Steve,
I agree with pretty much everything you say. Traveling alone for this surgery would make going to Germany very difficult. But... complaining about the food
when it's only a couple of weeks out of your life. You sound like I did when I was looking for an excuse to stay in the U.S. The fact remains that you'd rather stay here. Traveling is difficult, the boring entertainment is lousy but suck it up man and eat what you can
Hope Dr. R comes thru for you - Dale