What to expect in Germany...

[jessmith07]

Hello to all...there are two of us who will be traveling to Germany for surgery with Dr. B on May 26th, and I thought I'd open this new thread to ask for anyone's advise on what we need to bring with us, and what we can expect in Germany that might be different in the States. Thank you.

[treefrog]

Thanks for starting this thread Jess. There are a lot of great people here, who went to Germany for their surgery. I'm sure people will give us some good advice.

[steve55]

I cant think of anything in particular. I was sure glad I brought some twix bars cause they really carried my hunger over real well , the hospital food is pretty plain and lean. Mmmm, if you are a reader, bring your books. I will say one thing that bothered me the most. Ya see, they will put you in intensive care for 24 hours after surgery, and your mouth will be very dry. I was always needing to sit up to reach for my water on the tray above me and I hated it cause I was afraid of messing up my surgery and I was sort of entangled in IV's and such. Looking back, I should have just kept the glass of water next to me so I wouldnt have to get up and reach for it every 20 minutes. They have no ice to suck on either, which would have been best. It may sound trivial, but it drove me nuts. I had my surgery done in bogen, I enjoyed it there even though there is nothing much to do there in the hospital and only saw a few patients so not much socializing to do either . I think the Straumbing hospital may be larger and bigger, maybe more patients to talk to? I enjoyed the view from my hospital room at bogen, there was snow then and I saw reindeer alot. The cool evening/morning air felt great. I have fond memories of my time there, even though it was pretty boring.

Sorry I couldnt really suggest what to bring. Oh, I can say that at bogen, they did provide towels, shampoo and soap. But Im sure most people prefer to bring their own from home. Overall, Id say bring your own snacks, cause like I said, the food is not good at all and you will get hungry at night.

Good luck!

[SandyW]

I would suggest taking your own pillow, not only for the flight but for the hospital.

I was at St Elisabeth in Straubing and they did give me ice chips after a little tiff . They said ice chips were dirty and they were not a hotel. I believe the chips come from the cafeteria, used in drinks. They have them so if you want them, be firm.

I would suggest that you have your friend stay overnight, at least for the first night you're out of intensive care, longer if they are willing. It's not very expensive. Once you leave intensive care you are not connected to a monitor for BP, heart rate, etc., and the nurses expect your family to take care of you in most cases. I had an unfortunate incident of being over medicated. If my husband had not noticed my irregular breathing and blue extremeties, I would have drifted off to heaven - hopefully! No major problem with this for me at least, the pink bubblegum clouds on the ceiling were neat - wasn't happy about them making me sit up and answer questions , couldn't see the clouds.

If you are taking a laptop, you can sign up with Skype (can do this before you leave, may need PayPal?) which will allow you to call home for about a penny a minute AND if you know how to use the video part, you can see the person your calling and they can see you. I prepaid $10 and still had around $3 left when I got home. It was funny, people didn't want to talk long cause they thought it was costing a lot of $$'s, but for under $1 you can talk for a whole hour!!!! Mark gave me this little tip, thanks, it was so easy!

Can't think of anything else right now. May God bless you and all those who will be taking care of you, especially Dr. B.

Sandy

[treefrog]

I thought of some things that might be helpful, both for the hospital, but also for the flight.

Ear plugs and an eye mask (for sleeping).
Undershirt to wear under the brace.
Sundress or similar, might be easier with something that just slips over your head or buttons up the front, than to try and get pants/shorts on. I think the weather might be nice enough for this.
Button up pajamas.
iPod.
Laptop and movies.
Of course power converter and plug adapter's (I am planning on bringing at least two).

Jess, unless you are requesting a private room, do you want to see if we could be assigned the same room? At least we would have each other to socialize with.

Oh, and my boyfriend (Bob) was wondering if your husband was coming with you? From one of your posts it sounded like he was. Bob wanted to see if he would have a drinking buddy .

I just sent an email asking about room availability at the Hotel Theresientor. Do you know where you will be staying?

