Life in Turkey: Ankle Surgery & Recovery

I’m finally home from the hospital after ankle surgery and a 3 day stay. I’ve got a lot to say about the experience of being in a hospital in Turkey, but I’ll save that for a different post. If you are wondering how I hurt my ankle to begin with, let's just say an adventurous spirit, a parachute and rocky terrain, and a nasty fall from the back of a jeep got the best of me.

This is a few hours after surgery. 

This is the first time I’ve ever had any kind of operation or hospital stay. I think its funny that my first time was in Turkey. I have to say that as I was doing all my pre-surgery prep and doctors visits, I was very thankful that I’ve never had any major health problems and that as a whole I am a healthy person. It motivates me to continue taking care of myself and look for ways that I can do an even better job as I move forward.

My orthopedic doctor, Dr. Yetkin, at Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya was amazing. I had a million fears of miscommunications and what I might experience in Turkey, but he proved me wrong. He is an intelligent and gentle man that made me feel very comfortable with the procedure and his expertise.

For those not so faint of heart, here are a few pics of my ankle about 24 hours after surgery.

I'm home now and for the next 2 weeks, I'm bound to crutches, ice and pain/anti-inflammatory medication so that I can move on to physical therapy.  I'm not one to sit still so these next couple of weeks will be a little rough, but looking forward to the long term results.

Whirlwind Turkey Trip

While my sister and brother-in-law were here, we took them to some of our favorite places and well as a few places we hadn't been before. Here are just a FEW of the photos around Antalya and Istanbul on their whirlwind 7 day trip to Turkey. We are SO glad they came to visit.  Next time, we will make it to Cappadocia!

Aspendos

 Inside the Hagia Sophia

 Outside the Blue Mosque with the Hagia Sophia behind us. It was coooold...

 Jumping at Mt. Tahtali

Dancing at Termessos

 The Animal cooking fish for everyone.

My Sister & Her Hubby :)

Walking into the Blue Mosque

The Changing of the Guard at Dolma Bahce Palace

Storms

Last night there were crazy storms here in Antalya. The wind sounded like a freight train, the rain was coming from all different directions and the sky was a yellow-greenish color. It was all a vaguely familiar feeling like I was in the middle of tornado season in the Texas Panhandle. I was pretty sure we don't normally have tornadoes in Antalya, but I had to ask Enes to make sure. He thought I was a little a ridiculous, but I assured him  that tornadoes can sneak up on you and the way the weather has been lately around here, you just never know. 

There were no tornadoes as far as I know, but this morning we awoke to huge trees uprooted from the ground, branches, window shutters and dirt everywhere.  When I got to the office this morning, I saw pictures  in the online newpaper, The Hurriyet,  of a huge boat that sunk by the harbor last night. 

All of the crewman except for 1 were rescued. I can only imagine what the sea must have been like last night throwing this huge boat around. It must have been terribly frightening for all of those men.

This morning the sea is still quite stormy looking, but everything else is peaceful and sunny as we recover from last night's storm. 

1 Year

Enes and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in October. Our civil ceremony was October 16th and our wedding ceremony was October 17th, so I guess we get to celebrate both days?!

A friend of ours who is a photographer took some photos for our anniversary as our wedding gift because she wasn't able to be here when were married. We had a fun morning with her exploring the streets of Old Town Antalya and the harbor and needless to say after viewing the photos, we laughed alot!

Here are a few of our favorites: