St. Petersburg by Ambulance

    It was no easy matter getting back into the city for medical care.  Flying to connect with the cruise line (Oceania) we went through customs in Amsterdam on our way to Stockholm where the cruise began.  All of the Baltic countries we visited, except Russia, accepted the visa we were given in Amsterdam.  But, in Russia we had a provisional visa under the auspices of the tour company only good  when we were them.  So, when we needed to go to a medical clinic in St. Petersburg, we were assigned a port authority employee who stayed with us until we were back aboard ship.
   A car and driver drove us to the medical clinic.  An "English Speaking Clinic" meant that there was an interpreter assigned to us.  The clinic was in the process of remodeling so the x-ray equipment was inoperative.  The Curmudgeonette was bundled into an ambulance for a ride to a hospital for x-rays. The x-rays confirmed those that were taken aboard ship.  So back in the ambulance she went for the ride back to the clinic.
   At the clinic two doctors set her arm by each pulling in an opposite direction.  Satisfied that the bones were in place they cast her arm (left) and right thumb.  (More about this later.)
   It was 4:30 when we finished at the clinic.  In the parking lot of the clinic the woman from the port authority said "It's rush hour and it will take two hours to get back to the ship by car so we're taking you by ambulance."  Into the back of the ambulance we loaded and we were off to the races.
   Lights. sirens and a grand Prix driver who was not afraid to use them and we whipped through rush our traffic...left lane, right lane, through red lights...whatever it took and we were back at the ship in 30 minutes.
   Back at the ship we reported back to the medical clinic.  When I asked the ship's doctor about paying he said "The ship is paying because it happened aboard ship."  OK, that's OK with me as I thought about our decision to decline the medical insurance offered as part of our cruise package.
  (In a subsequent post you can read about her medical follow-up at home.)