Jane & Rog’s Eastwards Coddiwomple

Coddiwompling day 3, Bad Karlshafen to Badsalzungen

The day started with the sound of geese honking as Flynn chased them back into the river and bells ringing - nothing to do with us - across the river from Bad Karlshafen town.



Ding dong matron​

Wednesday is the start (and end before you get in any way sympathetic) of my working week. I do a bit of “leadership coaching” which intrudes into the week but is well paid enough not to kill. Today I had two calls: 10am and 2pm, we planned around them. First, over the bridge into town for coffee and fleishbuns for breakfast. A fleishbun is like cheese on toast except the cheese is meat and it’s not been anywhere near the grill. Yum. Sadly the coffee at Krome’s Backstube was less delicious.

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Meat! On Bread!​

Whilst I was speaking to London jane visited the Huguenot museum to reconnect with her ancestral Frenchness. Flynn engaged himself with a staring competition with next door’s displeased moggie; obviously a James Bond extra.

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No Mr Flynn, I expect you to Die! Bwahahahahah.​

After the calls, we broke camp and set off for a brief stop at Wartburg castle for jane to tourist, me to have my second call and Flynn to complain about the lack of impromptu chicken lunches so far this holiday.

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Mad castle interior view #6​
After the second call we set off for our next night’s stop: Bad Salzungen with its (semi) famous Ratskeller. I was particularly keen on this because I’m a creature of habit and my bratwurst habit had not been serviced yet. Jane also needed a large helping of pork - ideally a knuckle.

The stellplats at Bad Salzungen is a thing. It’s modern, well laid out, friendly and quite pretty to look at. Behind it, there’s a huge field owned by the local dog training club (speciality subservience!) where dogs can chase mice to their hearts content. The town is the same except it’s not modern and it’s mainly closed on Wednesday and at first glance rodent free. Oh, and the Raskeller is now an Italian restaurant!

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A photo of your van parked last night​
We had a choice of about three restaurants that weren’t Italian or closed. We settled on the Zur Nappe which was participating in the local Asparagus festival. Jane opted for double (soup then salmon noodles). I tried (but failed) to fulfill my sausagey destiny by randomly ordering things that sounded like they might contain cylindrical meat products: mystrychfleisch unter grillkäiser followed by bacönkartoffle in grosserömelette. It was good but definitely not sausage. Still, the beer came in a great mug and the owner was very forgiving of our crappy German skills so all in all a good night.

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Honestly, it says Boniface​

Codiwomple rating: as beefy as the breakfast bread.
 
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A Weber A fracture in my left ankle. Blame it on a German pothole and over loose walking boots. The German A&E were excellent but have told me I have to wear the ankle support for 4 weeks, use crutches, and inject my stomach with an anti-coagulate every day for 4 weeks too.

Looking at the NHS advice, this seems overkill - they mention weight bearing as soon as there is no pain, and don’t mention the anti-coagulant injections.

Any medical professionals on here? I need to decide whether to carry on or go home, and if i thought I could bear weight sooner, I’d be more likely to carry on.
 
Oh no! That doesn’t look good.

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Jane And Rog said:
A Weber A fracture in my left ankle. Blame it on a German pothole and over loose walking boots. The German A&E were excellent but have told me I have to wear the ankle support for 4 weeks, use crutches, and inject my stomach with an anti-coagulate every day for 4 weeks too.

Looking at the NHS advice, this seems overkill - they mention weight bearing as soon as there is no pain, and don’t mention the anti-coagulant injections.

Any medical professionals on here? I need to decide whether to carry on or go home, and if i thought I could bear weight sooner, I’d be more likely to carry on.
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This NHS page suggests you should start walking normally as soon as possible and you may not need crutches. It does say the first few days should be taken very gently with the foot raised if possible. I would interpret that as no driving for a few days then see how you feel.

www.hey.nhs.uk

Weber A fracture of the fibula (ankle) - Advice regarding healing and recovery | Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

This leaflet has been produced to give you general information about your injury. We understand you may not have seen a clinician face to face in fracture clinic however, most of your questions should…
www.hey.nhs.uk www.hey.nhs.uk
 
Loath to give unqualified medical advice but I have had many fractures, I’d say the heparin isn’t needed as long as you are mobile and moving around. I’ve only had that in the uk when bed bound with fractures for months. But obviously it’s up to you to decide on the risk of clots vs the hassle and pain of injections. (From experience they get more painful over time as tummy becomes bruised). Did they think you were flying home perhaps?

How are you with crutches? My advice would be to stay put or only travel a short distance in the van, resting mostly for the next few days and see how you get on. Try not to make any snap decisions.

Martin broke his shoulder coming off his motorbike whilst away and we had to spend 5 weeks at a campsite in Spain, after the immediate shock, we got sorted and still had a great time.
I’d fallen over a few weeks before and had back pain, when we eventually returned home I was still in pain and it turned out I had 5 fractured vertebrae..I’m only saying this because it’s easy to think let’s get home but actually being away in better weather, eating lovely food, relaxing can be better than sat in damp uk, particularly with our NHS wait times etc.

