Injuries on the Road

On Tuesday, January 30th Peter did this to himself:

No, he doesn't have cankles, it's just swollen!

Fortunately, it was just an ankle sprain, although there were a few moments where he was convinced he broke it. It happened just after Peter's parents had left, and we were carrying our bags to the next hotel we were staying in. Simply walking down the street, he stepped into an unseen pothole and rolled his ankle. After getting up, brushing the dirt off, and putting his backpack back on, we hobbled the rest of the way to our hotel. After getting checked in, Hannah got a little bag of ice from the folks at the front desk, set Peter up with his foot resting on his backpack, and left to go find an ace bandage at a local corner store. More good news: this isn't Peter's first rodeo with this particular injury. He's done the same thing a few times to the other ankle. Bad news - this is the first time on the right side, making it more likely to suffer an injury in the future.

As far as sprains go, the initial treatment is found in the acronym RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Peter spent a few days just letting his ankle rest. Every time we went out, he was sure to wrap it with an ace bandage, preventing further injury. After a week or so, the ace bandage was replaced with a brace we bought at a local pharmacy. This brace is easier to put on and take off, and features hard plastic sides, making it's sole purpose injury prevention, whereas the ace bandage also provided compression. There are a number of exercises and stretched he does every day to help in the recovery, even a month later!

Whatever injury you suffer on the road, Youtube will give you all the information you need when it comes to rehabilitation. If your injury is severe, interferes with your daily life on the road, or you find inconsistent information online, it's probably time to visit a doctor.

While we're happy the injury isn't more severe, it got us thinking about what we would do if the injury was. The good news here is we are prepared for anything that might come our way.

Before we left, we both made sure to have adequate health insurance back in the U.S. Hannah is lucky enough to still be on her parents. For Peter, he purchased an affordable, high deductible plan through the Minnesota open market. Thanks Obama! In addition, we purchased travel insurance through World Nomads. There are literally tons of options when it comes to travel insurance, so it's important to do your homework here. A lot of plans focus on trip cancellations, lost baggage, and things like that. We needed a plan that would cover us if we needed to visit a doctor while abroad. For minor injuries, that would suffice, but if something serious happened, we needed a plan that would also cover emergency medical evacuation. Also, be careful to read the fine print when shopping for a plan, because sometimes if you suffer an injury while doing something like snorkeling or scuba diving your expenses may not be covered. Under the plan we found, we got everything we needed. In total, we paid $812 for the two of us for six months for the travel policy, plus $158 a month for Peter's individual plan, and we have peace of mind even under the most catostrophic of circumstances.

There are many people who argue that insurance is overrated and often times unnecessary. In this case, we didn't need it at all, but we were very relieved to have in, because if this was a break we would be totally covered. Be an adult, and buy insurance.