Frankfurt is a different kind of city than any of the others we have visited in Europe. The bridges are more modern, and there is a huge shopping district. They are more proud of their skyscrapers and world banking prowess (with good reason) than their history. That said, there are still a lot of spectacular old buildings and churches mixed in. The hospital is, unexpectedly, located a half a block from the Main and city central. From the glass elevator you can see St Bartholomeu’s, a spectacular old church where all of the emperors from the 1500’s to the 1700’s were crowned. My quick introductory walk across the river has shown the promising signs of a folk festival (the Main Festival) being set up. Needless to say, Jaden has already seen the rides.
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Kyra finally passed the breathing test on the third try (Hey! You can breathe!). The second test given to her was the “cleansing” medication. With no aroma, Kyra has described the taste variously as; “terrible,” “horrible,” “awful,” and “like ass, not that I have ever tasted it, but that’s what it taste like.” (Rubbing a finger through the remnants on the bottom of the bottle and tasting it, all I get is bitter lemons, for what it’s worth.) I guess the fun starts when she takes the four follow up pills in three hours.
In the meantime, elevated levels of gall were found in her blood tests. As she has already had her gall bladder removed, this points to kidney concerns, possibly kidney stones, and an MRI is ordered. If discovered, they will be removed endoscopicly this evening.
Jaden, after her early wake-up call this morning, has fallen blissfully asleep throughout all of this after appropriating her mom’s bed. Poor kid – at Grandpa’s mercy for the next five days.
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Kyra went in for surgery sometime around 12:30. I say “sometime” as Jaden and I had left for a walk by then. See, Kyra is in a German hospital. Things are a little different. Other than the occasional language problems, there are a host of other new experiences in store for you. No air conditioning, just one fan for the two people in the room. Pain meds are not given out much, they want you up and moving as soon as possible. And, most vexing for us, family care is not a strong point. We still had no idea when the surgery would be, what the results of the MRI were last night, or pretty much anything else – regardless of the fact that Z is fluent in every language spoken here. So around 12:00, Jaden, who was going bonkers by this point, and I went for a walk.
We traveled down to the shopping district. Our first stop was a little stein shop I had discovered the day before. Well off the beaten track and run by three sweet older ladies, this was the place for all your stein needs. The prices were great, and they had everything – including the new additions to my collection. A little farther down and we hit shopping central, a nice place to visit when you have a worried five-year old along with you, because that’s where you find the “Donald’s.” After a scrumptious repast at Mickey D’s, we wandered over to look at the C & A. Think J.C. Penney with one crucial difference. This place sells, and therefore has end of the season sales on, lederhosen and dirndls. A nice place to visit when you do the Oktoberfest and folk thing. After a little window shopping we moved along to Conrad, the big electronics store in Germany to get Kyra an adapter so she could plug her I-pod into the 220 outlets in the hospital, and then by Woolworth’s (yes, they still have them here) to get a needle and thread. Then back to check on Kyra.
Kyra, if I haven’t already explained this somewhere else, is in for a gastric bypass. I am not sure where the bypass part comes from, ‘cuz all they are doing is stapling her stomach – or perhaps hitting her with a bus, because she looks like hell when I get in to see her later that day. Although performed laparoscopicly, this is far from “minimally invasive” surgery. She really wants to get out of here, though, and is going after every exercise she has been given as hard as she can, even though it hurts pretty bad. I admire her strength and courage. We also assume that she is doing pretty OK, if the exchange over the oxygen tube in her nose is any indication (“Get the damn thing out of my nose, I can breathe better without it.”).
While Kyra was convalescing, Z was able to walk with us. We retraced out steps from earlier. At the C & A, she tried on several dirndls, but didn’t find anything that knocked her out. She did like a pair of lederhosen she made me try on, so I have another new set. (I’ll be the fashion plate of the Oktoberfest set!) And then we went to the Main Fest. Situated in the Römerberg, this is the most famous view in Frankfurt. Some very pretty buildings that house city government, and look like they have been here for years (but mostly exist since 2005 when the façade was restored), and provide a beautiful backdrop for a Volksfest. The Roemer (city hall) was mostly destroyed in bombing in WWII, and quickly restored after the war. It was rededicated in 1955. So, Jaden got her rides, Z got her Currywurst, and I got to try a new beer. Schöffelhofer Weiβe is a nice refreshing little wheat thing – not too aggressive with the natural yeasts, not too aggressive on the palate. Basically it is a not too aggressive, not too offensive, not too… well you get the idea. It was the perfect beer to enjoy with everything else going on. We were good, we only enjoyed a couple.A quick check on Kyra and back to the hotel.
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Saturday, and the streets are a mess (more than usual). Every other street we need to use is closed for a large city rummage sale or the folk fest or construction. What should be a ten minute drive becomes something significantly longer.
My first order of business for the day is to buy Jaden a new pair of shoes. The shoes she has with her are too small and she has developed a fine set of scrapes on her toes. Back to the other end of the shopping district and – let the quest begin. The first challenge is to find a place that actually sells kids shoes. Several show stores later, and not even a shoe found – hey look, kids shoes! How much? I don’t care; I’ll take ‘em. Needless to say, the fifteen stores I walked into had shoes at way more realistic prices. They also had socks, so there was that, anyway.
New shoes on, and Jaden and I took a walk while Z spent some time with Kyra. She is really not doing well – is in some serious pain. Kyra, like her mom, has a pretty high pain tolerance (Z once removed a broken tooth ( wisdom tooth to be exact.. ) from her own mouth using nothing more than brute force and a Leatherman), so if she is complaining about pain, you know it has to be pretty bad. She is making herself keep at the exercises, though. Jaden and I ate lunch and took a roundabout way back to look at churches and skyscrapers. Z joined us and we took one last crack at the festival. Jaden got a last ride, Z and I enjoyed a last beer and listened to the very fine brass band (you could get the tunes up a little faster, though, fellas). Due to the high price of hotel rooms and the low price of the dollar (thanks W!) we had to leave. Kyra will continue to recuperate, and we will come back to pick her up on Wednesday. Please keep her in your thoughts; the next few days won’t be easy for her.
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