It has been some time since I posted because it has been pretty busy. We met with Emanuele in the house to discuss his issues with Pedini and the kitchen. Good thing he is paying attention as I had not noticed the issues. Biggest issue is that the hood over the stove has the lights about a third of the way under the sliding units that are on the wall. So we would never be able to change a bulb! Yikes. The second issue is that the quartz pieces that sit at the back of the counter along the wall has about an inch gap between the top of it and the sliding units. It would be impossible to clean in there and it would be bound to get spatter and grease in there. He has told Pedini they have to fix it and they should be back next week.

Since then I have begun to unpack the boxes of kitchen stuff and put it in the cabinets to at least get some of the boxes out of there. It is not at all organized yet but it is all in there.

Doctor
I had not mentioned that I had been worrying about my hip as it has been bothering me more and more. I had taken a little fall back in July and I had worries that I had damaged it. Being in a foreign country I was majorly stressed about it. I asked Susan to ask her doctor for a recommendation. She mentioned it to Emanuele and he was ON it. He had knee surgery last year and managed to wangle an appointment with his doctor who is very, very well thought of in the field.

I was very nervous before the appointment. It turns out that everybody goes with you when you go to the doctor here. It is very strange but I was happy to have the company and help. Susan, Barbara (Emanuele’s wife) and Luther all went with me. They all went with me everywhere including into the doctors office! They could translate for me and hear what the doctor was saying. He was a really nice man and very competent and he told me after manipulating my leg and seeing where my pain was that it was probably not the joint but muscular due to one leg being longer after my surgery. He scheduled X-rays for me right then and there.

We trooped down to the ground floor where we waited in a waiting room with a bunch of other people. The entire building is incredibly dreary with glaring fluorescent lights and ether orange, lime green or dark gold walls and mismatched furniture. It took a while but we got them done and trooped back to the Doctor who told me there was no problem with the replacement. Blessed relief! I have many problems that are all together making me have the pain. The longer leg, curved spine (old news) and other hip has arthritis as well. He told me I must always wear a lift in my shoe and I should do Physical Therapy.

Since I am not on Italian health care yet I was in as a private patient. He took us to another office where we were to pay. It cost 150 Euro for the doctor and 23 Euro for the X-ray. Just think what I would have paid in the US!