My Friend, the Knee

The appointment with the orthopedic doctor was at 9:00 this morning. With MRI and previous xray in hand, we took a remise to San Isidro to the Clínica Angelus where Dr. Ottonello works. His assumption was correct, it is a torn miniscus. The strain of lifting the heavy box along with some arthritis in the knee caused the problem. It will not heal itself. However, left untouched the pain would probably go away, but he could have reoccurring problems in the future. Not wanting to baby the leg for another 13 months, and not wanting to worry about it all the time, he decided to get it fixed. So, next Monday, August 10, Rich will have orthoscopic surgery to cut the torn piece away and smooth it out, and do whatever they do with this type of injury.

We really like the doctor and have confidence in his ability. He works on all types of sport related injuries on athletes and says this surgery is simple and effective. He speaks pretty good English and refers to the knee as "My friend, the knee". He was pleased that we wanted to take a photo. He said no other patient has ever asked to take his picture. He wants us to email him the picture so he can show his children. He was glad he was in his official doctor attire.

Tomorrow morning, we return to the clinic to have blood work done which converted from pesos to dollars is $10.75, and an Echocardiogram which is $25.60. Can you believe that?? No way would it be that cheap in the states. The surgery will be around $2400, however. It is outpatient surgery, and will last somewhere around an hour to complete. He will use crutches for a couple of days to steady his walking and take the pressure off the knee, but after that it should progressively feel better. Rich has always worried about his back because it gives him fits sometimes when he does something that tires it out. He has never given his legs or knees a thought.

Upon checking out at the clinic today and getting further instructions, we found ourselves waiting in a line to find out how much the surgery was going to be. That took about 45 minutes. Unbelievable!! We have to pay in cash, they won't take a debit card. So we need to figure out how to get $2400 in pesos by Monday. The ATM's only give so much at a time. This could take us all week to collect that amount.

We had to call Deseret Mutual, the church's insurance that we had to take out before coming on the mission. We needed a pre-authorization for the surgery. When she asked how the injury happened, Elder Kroff told her he was lifting a box of copies of the Book of Mormon. She said it sounded like it was for a worthy cause. We are to pay up front for the surgery and all related costs, and then get reimbursed after they take the $375 deductible off. Then they pay 80% of the costs, and we pay 20%. Who would have ever thought we would have to experience surgery in a foreign country. Hope all goes well. It should.

We returned to the office around noon and played catch up all afternoon. I started the packets for the missionaries who are leaving, and did other odds and ends. I don't know what Elder Kroff did. But, we did leave earlier than usual, around 4:30, because we needed to go home to call the insurance, and then Rich needed to pay some facturas. They are utility bills that come to the office for some of the missionary apartments that are not on an automatic withdrawal.

Here in Argentina, there are places around where one can go to pay his bills. They have tellers in glassed-in stations who accept the money for the bills. However, if a bill is past due, they will not let you pay it. You have to go to the business itself and pay there. I guess they want to shake their finger at the late payers. Who knows! It is a strange system and so frustrating. Sometimes when we have received a bill in the mail, the past due date is only two days away. Some businesses will add that missed payment onto the next month's bill, but some make it more difficult.

Anyway, we went walking in the early evening to find the Pago Rapido place. Then we went to find a computer store where we could buy some blank DVD's that Rich needed. That was a successful find.

On the way back home, we spotted this little guy with horse and carriage picking up discarded cardboard. Rich had seen him once before in this area and was kicking himself that he didn't have his camera with him that time. He was hoping he would see him again. Well, tonight we were in luck. We asked if we could take his picture. Then, in thanking him and talking to him for a minute, he saw our badges and asked if we attended church in San Fernando or Tigre. Why would he know anything about Tigre's church? So Rich asked him, and he said he was a member of the church, and goes to that branch. Really!!! Rich told him that we go there too and that we hadn't seen him at church. He said his wife is ill and he doesn't get there very often. Rich told him he teaches the Sunday School class and he would like to see him come to his class. He said he would try to make it on Sunday. It is interesting to see what people do to earn money.

We ate Taco's for dinner and then in cleaning up, I reminded Rich to call and order a remise for tomorrow morning. We need to leave at 7:30 to go back to the clinic for the tests. In talking about that, it dawned on us that we were out of money, and we would have to pay for the blood work and Echocardiogram tomorrow, and for the remise. Where to get some at this hour? Our favorite place to draw out money is Disco, but their machine has been out of order for at least a month or more. So we racked our brains to think of somewhere close we could go to get some plata. The only place I could think of is over in front of the hospital that is a block from our office. There is a little booth there that has an ATM machine in it. We decided to walk over there and see if we could get enough for tomorrow's bills. There are always people roaming around there hanging out, or going and coming from this hospital. In some ways that's good because there is a lot of traffic in the area. But, if someone saw us drawing money out, we could be followed and possibly robbed. We decided to take out just enough to cover tomorrow's expenses. All went well and we arrived home safely.