[treefrog]

Sandy, if you take your own pillow, how to they handle that on the plane? I mean as far as allowing a limited number of items to be brought on board? Do they give you a hard time, or do they consider that one of your personal items?

My pillow is a king-size down pillow, which I would love to bring with me, but it is large, although it can compact down a little bit.

[jessmith07]

That sounds like a great idea, Cathy! As for my husband, he'll be there the first couple of days, but then he has to go back to Paris and work. I'm okay with it, because it's only a little over an hour by plane, and he can get right back if he needs to, and I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll email Tim V. and see if they can book us together...

I just sent you a private message with my contact info.

[SandyW]

Cathy,

It was not a problem, nothing was said so believe they are not considered a counted carry on. I know others have taken their own pillows.

Wow, both of you at the same time! How nice. Even nicer if someone speaks a little German, since their website says English is not a problem. The doctors speak and understand, no problems there, but the hospital staff, nurses included aren't at all fluent. The cafeteria ladies finally understood my husband's request for two beers to go (didn't want to leave me alone) and called him "the two beer guy!" After leaving the hospital saw one of them while walking and of course, she said "the two. . . "

We stayed at the Hotel T before surgery, but moved to the Roemerhof during surgery. Eckard, proprietor, and staff were so helpful. They sent me soft foods while in hospital, couldn't get hospital staff to understand what I wanted, they fixed me fresh strawberries for breakfast, (hubby got at Aldees sp? a grocery store close to the Roemerhof), it was really close to hospital as well and the most important thing for me - Eckard is a friend of Dr. FM so when I had trouble contacting her thru the hospital for a med change, he called her and she immediately called me back and changed my meds. They also have a very nice restaurant in the lower level of the hotel.

If you stay very long after surgery, you might want to move back to the Hotel T or some other hotel that's downtown. We had rented a car, so we chose to stay at the Roemerhof. If you're feeling good, you wouldn't want to miss being in the town square, sitting on the street and observing the locals (and their dogs, they're allowed in the restaurants) while enjoying the German beer and shopping. Oh, don't miss the gellato place just several doors from the Hotel T.

Sorry for all the useless suggestions, but I think every little bit helps. Oh, there is an indoor pool close to downtown that my husband enjoyed for some exercise.

Sandy

[treefrog]

Yes, I was planning on just staying at the Hotel Theresientor the entire time (well, I will be in the hospital, but Bob will have the room). Bob likes to lift weights, and they have access to a gym that looks to be pretty close to the hotel.

I don't really want to switch hotels. Bob really makes himself at home, and having to get him organized and packed up again, in the middle of the trip....well I think it would just be easier to be in one place.

Is it difficult to get a taxi, particularly for Bob coming to the hospital every day? I wasn't planning on renting a car.

[dshobbies]

Clothes to wear in hospital, and out.
Shoes easy to put on and off.
DVD player & movies (no English TV except CNN), and perhaps earphones
all prescription meds, presumed post-op meds (see your pm before you leave)
Your preferred extra strength laxative. A lot of it.

computer - skype is free is both users have accounts. Signing up is free so sign up before you leave and talk all you want at no cost (computer to computer) If your computer plays DVD's forget the DVD player.

Do not bring cash or travelers checks . The stores, restaurants, don't accept them(Hotel Therisientor(sp) did. Do bring your ATM card. There are places to get Euros. Some might accept charge cards.

When you get home;

Raised toilet seat
reachers or grabbers

Post more as I think of it, good luck to both of you and everyone else,
Dale

[chasswen]

atm card must be 4 numbers
use bank of America for atm and if you use desute bank no fees.
we took two diff bank cards.
only place visa and mastercard work is the hotels and dr b
dvds and portable dvd player.
power converter at least 2
rent a cell phone over there and all in coming calls are free.
tell anyone whom may call you there to call the phone company about international calling as verizon for 4 buck a month makes the calls only 10 cent a min vs 1.00
when i think of more ill add to this.
chuck
p/s credit cards and bank companys must be called 1 week before travel so they know you will be in germany. visa,mastercard and ATM cards

[jessmith07]

Whenever my husband travels overseas, I use prepaid calling cards from a website called Nobelcom (Phone Cards and International Calling Cards from NobelCom). I can call France for about 2 cents per minute from the States, and I'm sure the rates to Germany are just as reasonable...the rates are a little more in the reverse, but still much cheaper than international cell phone plans charge.

