency or you need x-rays, scans etc. You can’t really portray the stress this can causes on a family and the relief knowing that from now on as long as we are living in Germany the financial side of all things medically related, especially with the children, is just taken care of – that is just priceless. Don’t get me wrong it is not free – Martin pays a contribution of his salary to our chosen ‘state medical aid’  but it is minimal compared to what we paid in South Africa and everything is covered, there are no co-payments and there is not a savings account that can run out etc.

By the time I got home I was emotional drained but more from the stress of the unknown than the actual medical process – the whole experience was just better than last time. Yes the circumstances surrounding it were different too but I do believe that Germany has the whole process well oiled and we felt looked after which I guess counts for a whole bunch. 

I am grateful that although it did mean Günther had to spend 2 days with a broken arm before treatment because we weren’t sure what to do, I am grateful that the first medical emergency wasn’t worse. And after speaking to the Kinderartz we now know exactly what to do should we have another emergency over a weekend. Here is hoping this was the one and only time though….a girl can hope can’t she? Till next time.