A warm welcome from Germany

Flying from Spain to Germany, the differences between our EU brother states is immediately apparent.  The ease and speed of public transport, the people offering to help you with your bags, the polite hellos of passerby, the wide selection of organic food in even the smallest supermarket.  Any guesses which country can boast of these things?

Yes, I am in Hinterzarten, the beautiful Black Forest.  Snow blankets the ground and lies heavily on the horizontal branches of the pine trees surging into the grey sky.  I am here for a 4-day work placement at the Földi Klinik, an in-patient lymphoedema specialist hospital.  So far it’s very interesting.  The actual technique of MLD is that not difficult, but it’s so important that the therapist does it right and respects the  contraindications.  Since I’ve taken a time-out for mothering, I felt I’d perhaps let the details get fuzzy.  So, here I am, re-learning.  In fact, it’s obligatory in any country with a professional MLD assocation (eg:  USA, UK, Germany, Australia…) that the therapist attends a review course every two years.  If you are looking for lymphedema therapy, you ought to check with your prosepctive therapist how often they re-train.

Right, off to frolic in the snow!