Day 160-204, 18Dec08 – 31Jan09: San Francisco. Part2: doctors, civil rights and microcredits

Pain, ethics & Doctors: getting treated in SF

Once we arrived in San Francisco, my knee got some rest, but it did not get better. After we moved to Bradley & Saskia’s place, I could not even walk and we spent X-mas inside the house.

I asked around and a friend of Ali referred us to a private clinic in town. I contacted them and could get a quick appointment with a doctor. She was an osteopath and very friendly and though she could not do much for my knee, she diagnosed my back and started treating immediately.

Apparently some of my vertebrae were a little ‘off’, causing the constant inflammation to the connected ribs and the pain that comes with it. As she is both a medic (she could prescribe me new medication, which helped to ease the pain) as well as a chiropractor, she could start fixing me right away.

Doctors are expensive and private clinics are even worse, but as I was a tourist, they waived the ‘membership fee’ and the doctor told me that she would see what could be done about the size of the bill. Even though we are covered by our WorldNomads insurance, it is always unclear when and how much I could get back, so I appreciated that.

She was a sportswoman herself and wanted to support our trip and offered me a free 2nd consultation a few days later. I gratefully accepted and after the 2nd treatment my back felt much better, though my knee was still incredibly painful and useless.

She told me that I could come back for another free treatment after our little road trip, but the night before our appointment I received an email. Apparently she had been reprimanded for offering free services.

(…) I have just finished a conversation with my employer who suggested that my offering to treat you here in this office “pro-bono” (for free) is ethically unsound. He has asked that I request that you not come by the office tomorrow, January 6th. The other visit that has already taken place is in the past, is “OK”, but no further visits should be allowed.(…)

I always thought that helping patients was the thing that was ethically sound for doctors (something about oath and Hippocrates?), but I guess I was wrong. I wrote her back that I would have gladly paid for the service anyway, but after this message I would go elsewhere.

I know it was not her choice to refuse me, but for me it is ethically unsound to pay very expensive treatments just because you might get it back from the insurance.. I even paid for a $20 membership of the Walgreen pharmacy, so my medication would be (much) cheaper, even though I will get it back from WorldNomads.

Mitch’s friend Adriana told me that her friend Hal Rosenberg was a famous Chiropractor and I should call him to schedule an appointment.

I ended up in his office a few days later and got treated right away, both for my shoulder as well as my knee. Using the Crafton technique and electronic stimulation he removed a lot of scar tissue from the knee and though the pain remained during the treatments, I could use it again.

Though I felt at times that he was aiming to kill me, the twisting and crunching of the neck and back improved the back a lot as well, though when not taking the anti-inflammatories the pain would come back quickly.

I also had a few sessions with Bobby and Steve, the in-house physical therapists, and they gave me specific exercises to strengthen the core and leg muscles that were influencing the movement of the knees. In total I had 6 appointments and though more probably would have been good, we felt that it was time to try to move on, going South again!

San Francisco: cultural diversity, faded flowerpower and civil rights

The bus and streetcars must be some of SF’s greatest and cheapest attractions. Unlike the ‘clean’ BART underground, the public transport that runs above the surface is the best way to see another face of SF. It is a continuous show of people of all types and colours: tourists, homeless people; some youth dressed-up in party gear, others completely off the planet. Some people were on their way to work, others were doing their business on the bus itself.

It reminded us about Weird Al Yankovic’s Another One Rides The Bus (video & lyrics here), especially the streetcar going down Market Street was great fun 🙂

Other well-known aspects of San Francisco are the birth of Flower Power and the civil rights movement, especially the gay rights.

We visited Haight & Ashbury, the famous area where Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and many other musicians and artists once lived, but got depressed by its current state: a lot of so-called cool shops, selling stuff for smoking weed and ‘spiritual’ goodies, one of the few McDonalds visible in the city, and homeless kids on the streets, many of them who look like they are there by choice and that it took a long time or a lot of money to get those clothes look ‘alternative’ and worn.

More interesting is the nearby Castro District, birthplace of Gay Rights and still the gay capital of the USA. It has nice streets, friendly people and good little restaurants.

It is were the movie ‘Milk’ was filmed as the historic events depicted all took place in this part of town. Not only is Sean Penn’s acting phenomenal, it was especially great to be able to see the movie in a fully packed famous Castro Theatre, which even features in the film 🙂

They included a slideshow about Harvey Milk, and an original organ player playing music while the crowds came in. The cinema was filled with locals, as every reference to local places and events were met with chuckles and comments.

It is strange that exactly in the liberal and generally intelligent state of California a law passed on election day, which basically made it impossible for gays to get married anymore. This ‘Proposition 8’ turned back a lot of civil rights that Milk had been fighting for and we went out to join a candlelight vigil to show our support.

