"Close the door please, we don't live in a tent," said the specialist as his patient intentionally left the door of the over-heated office slightly open, yet again. "Actually I do live in a tent," was Ben's cheerful reply and, for the next ten minutes, a German ENT specialist learned something about a strangely-named island called Tasmania and his unusual Aussie patient who has actually lived in a tent for the past ten months.
The final nose diagnosis is a deviated septum (yet another unlucky roll of the genetic dice) and the procedure to correct it is called septoplasty. It's a minor operation that will be done at the Helios hospital in Bad-Saarow, about an hour south of Berlin. I'm not sure why he has to go there instead of staying in Berlin Buch, perhaps it's something to do with availability and dates. The procedure is scheduled for Jan 16; one day for the operation followed by two days recovery. The original booking was for Jan 13 but the specialist changed it when he discovered that day was a Friday. It seems that superstition still lingers in the high-tech medical world. Flying is verboten for at least two weeks after the op but Ben wants to stay longer than that anyway and is applying for a visa extension till the end of March. Visa extensions are not easy to get but we're hopeful the Ausländerbehörde (Immigration Office) will approve the application on medical grounds.
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