Practical Advice for prospective Rolle patients

[wangcns]

Hello all,

My husband just finished getting his second thoracotomy with Professor Rolle and I thought I would share some practical tips and advice for other patients. I'm sure this information will change over time, and of course every patient's experience is different, but my hope is that this will be useful for prospective patients to get an idea of how to plan for the trip. For the surgery itself, please see Ivan's wonderfully informative post here: http://cureasps.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... =333#p1319

LAST UPDATED: Dec 1st, 2012

TRAVEL
You want to arrive at DRS or Dresden International Airport. There is no currency exchange counter at Dresden airport (surprising, I know), though there is one at the Dresden train station, so I recommend you change your currency beforehand (at least some, for taxi and food and stuff.) as I found problems using my credit cards/ATM cards in Coswig and around the hospital. The taxi drivers don't speak much English, but they will understand if you say Coswig krankenhaus or show them the address. It's a fairly well-known hospital, so you shouldn't have problems. The ride is roughly 30 minutes, and costs about 30 EU, give or take. Our first taxi driver took credit card, but in my experience it's better to have cash.

We used Lufthansa on our first trip to Germany, Air Berlin on the second. Of the two, Air Berlin was much cheaper for roughly the same level of service, though summer fare is obviously more expensive (our first thoracotomy was in July). The important thing is to make sure they have rebooking options, in the unfortunate event of complications. Last time I checked, almost all airlines charge a standard 250 - 300 USD rebooking fee, unless you buy your ticket off somewhere like Priceline or Orbitz. If you use one of those sites, make sure you read the options very carefully, as some of those discounted airfare sites do not allow for rebooking.

LANGUAGE
If you don't speak German at all, don't worry, you will be fine, if somewhat confused. However, if you can pick up some basic German, I do recommend it, as not many people in east Germany can speak English. If you stay in the tourist-y areas of Dresden you should have no problems, and at the hospital most of the doctors speak English, though this is less true of the nurses. If you walk around Coswig, very few people speak English. If you have any language problems and need someone who speaks English and German, just go see the hospital secretaries Peggy or Sandra. You'll probably have already corresponded with one of them via email if you arranged for this surgery. Professor Rolle and Chief Krassler both speak English well and are very kind.

Not many of the general population nurses speak English (C Ward) though the younger nurses are more likely to, especially the ICU nurses. Karla was the main C Ward nurse that spoke English, though quite a few of the ICU nurses spoke English--one even used to work in a New York hospital!

HOUSING (non-hospital)
Our first time, we arrived a few days early and spent it sightseeing in Dresden. We booked our hotel in the historical district (Altstadt) of Dresden, which is where all the old buildings, museums, castles, etc are so you don't have to worry about getting around town as everything is in walking distance. After Kevin was discharged from the hospital, we returned to Dresden and stayed there for another week or so before flying back home.

I highly recommend using AirBnB, which is what we used on our second trip, as you can rent rooms or even full apartments/condos/houses for cheaper than the average tourist hotel. As I'm typing this, I'm currently staying in a converted farmhouse in Kreischa, about 10 km south of Dresden, for significantly less than the small hotel rooms we paid for in Dresden the first trip. It's less convenient, because we are not in the city center, but since we already did the tourist thing last time, a quiet, comfortable, and spacious place is perfect for rest and recovery for Kevin.

http://www.airbnb.com

Just search under Dresden. It's incredible what you can rent! Just be careful to check location (we didn't check the Kreischa listing carefully enough and didn't realize it was a little farther from Dresden than we wanted) and if you don't speak German, that someone there speaks English so they can help you.

HOUSING (hospital)
As the accompanying party of the patient, you will most likely be accommodated in the dorms on the top floor of the administration building (unless they're full), which is literally across a courtyard from the hospital itself. The room is very serviceable, similar to a dorm room, except with your own bathroom. The hospital gives you towels and once a week a cleaning lady gives you fresh ones. If you need anything else, you can ask the front desk (though most of the receptionists don't speak English) or ask the secretaries. I blew the circuit in my room accidentally and my bed broke and I locked myself out, and I still managed to work it out with the receptionist, between my bad German and their bad English.

There is a small kitchen that comes equipped with the basic essentials: silverware, cups, plates, some pots and pans. Depending on who stayed there last, there are sometimes condiment like salt, pepper, and sugar, but you may have to buy your own at the Kaufland supermarket, which is just down the street a couple blocks from the hospital.

FOOD
You can eat a hot meal at the hospital Monday through Friday, between 12:00pm to 1:30pm at the cafeteria. The cafeteria is closed on weekends. It was confusing to find this place at first, but it's in the building to your right as you exit the dorm room building. It's confusing because it's up a flight of stairs, but if you go around noon, just follow the other nurses and doctors who are also going for lunch. Meals here are very affordable, between 3 EU and 6 EU.

The cafe, which is in the actual hospital building, has different hours.