Imagine that your partner you have been living with for 20 years gets ill and you are not allowed into the Hospital for visits, or if he or she dies, and you will not be entitled to receive any of the shared memorabilia you gathered together.

Somehow millions of people, who would not be harmed by equal civil rights thought that they should impose their ‘morals’ onto others, so let’s hope that this situation will be rectified and California is recognized as a forward-thinking State again…

Kiva: opportunities for entrepreneurs in developing countries

On a more positive note, we got introduced by Nate & Kim to their friend Jeremy. Coincidentally he works at Kiva, an organisation we have been supporting during our trip, so we visited their office in SF.

It was great to see the heart of the small company that has already made such a huge impact (they loaned over 60 million dollars to mostly one men/women businesses in developing countries on 5 continents).

We talked with Matt, the founder and CEO and took a look at the worldwide volunteers map, all very inspiring.

Read more about Kiva and their work here on our blog and lend (not donate) some money yourself!

San Francisco is great in many ways, but there were many things to see outside the city as well… next part, coming up soon: Snow in Truckee, bears & rocks in Yosemite, music in Berkeley and wine in Napa!

Day 160-204, 18Dec08 – 31Jan09: San Francisco. Part1: a tour of SF

It has been a long time between updates, but this week we will be catching up a bit, so you can see where we have been this year, what happened with my knee and much more!

We spent about 6 weeks in and around San Francisco, a wonderful city in many ways. I will write a few posts about this as I want to share many pictures, so we will be hopping back and forth in time a bit 🙂

SF: entering and viewing the city

After crossing the Golden Gate we stuck to the shoreline, not only to avoid the heavy traffic, but also the steep hills! Yes, it is true: due to the fact that some smart city planner placed the standard grid-model on top of a hilly place, some of the roads are incredibly steep, a few more than 30%! Still the place is bicycle friendly, with bike lanes and-routes and off the main roads, the traffic is much more relaxed and there are many cyclists.

Touring SF

We had met our new host Mitch at a CouchSurfing meeting and he not only offered us a place to stay, but also took us on some city tours, so we could get an idea of the place. As he is a great photographer, we also finally got some images of ourselves!

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Views from the Twin Peaks (we summited :), the old but still running Streetcars and the famous Lombard Street, though it is not the curviest street nor the steepest, it is fun to go down it. We spent the evening playing ‘Rockband’ with Mitch, which was fun 🙂

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Later, in January, we spent some more time with Mitch. We drank Belgian beers, ate in Chinatown, walked to his friends house Downtown and we had some great ‘mate’ on one of the western beaches before dinner in a Burmese restaurant. SF is great, it is small enough to be able to cycle around, but every neighbourhood is different and there are many nice places to hang out or relax.

Culture & science

We also stayed a few days with Nate & Kim, who lived quite close to Mitch, also in the Latino-flavoured lively Mission District. Besides taking us to one of the best Mexican restaurants, we also took advantage of the free museum day in SF, visiting the small Yerba Buena, the huge MOMA and the tiny Cartoon Museum before heading back on the bus.

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Ivana managed to get into the new Academy of Science Museum on the free Wednesday (otherwise $25), but when I arrived an hour later after seeing the doctor, the line was so long that it was no use. She enjoyed it a lot and will post pictures on her blog soon.

We also spent time (drinking Belgian beers) in Little Italy, Japan town, Chinatown and Bernal Heights; every part has its own culture and diversity of people and places, while being completely free of strip-malls and McDonalds and such, SF is a good as a US city gets.

Tomorrow, in the next part: pain, ethics and doctors, civil rights and microcredits!

1000 Americans: Fiona & Jeremy, Kiva, San Francisco

Fiona is Kiva’s Public Relations Director, responsible for Kiva’s exposure & communication. She lives with Kiva’s Technology Director Jeremy and together they have sacrificed much time, money and effort to get Kiva up and running, being two of the first employees.

They both love to travel the world when possible and have seen the need for and success of microcredit with their own eyes.

Read more about Kiva and how you can support them, here on our blog.

1000 Americans: Jeremy Frazao & Matt Flannery, Kiva, San Francisco

Jeremy (Technology Director of Kiva) was one of the first people to work for Kiva after Matt  (CEO of Kiva) had started the company in 2005.

Of course they both did not know then that it would mean long hours with no pay, but due to dedication of the first key people like them, Kiva survived and is now one of the most praised companies in the US, facilitating microcredit lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Read more about Kiva and how you can support them, here on our blog.

1000 Americans: Dr Hal Rosenberg, San Francisco

Dr Hal Rosenberg is a well-known Chiropractor in SF. having worked on the medical staff of the USA Triathlon Team.

