Injury
The injury I had during training was mainly ripping open a finger to the bone on my left hand. I also bruised some ribs, but those injuries are internal and merely bothersome rather than debilitating. After the accident had occurred I had to cancel my travel plans and re-book the flights and hotels. British airways was very accommodating and asked for some of the medical documents, which I supplied, and then allowed me to cancel the booking and re-book at a later time without charging me change fees. This was welcome news, as I’d gotten a cheap ticket which didn’t allow for rebooking without very steep fees.
Healing
I had contracted COVID-19 (for the first time) during an on-site business meeting and was in self-imposed isolation at home when the time came around to have my sutures removed. Fortunately, I’m not squeamish and had the necessary equipment in my medical bag (I’ve also got a suturing kit in there, just in case). So I removed the sutures and put on the steri-strips that can be seen in the image above. The cheap suture removal kit in the sealed plastic enclosure was cheap and the curved scalpel was so dull that I ended up using the scissors instead.
Travel Plans
I didn’t want to travel to the tropics with a somewhat open wound, so I waited until the hand had scabbed before calling British Airways to rebook my flight to Antigua.
The people at the service desk told me that I couldn’t rebook until I’d sent them a “fit-to-fly” document signed by a doctor. This posed some big problems for me.
Although the medical care system in Germany is very good, it is a “system” and has quite specific rules. First and foremost, everyone has a “home doctor” and all medical care, apart from emergencies, must be initiated or signed off by “your” doctor. Currently most doctors have too many patients already and don’t accept new ones. Those that do have a waiting list measured in months. As I don’t have such a doctor I gave up after calling about 10 local offices and getting the brush off from all of them. I can’t go to an emergency room to get this sign-off, either.
In the end I got a “fit-to-fly” document put together, thanks in part to Photoshop and how-to Youtube videos. I sent this document to the appropriate e-mail address and was told I’d get an answer within 2 days. By now my next departure date was approaching and I only had a week of time. After 3 days I called, and got the run-around from British Airways. Then 2 days later (yesterday) I called again and despite another attempt at run-around I finally got them to admit they had the document and after another hour on the phone I finally had confirmation that I could fly.
Flight rebooking
But my flight had now filled up and they had no seats available on that flight. So much to my chagrin, instead of flying in 2 days I need to wait yet another week before escaping the snow here.
At least the flight is now confirmed, and I’ve rebooked my connecting flight and hotel and rental car, and train ticket.