On Feb 16 he was at the gym lifting some weights he felt something change in his chest and could only get a shallow breath and had a sharp pain in his back shoulder and sternum. He came home and said he thought he might be having a heart attack. We called Rocky and he took us to the hospital where after originally confirming the heart attack and prepping him for ambulance transport to Novi Sad, later correctly diagnosed it as a collapsed lung. They canceled the ambulance and put in a chest tube and Merritt got to enjoy 5 days in the hospital here in Sremska Mitrovica. We are glad it was just a collapsed lung and after about 10 weeks he fully recovered.
In the ER they hooked him up to take the first of several EKG measurements.
Rocky helping in the ER
On the first day, he was able to have visitors but afterward, the hospital canceled all visitors due to an H1N1 flu virus in town. Heather was able to send food in daily via a nurse (and one time she snuck in when no one was looking).
Life in the hospital was pretty interesting. Fortunately one of the patients in our 6 patient room spoke some English. The other patients all took care to make sure Merritt was OK. He bonded with the other patients over their mutual illnesses. His was the most minor. A Turkish truck driver survived a knife attack and was stabbed 6 times in the back when a gang hijacked his truck. He had a very positive attitude. Here he is on his check out day. He showed Merritt where he lived using google maps and using google translate invited him for a visit someday. If face recognition capabilities continue to develop, someday it should be possible to connect with him just by using this photograph.
These photos make it appear that it was kind of a vacation to be in the hospital. Anyone who has had a chest tube knows that is not the case. The tube makes it painful anytime you need to get up and move around. After five days in the hospital with numerous X rays and two surgery room visits (to put in and remove the chest tube), the final bill came to less than $300. Now that's a great value! The same thing would have cost over $20,000 in the USA. Here is Merritt on the day of his release, he was happy to have the tube out and to be able to walk under his own power out of the hospital.
The next day we went to Belgrade to get a second opinion to make sure everything was OK and the doctors confirmed that the diagnosis and treatment were correct and asked that we come back in 4 weeks to have a follow-up visit. On the follow-up visit, they confirmed everything looks good and Merritt has made a full recovery. The biggest downside is that people who have had a collapsed lung are strongly advised not so scuba dive or climb mountains over 16,000 feet. He will certainly miss the scuba diving and he can cross off visiting Mount Everest base camp from his bucket list.
On Feb 23rd we did a joint P-day with the missionaries in Tuzla, Bosnia. They don't have a senior couple in that town and so we thought we would help break up their monotonous P-days by meeting them at what is called an Ethno Village Park. These types of parks are all over Serbia and amount to a small resort with well-landscaped grounds where people can go for a short vacation in pleasant surroundings.
Here is our group. It was pretty good weather for late February, we spent about 4 hours walking around the park and enjoying lunch together. Our Sister missionaries were happy to be able to get the Bosnian stamp in their passports.
Duska Vucenovic is a member of our branch who is an excellent cook. On March 1st Heather and the Sisters went to her home and she taught them how to make some of her favorite dishes. They all had a good time. Duska speaks excellent English (she is a translator for the church) and so it was fun for Heather as well.
Duska with her mother, Nada along with Sister Henderson and Luthy and some of there creations.
On Sunday, Mar 3rd we had 3 children in primary and the Sisters prepared a lesson on holding to the rod. When we have primary Heather also attends due to the policy of missionaries needing to be chaperoned around children. She enjoys the lessons.
While we were in Belgrade for my four week check up we took some extra time to see some of the sites. This is St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral it is one of the largest church buildings in the world. The exterior is finished but they are still working on the interior. It is built on the same site where the Ottoman Turks burned the relics of St. Sava in 1595 in an attempt to suppress the Orthodox Christian faith.
The basement has been finished and it was pretty amazing with all it's guiding and fresco paintings. It would be cool to come back when the main church is finished to check it out in ten years or so.
Right next door is the Belgrade Library. Since we love libraries we spent an hour poking around. Libraries always make us feel at home. The chairs and desks were of an interesting design and Heather tested them out and found them quite comfortable. After the library, we went to the Nikola Tesla museum and found it very interesting as well. It was difficult to get any good photos there but trust me there were lots of cool electrical gadgets that he invented. He is the father of alternating current. (The AC in ACDC for all you "rockers" out there).
On March 5th Ada Vucenovic came home from her mission in the Ukraine and we went to the airport to greet her along with her family. A missionary coming home is always a happy event.
We enjoy being involved in teaching self-reliant principles to the members here. Since we don't speak Serbian we have trained the regular missionaries on this program and they teach the lessons along with the 12 My Foundation principles. Milan Bozic has been taking this class and during it found a second part-time job so he now has "full time" employment. He was very fortunate to be able to find a job that doesn't conflict with his current job. We enjoy spending time with him. He is a great guy.
Milan's little sister, Tara, is one of our most fun members. We enjoy spending time with her as well.
We will end this blog with a photo from a recent musical performance. In this case, the event was two singers singing Opera in lots of different languages (but not English...are there any English Operas?). The sound they could produce and sustain was just amazing and we had excellent seats. Again Sremska Mitrovica really impresses us with the monthly cultural events they put on for the public which are mostly free of charge.
Click on this link here to get a short fix for all you Opera lovers out there. Until next time, Vidimo Se! (see you later)
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