I have decided to tell you a bit about the various challenges I have faced since my illness, as bureaucracy in most countries can be insane and extreme.
If you think the illness itself is the biggest challenge, you are wrong! It is actually the entire paper work involved in the process for insurance companies and citizen centers. I totally underestimated this part and I am so thankful I got my parent’s help with all this.
So let me tell you a bit about my experiences…
After my amputation one of my main objectives was to obtain a handicapped ID with which I could then apply for a special parking pass in order to park in handicapped parking lots. The application for the handicapped ID was actually finalized very quickly and due to the fact that I am a one-leg amputee plus a chemo patient, I obtained an ID with 100% handicap. I thus thought I would easily get the parking pass, as it would help me allot to park closer when I go for my doctors appointments etc. But I was wrong!
In order to obtain such a parking pass, you need to be a double amputee, or a multiple sclerosis patient or have a similar illness that doesn’t allow you to move properly. The employees in these authorities that give out the handicapped ID’s have no idea what restrictions you have even with a one-leg amputation. They do not consider that it is more difficult to get into a car, and that you require more space opening the door fully, and in most public garages the parking lots are so narrow that you hardly get into your car at times. A healthy amputee without a cancer illness or simply no pain is able to walk longer distances and actually has no mobility restrictions. However, in my case due to the back pain and my current chemo treatments I don’t have the energy to walk long distances, but I am not entitled to use handicapped parking areas. I have made several applications and until today they haven’t been approved. I would like to see if someone from the authorities was in a similar situation as me one day, and how they would be able to deal with not getting the parking pass.
Sometimes being too honest can backfire on you! When I felt better, I started driving again (obviously our automatic cars) and thought it would be better if my amputation would be marked or mentioned on the driver’s license. Hence, I headed to the traffic department to apply for a new driver’s license, but instead they asked me to take lessons at the driving school as I needed to have a small test again. “Are they kidding me?”, is all I thought at that moment.
So I have done my 3 hrs of driving lessons, which I found was totally a waste of time because I have been driving for 12 years already and it hasn’t been the first time driving automatic cars. You don’t use your left leg anyway, so what’s the whole point? In the end I “passed” my test and received an invoice of EUR 380 !!!! Germany is indeed a money-making country where they squeeze every single cent out of you and one pays a hilarious amount of taxes, too! I remember now why I went abroad and had no intention to come back.
I have one more thing that I would like to point out to you all, and that’s the costs that are involved in fighting cancer. Germans have a pretty “reliable” health system, as there is a compulsory health insurance by the law. So even unemployed people have a health insurance, which is paid by the government. This is however, not the case in many countries abroad and you may have to close a private health insurance yourself.
So the one and only advice I can give you is to make sure you have a good and proper health insurance and don’t try to save money in this area!!!
I had no idea on how much these treatments, examination scans, and medications costs, and I would like to share some of these amounts with you.
Generally, each inpatient chemo treatment last year (lasting approximately 5-6 days) would cost EUR 4,000. I had 15 of those big inpatient therapies, and addition those weeks when I had infections, fever and got into hospital as an emergency case. The amputation itself including the 10 days post-surgery hospital stay was EUR 8,000 alone, and my first surgery in Bangkok was over EUR 10,000. The 22 ion beam irradiation sessions in Heidelberg came up to EUR 44,000.
Even some of the medications that I require during or after the chemotherapies are ridiculously expensive. For example, an injection to decrease the duration of neutropenia (low concentration of white blood cells) costs EUR 1,600. In comparison, just the other week I received an offer from Emirates for a business class ticket from Germany to Bangkok for EUR 1,699.
Even prosthetic legs are extremely expensive, and if I had chosen the “Aston Martin” amongst the legs (the Genium X3 by Ottobock) it would have come up to EUR 65,000. For that amount you can even buy a new Porsche Macan nowadays. However, I have decided to take another water-proof leg called “Plie 3.0” costing in total only EUR 25,000.
I am not mentioning the weekly blood check ups, the several doctors counseling, and the costs of CT-scans, MRI-scans etc, as they are “small” amounts adding up though.
Overall, up to date (not including my prosthetic leg) my health insurance has spent around EUR 200,000 for all my treatments. Not included are accommodation, traveling, fuel and parking costs, as these are not covered by the insurance. Our estimated guess though is that within the past 1,5 years (since I am in Germany) we have spent more than EUR 15,000 from our own pocket.
With this listing I would like to outline how expensive all this can get, and the best investment for you is having a good health insurance. I was lucky to have kept my German private health insurance that has paid until now every single cent of my treatment costs. So please make sure you are well covered.