I’m glad the local hospital was good, hopefully with painkillers and rest it won’t be long before you are up and about again.
Take care, take it easy and think about asking for a Dexa bone density scan when home if falling over and fractures are becoming common with you.

I’m sure you will both find inventive ways to manage mobility in the van. Xx
 
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Mousy said:
Loath to give unqualified medical advice but I have had many fractures, I’d say the heparin isn’t needed as long as you are mobile and moving around. I’ve only had that in the uk when bed bound with fractures for months. But obviously it’s up to you to decide on the risk of clots vs the hassle and pain of injections. (From experience they get more painful over time as tummy becomes bruised). Did they think you were flying home perhaps?

How are you with crutches? My advice would be to stay put or only travel a short distance in the van, resting mostly for the next few days and see how you get on. Try not to make any snap decisions.

Martin broke his shoulder coming off his motorbike whilst away and we had to spend 5 weeks at a campsite in Spain, after the immediate shock, we got sorted and still had a great time.
I’d fallen over a few weeks before and had back pain, when we eventually returned home I was still in pain and it turned out I had 5 fractured vertebrae..I’m only saying this because it’s easy to think let’s get home but actually being away in better weather, eating lovely food, relaxing can be better than sat in damp uk, particularly with our NHS wait times etc.

I’m glad the local hospital was good, hopefully with painkillers and rest it won’t be long before you are up and about again.
Take care, take it easy and think about asking for a Dexa bone density scan when home if falling over and fractures are becoming common with you.

I’m sure you will both find inventive ways to manage mobility in the van. Xx
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Thanks Mousy. I suppose they may have thought I was flying - they really didn’t ask me many questions or move the foot at all - just a series of X rays.

I did try the GP for a Dexa scan as both my brother and father have / had osteoporosis, but they said no based on the complete profile. I asked the German doctor if there was any sign of osteoporosis on the X ray, and he said no.

All my googling seems to show that the NHS and the NICE guidelines for a stable Weber A fracture say start to bear weight as soon and as much as pain allows, using the crutches to reduce the amount.

I think I’ll probably just use the anticoagulant as long as I feel I’m not very mobile, and also start to bear weight tomorrow if I can, as it means a better outcome at 6 weeks, so I should enjoy the holiday more.

We’ve found a nearby campsite for tonight and will see how I feel tomorrow.

The main problem is going to be getting back into bed after my numerous visits to the loo - we’re a PVC with a high raising bed at the back, and I need a step to get up, hard to think how to do that in the middle of the night - don’t think I’ll be hopping 30cm in the air.

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Anywhere to tie a strap above for leverage? Space to make a bed elsewhere? Nightly pees are the worst, especially when you’re trying not to go! As an aside HRT has proven brilliant for mine.
 
Peavy said:
We have the same van and the step is on the right towards the bed, so you could use your healthy right foot to step up? or the UK configuration is the other way around?
What a setback, sorry for you, but hope it can get better quick.
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We use a plastic step so it can be either side, bit the problem is that I have to put all my weight on the broken ankle at one point, the best being when I step up with my right leg. A little experimentation shows I should be able to bear my weight long enough to do that. Fingers crossed.

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I won’t duplicate my blog post on here, bit if anyone is interested, here are the details. German hospitals are brilliant.

denby.home.blog

Our bad luck continues

Today started with a nice dog walk across the fields near our Stellplatz. Actually taken the previous afternoon As we walked back along the metalled cycle path at the top of the fields, my left ank…
denby.home.blog denby.home.blog
 
I did exactly the same to my ankle in Thailand it looked exactly like your ankle. The doctor there put a plaster cast on it and told me crutches for 2 days only and then to walk on it that was back in the early nineties, for years after I suffered with that ankle. Please take care.
 
Not bad at all thank you! My new discovery is magnesium, which I really think helps me sleep better and get up less - just twice last night and the first was after reading for a while so pleased with that.

I managed to get back up into bed with a very brief stand on the bad foot while I got my right one onto the step, then the big step was just my left knee onto the bed which was fine, so I was very pleased with that.

I’m following the UK advice as I’d much rather be mobile sooner and not take the drugs, so I’m walking a little with crutches and starting my very basic ankle exercises.

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Gina M said:
I did exactly the same to my ankle in Thailand it looked exactly like your ankle. The doctor there put a plaster cast on it and told me crutches for 2 days only and then to walk on it that was back in the early nineties, for years after I suffered with that ankle. Please take care.
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I’m hoping the cast was the difference there - nobody seems to advise that these days. Is your ankle OK now?
 
Jane And Rog said:
I’m hoping the cast was the difference there - nobody seems to advise that these days. Is your ankle OK now?
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Yes thank you it's fine now but for years I had pain, swelling and fear when out walking in case it went again.
 
