Saturday, May 8, 2010

Bedridden in Greece

Sadly, Greece has not been good for me. Though I can't blame the country. I've been here for two days now and all I've seen is my hostel and the hospital.




Yep, that's me, lying on a gurney in a hospital in Athens.

Five or six days ago I noticed a minor pain in my right leg. It was a throbbing pain located around my hip/thigh/buttocks area. I didn't worry too much about it at the time because it was minor, I assumed it was a sore muscle and would get better with time. Unfortunately every day it just kept getting a little worse.

Until finally I realized that it wasn't getting better and it was shockingly similar to the back pain I felt that time I needed to be airlifted off Lahaina Pali--only this time I was still somewhat ambulatory. Basically the pain starts in my lower right back and radiates straight down my right leg into my foot. I can barely stand up from a lying position. Standing and sitting are excruciating. I can walk small distances by hobbling as if my right leg is dead. Basically, at this point, the only time I'm in very little pain (never pain free, though) is when I'm lying down.

So I finally decided I just can't walk it off anymore, and I should seek medical help. We found out how to get to the hospital (a ten euro taxi), then did a lot of waiting, got an x-ray (by the way, Greece has socialized medicine, so the whole thing only cost me 8 euros for the x-ray plus the cab fare), saw the doctor, was diagnosed with a herniated disc in my spine which is causing ciatica (pressure on the ciatic nerve which is what is causing the pain), and prescribed anti-inflamatories and seven to ten days of bed rest.

So I'm stuck here, using seven to ten of my Eurail days laying in a bed in a hostel. I'm in Greece, a country I've always wanted to see and explore, and I'm fraking bed-ridden.

Sorry about the self-pity, but I'm pretty bummed right now.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Μάγερ,Athens,Greece

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