It takes a sportsman to help one and though I sometimes felt he was trying to kill me, the crunching of the back and neck helped 🙂

1000 Americans: Gerard, San Francisco

Gerard is one of the many ‘import-Americans’, being born and raised in The Netherlands. As many expats in SF, he works in IT, but uses his time off to enjoy the wonders of San Francisco and around as well as his girlfriend Adriana.

Photo by Mitch Aidelbaum, editing by me 🙂

1000 Americans: Jessica & Mikelanjelo, Oakland

Mikelanjelo contacted us through our form on the site and offered us a place to stay with his girlfriend Jessica and their friends in Oakland.

He is a bicycle advocate, has even worked as a bike courier in Honolulu and has done several bicycle tours across the US. They are now planning their next trip, around the world on a bike!

He is the grandson of famous pilot Max Conrad (The Flying Grandfather), who might still have the Guinness Record for most solo-miles flown as well as many others…

1000 Americans: Nicole Dreon, Truckee

Nicole –Colie for friends- Dreon has been working behind the scenes for the sports TV channel ESPN for a long time, but has done quite a bit of sporting herself, still living near Ski and Snowboard resorts in Lake Tahoe.

She is one of the few persons in the world that has skied in Uganda and besides being an overall great person, she is a great photographer as well, posing in front of one of her images.

1000 Americans: Alison Levine, San Francisco

Alison is a well sought-after public speaker as she combines her extensive business career with a love for adventure. She has climbed the 7 summits, hiked unsupported to the South Pole, and has done a million things more as you can read on her website Daredevilstrategies.com.

I have known Ali for 10 years, we only met 4 times, but every time was on a different continent…

Day 152-160, 10-18 Dec 2008: Breaking a knee in steep California: from Red Woods to a Golden Gate…

We had camped in the cold Redwoods & enjoyed the rest of the Avenue of the Giants leisurely. After no more than 35km we ended up in Redway, where we called Johnny, our host for the night for directions to his home and he picked us up and took us far into the curvy hills.

He told us how basically everybody in the entire county was somehow involved in the growing of marijuana, either for ‘medical’ or for business reasons, and that even the local radio had special announcements when ‘the helicopter’ would be on patrol.

This got confirmed by Todd, our host for the next night and was amazing to hear as we thought that with the ‘war on drugs’ and all, easy targets (like very citizen in a 50 mile radius) would be focused on first, but apparently it was just part of life here.

We had been told about Todd by our friend Kristen from Vancouver, who had cycled and met him here a few years ago. But before we could sit down at the fire and listen to his stories we had two encounters.

When going slowly uphill I noticed some fresh looking scat on the side of the road. It didn’t really look like Grizzly material and I thought we had left the wildest bear country by now.

Soon I saw more and with the sun in my face, I viewed a dark shape halfway up the hill. Even though I was only going about 8km/hr (5mph), it was the first thing I encountered on a hill that was slower than me and soon I caught up with a strange sight: A large wooden horse cart, pulled by 3 horses -with a 4th on the side- was slowly making its way up the hill, completely blocking one of the two lanes.

An old man with was standing proud. he was not too friendly and didn’t say much, but I found out that his name was Dakota and he had been travelling like this for 25 years, all west of the Mississippi…

Our next encounter was with a dreaded place: the Leggett Hill. Actually it was much easier than feared beforehand, steep but constant, narrow, but zero traffic. We did not have to walk and Ivana arrived at the pass as well without much problem.

A Short downhill later we arrived at a level part, called Haley’s Grove, where we spent the night inside a trailer. Read about our chance meeting with Todd here on 1000 Americans.

12-14 Dec: Breaking a knee and viewing a lion between Hales Grove – Jenner, via Mendocino. 74km + 78km + 70km. Plus 3km  up and down..

A long downhill through the woods brought us back to the coast, but there was one more surprise, the Rockport Hill. When going up, my knee started hurting and we both pushed up several parts as it was too steep in places.

Back at the California coast, the road kept on oscillating between sea level and a few hundred meters above it for the next days. In 5 days we had climbed more than 5000m, so 1km vertical per day. My knee started hurting more, even on the flatter parts and at the end of the day I could barely walk as my knee would not bend.

Probably the best thing to do would be to rest or see a doctor, but we were on the ‘Lost Coast’, far away from any medical assistance. Besides, we were only a few days from San Francisco, se we decided to continue and seek help there. Also, not only my knee was bad, our multi-charger had broken down and I had no more batteries for my cameras, which made me feel even more handicapped than the fact that I stumbled more than I walked…

We had stayed with Barry in Mendocino, who was about to embark on his own bicycle trip. as happens often with our hosts, he called some friends, Chuck & Maria, to ask them if we could stay with them the next night. Some hours before we arrived, I was waiting on the side of the road for Ivana to catch up so I could point out a large group of deer, when a car pulled over.

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