[treefrog]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good power converter, they like?

[fuzzy]

What are you trying to convert??

Laptop computers tend to come with powersupplies that don't need converters. All you need as a plug to put on the end of the powercable to fit the euro plugs. Check the powerbrick to see if it says 110-230 volts (most do). Easiest way to buy the plug is at the airport. Another way is to buy the whole cable in germany (harder to do). Radioshack used to carry these but don't know about these days.

Portable DVD player? Runs on batts? Cell phone, make sure it works to begin with (might be pricy). Or buy a quadband gsm phone (cheap on ebay) and then over in germany a prepaid sim card to put into the phone The t mobile ones work great. Check the phone charger again for 120-230 volts. Mine work, I got 2 cheap phones for germany, chargers work fine, I had one in hospital and my wife had the other phone. They do make some actual little electronic converter thingies but me travelling over there all the time never need them. One place to try might be amazon.com or at the airport.

Tell me what you have and I can figure it out.

[chasswen]

radio shack i believe still sells them.

[treefrog]

Thanks so much for this information. I did just check my laptop adapters (I have two, one is for travel with car and airplane plugs too, as well as a number of different plugs - none for Europe though), but yes they do say 100-240VAC. So, for that I would just need to purchase plug adapters, so they plug into the German outlets, is that correct?

I'm not sure about our phones yet. I know I was able to use my phone when I was in Belize, though it was expensive. But I would like to have converters for charging our iPod's at the very least. I don't think we will be bringing many other electronics.

[dshobbies]

Most luggage stores sell travel converters as well as other travel necessities. I think Brookstone also sells these things???

[fuzzy]

The answer to the plug is "yes".

[fuzzy]

oops hit enter too soon.

The apple ipod power cube (the litte white square thing you plug into outlet) is also rated for world power and actually came with different adapters form apple. Very slick. If you don't have this its $30 or so from apple. Also the ipods charge right of the usb on the computer. If you usually don't charge this way make sure you have "auto sync" turned of in "itunes" before you plug it in (!).

[treefrog]

Good point Fuzzy, we do charge our iPods through our computers, with USB.

So, I need power converters for our cell phones, if we bring them. And my camera batteries. Though I have two batteries, and it is highly probable that I wouldn't even need to re-charge these batteries, they do last for quite a while.

I think I took over 600 pictures in Belize and I don't remember use more than the two batteries that I had (or re-charging them). And since I will be spending a good portion of my time in the hospital, I don't think we will be taking as many pictures in Germany.

We are going to a small outlet mall today, called the Airport mall since it is close to the airport. They have two travel stores, which I hope will have some converters and plug adapters. I also want to get one of the neck pillows for the plane.

[dridobits]

I think I posted in What to expect in Germany something like "things I have learned in travel". There are some things that may be of interest in this post to you. by dridobits. I wish you all the very very best in your upcoming trip and surgery.

[fuzzy]

My 2 motorola phones plug into Germany without power converter, check the little power supply, again 110-240.

My camera batteries also last forever. They will last much longer if you don't look at the pictures a lot. Download the pics into the puter (or plug the chip into puter) and leave the cam turned off. i don't take chargers for my cams but take spare bat unless I plan on lots of pics (jobsites, travel etc).

[Cheryl]

DVD's were great for me. A friend gave me the entire Sex and the City Series and I watched all of it. The only english channel was news and I didn't feel like reading.

[treefrog]

Cheryl, did you stay at hotel Theresientor? Did you use the DVD player that was provided by the hotel? That would tell me if they are rated for playing N. American DVD's. Thanks.