Mon - Fri: 8 - 10a, 2 - 6p
Weekends: 2 - 6p

The cafe offers pre-made sandwiches, sometimes cakes, and always beefsteak, bratwurst, and bread as meal staples. You can also order ice cream, hot chocolate, coffee, etc. If you arrive too late (like I usually do, 10 min before they close) the good stuff is almost always gone. In the morning, they have fresh bread and boiled eggs.

You can pick up almost anything you need at the Kaufland supermarket, unless it's really specialty food. In the parking lot of Kaufland, there's an Asian foodstand that makes chop suey, stir fry, etc. Pretty cheap too, under 6 EU. The guy doesn't speak English, but you can point or write it down. I've also seen a bakery truck there also, though there is also a bakery inside the Kaufland. If you venture into Coswig proper, there are also several food places (a Turkish doner/pizza place, more bakeries, a Chinese restaurant, etc.) but these are farther off and require a little exploring to find. Oh, and bring a euro for the shopping carts if you plan to use one. You need it to unlock a cart, but you'll get it back when you return it. I recommend bringing a bag with you to carry groceries in, though they sell them at the store as well. (not free like US supermarkets)

TIMING
This is a much more subjective topic and is dependent on the individual patient's preferences, so I'll just share what we did and our thoughts.

1st trip:
First few days spent sightseeing in Dresden
Checked into hospital on Monday, spent a day or two doing tests, surgery on Thursday
Several days in ICU immediately after surgery, before being transferred to Ward C (general population)
Checked out of hospital, total of 14 days elapsed between date of surgery and check-out date
Stayed at a hotel in Dresden for about a week before flying home

Verdict: Flying back was very painful for Kevin, we decided next time to check into the hospital directly and spend more time recovering before flying home

2nd trip:
Checked in immediately to the hospital upon arrival at Dresden Airport
Surgery followed after a day of tests
Hospital said Kevin was doing well and could be discharged early, but we stayed the same length of time so Kevin could take advantage of the rehabilitation and physical therapy
Checked out of hospital, again total of 14 days elapsed between date of surgery and check-out date
Currently staying at converted country farmhouse, plan is to stay another two weeks and then fly back home

Verdict: Too soon to say, but already this time feels easier (maybe because we've already done this before? Also, it's not as hot!) and the extra time to rest and recover feels like the right thing to do.

OPINION
In general, don't be afraid to speak up about what you need and don't let the language barrier overwhelm you. For whatever reason, they seem to expect you to be able to speak and understand German, especially some of the older nurses, and they treated us a little mean when we couldn't, but you're paying good money to the hospital for a very serious surgery, so don't be afraid to be firm, even if they don't speak English and pretend like they don't understand you. We didn't understand that the first time and when Kevin was in pain and asked for painkillers or more sleeping meds and the nurse said no or pretended not to understand, or said the doctor said no, we let them boss us around instead of speaking up. This time, we were very firm and found we had a much better experience. I also heard the nurses in C Ward were audited recently, and were told they needed to be more understanding toward patients, so that might also account for the improved experience. They are actually very nice people, especially one of the nurses named Karla, but I think they get a little carried away with the bossy nurse thing sometimes and the language barrier makes it easier for them to ignore you.

That's it for now, I may edit this post as I think of other things. I hope this is useful for others!

[Olga]

Connie, these are all the good points and very insightful of you to speak of the language barrier. I want to add a few tips as well:
Travel:
When traveling back, it is still soon after the lung surgery and amount of the walking that needs to be done at the Frankfurt airport is significant (when changing the flights from the domestic to international part of the trip). You can request an assistance at the Frankfurt airport, when you are checking in at the airport's counter in Dresden. They would meet you when exiting a plane at the Frankfurt airport and ride you on electrical cart trough the EU/overseas transit zone that includes the customs and passport control zones with no waiting in lines (that could be very long and tiring for the patient after the surgery). Just tell them that you are a patient traveling after the major surgery (but do not mention that it was a lung surgery as apparently by the regulations the patient can not fly within 2 weeks after the last airleak detected).
Food:
make sure to stock up some food for the caregiver for the surgery day and the first day after it, make some sandwiches when going to ICU to visit the patient. Technically they do not need any help at the ICU and caregiver might not go there and have a lot of time to spare for the food but practically I would stuck at the hospital with nothing to eat or to tired to go somewhere, so I ate whatever I had in the fridge at the common kitchen at the dorm where I lived or in the small fridge at the postsurgical floor after the patient transferred from the ICU there. There are some snacks at the small kitchen at the postsurgical floor in case the patient is hungry after the meal hours. Their meal service hours are very different from what we usually have here - everything is very early, the breakfast, the lunch and dinner.
Attitude issues:
Doctors and nurses in Germany are very bossy. it is the typical nurses and doctors attitude in Germany - they are in charge and are bosses there and their main focus is not about the service but about the treating the patient. Despite them being over confident, If you feel that something is not going on well there, just ask to call Dr.Rolle or Dr.Krassler, or ask if they are going to do rounds so you could address the issue, but if there is something not right - do not wait. You have to be your own best advocate.