My name is Jan-Hendrik. I am 32, born and raised in Germany, but always eager to travel the world and experience living in different countries. My first decision was to find the right international health insurance for me and, in December 2018, I chose Foyer Global Health as their covers are easy to understand and they offer good value for money.
Nowadays I am living in Canada, and I can openly admit that I really enjoy it. One could say that I am quite accustomed to living abroad, as I left Europe four years ago and settled down in Mexico. I pride myself for always taking good care of my health and I regularly visit the gym in order to keep a balanced and active life. For a few years now, I worked out with exercise routines that were familiar to me, but in June 2019, an ordinary training session went tragically wrong. While working out in the shoulder press, I started feeling pain in my left shoulder and I wanted to check what was wrong as I had never experienced it before. As it turned out later on, tendons were torn, making the pain very vivid. That is the bad situation I had managed to get myself into, and back then I did not expect all I would have to go through.
I took the decision to visit a doctor in Mexico which a friend recommended me. I am fluent in Spanish so that was not an issue to get myself understood nor to fully understand what the doctor was telling me. He was very kind and suggested to do both Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and an X-ray. After a further diagnosis, I ended up having to do some injections and he also recommended me two weeks of physiotherapy. The pain remained, and the other option was to have surgery. I decided not to go down that route as I still had to experience another treatment called TENS (a method of pain relief involving the use of a mild electrical current). What a journey this has been.
Moving to Canada had always been part of my initial plan so I searched for a flat and flew over to Vancouver. Life in Canada was really good and I was doing less exercise and physical efforts, but I could still feel that the issue remained as the pain was now recurrent. I decided to do three extra physiotherapy sessions to see if that helped at all. I started to feel worried about the whole thing and I had to do something about it, but I also knew it could potentially be a big thing, so I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision.
Trying to figure out what to do next is never an easy step, but I was lucky enough to remember receiving an email from Foyer Global Health introducing Best Doctors. They offer second medical opinion from world-renowned specialists, free of charge for Foyer Global Health clients. It was now mid-July, and it was high time for me to find a solution. I contacted Best Doctors and got in contact with their medical team on the phone and I sent them an email with all the necessary medical information I had in my possession, and after 10 days I received their diagnosis and recommendations, in English, supported by a call from their German speaking medical team to explain the outcome.
They suggested that I quickly set an appointment with a doctor but I was not very fortunate as all the ones I contacted had a waiting period of six months. But I had decided not to wait any longer and managed to find a free slot with a physiotherapist that was available right away. I brought Best Doctors Expert report to my appointment and this greatly helped the physiotherapist to provide me with the necessary treatment. I was advised to take three physiotherapy sessions, followed by some exercise to do by myself at the gym.
Several months have now passed and, although I still feel a slight pain at the gym, I feel a lot better than before. Looking back, it is clear that not having surgery was the right decision and Foyer Global Health’s partnership with Best Doctors helped me find a valuable complementary treatment that enables me to live a normal life. I am very thankful to both of them today and I can only recommend you to think twice before choosing your international health insurance plan!