Coddiwompling day 4 Badsalzungen to Freyburg

Jane managed to scramble into bed and get a good night’s sleep. Infact we slept in to 6:40. This is unheard of.

I set about cleaning up and packing everything away under the very precise and detailed instructions from the sick bay. Our Coddiwompling for today included a trip to a sports shop for foot coverings, a supermarket, a stop in Erfurt then on to Freyburg with its central camp site and lots of wine. Definitely not a plan.

At the second sports shop (Decathlon) Jane managed to get some rather stylish water shoes which fit INSIDE her brace and will hopefully stop her socks getting wet when she tries to walk. Her current plan is to obey the good old NHS and not the lovely German doctor. I.e. weight bearing as soon as possible and no drugs except good English ibuprofen.

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Gentlemen, we can rebuild her.​

Our first tourist stop of the day was in Erfurt. Jane sold it to me as “it has a bridge with buildings on and you generally like them.” She wasn’t wrong on either count. Erfurt has a great Medieval inhabited bridge and I do like such throwbacks. It’s a lovely bridge, built in 1325, it’s the oldest continually inhabited bridge in Europe. Take that Firenze!

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A bridge earlier today​

Of course it’s a bit touristy but, as it turns out, we’re tourists so…lunch was an ice cream at the posh chocolate shop on the bridge. We could probably have found a lot more to see, do and eat but serious coddiwomplers like ourselves don’t have time for such dawdling. Also, we’d run out of euros and only had an hour’s parking.

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Do you want a flake in that?​

Then to Freyburg - home of Rotkaeppchen who recently bought Mumm a french company who make a fizzy wine you may keep in the back of your van. We had high hopes and Freyburg didn’t disappoint. The town was indeed very pretty and the campsite was indeed very central. Sadly it was also very full. I returned from walking Flynn to find Jane surrounded by angry non-locals who thought we were invoking squatting rites over their soon to arrive buddy’s’ spaces. We apologised and made a hasty retreat muttering about sun loungers under our breath.

Luckily, whist studiously not speaking German to the other campers Jane had found that Freyburg has a stellplatz just up the road. Not quite as central and no facilities but, any port in a storm. As luck would have it, the stellplatz is a lovely grassy field at the posh end of town. It costs 1/5 the price of the camp site and we have everything we need in Denby.

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before​

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after​

I set off to the tourist Information point to pay our €4 touristic tax. As I left, Jane told me to try and book a table for dinner. We’ve been caught out in Germany before and the campsite being full implied that all the restaurants would be full. My first attempt, Freyburg Gasthof (#1 on Tripadvisor, 350m of crutch wrangling from the stellplatz), got me worried: they were full. My next bet was Weinbar 51° in the very trendy Weinhotel Frey Lich Zhan (which surely according to local naming conventions should be Weinhotel Weinfrey Weinlich Weinzhan). Hooray! Weinbar 51° had a table free at 7pm and it’s practically on the stellplatz. Barely 50m of crutching. So quick that Jane considered a quick hobble around town before dinner.

Luckily we didn’t do that because a beginners continental travel error had occurred. The booking for 7pm was actually seventeen o’clock. Luckily we arrived in good time to have a pre-match drink so we weren’t too late. The food at 51° was great. Easily the best burger we’ve had in ages if not… ever. The salmon tartare to start was fantastic and everything was accompanied by excellent local wine. Even better we just received our £100 each bonus from the Nationwide so it was all FREE!

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Fish treat courtesy Nationwide.​

We couldn’t finish the burger so they wrapped it and addressed it to Flynn ❤️

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I am very gud boy​

Codiwomple rating: Yee haw, hop along Cassidy!
 
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Ouch, try and keep yourself comfortable with painkillers, there is no gain in not taking them.
In your blog, you say bill being sent to home address. Under the reciprocal arrangements, you should only have to pay what a local would pay (assuming you showed them your GHIC). I don’t think it will be much.

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So glad you had an ok night and an interesting day. Enjoying your thread enormously so selfishly hoping you will continue.
 
The thing with bones is, if it’s not a displaced fracture, carry on as normal as much as you can. Muscle wastage happens quickly so the more you carry on (pain allowing; push through it) the quicker the recovery!

I’m not medically qualified so not able to provide any advice* 🤪
 
Carpmart said:
The thing with bones is, if it’s not a displaced fracture, carry on as normal as much as you can. Muscle wastage happens quickly so the more you carry on (pain allowing; push through it) the quicker the recovery!

I’m not medically qualified so not able to provide any advice* 🤪
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Yeah, the Weber A type is not displaced, and honestly I think it must be a pretty small fracture or I’m crap at reading X rays. I think I’d be going out of my tree with boredom at home on a sofa, so I’m better carrying on. I’m the same as Flynn - the vet describes him as “high drive” 😁
 

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