My First Foreign ER Experience

Hospital Nacional de Quetzaltenango

I want to blog about my hospital stay last night, but I'm so sleepy I don't know if I can be coherent.

Well, I officially overdid it in El Salvador.  I gots an intestinal infection and parasites.  Yesterday the pain eventually got so bad that I couldn't wait any longer.  I asked the dueña of my hostel how much an ambulance costs, afraid I wouldn't be able to afford it.  I was informed that it was free.  She called one for me.

In addition to the ambulance ride, I also received fairly quick attention, an overnight stay, 2 different types of lab work, lots of IV fluids, 2 types of pain meds, a tummy pill, and 2 doses of IV antibiotics.  All free.  Apparently Guatemala has this crazy idea that if a person is very sick, he should receive care, whether or not he has money.

There were some very noticeably different things about the ER here.  Nobody asked me what medications I was on.  I volunteered what information I thought might be relevant.  Nobody asked me if I could be pregnant, and they didn't even do any blood work till this morning.  The first time they offered me pain meds, I insisted on knowing what type they were giving me beforehand.  They took this to mean I wasn't interested in pain meds.  Then I came out of the bathroom, and there was a sick girl lying in my bed with her head next to my backpack and my water bottle.  I like to think my OCD traits have gotten way better, but hospitals are really germy and my immune system isn't so hot right now!  Ewwww!  When I said I didn't want to get back into a bed with dirty sheets, they took that to mean that I didn't want a bed.  After a while of sitting in a chair with my IV fluids though, I started crying and begging for pain meds and they got me into a new bed and took better care of me.

What else?  They still use those silly glass mercury thermometers from the old days.  I think I had a bad fever but I'm not sure.  They didn't take my temp for a few hours.  The first time, the nurse looked at it wide-eyed and said she wanted to take it again to be sure.  This was all right as I was being given the awesome pain meds.  I woke up a couple hours later to the nurse trying to dig the thermometer out of my armpit.  :-p

But...it was free!  And I like to think they did a pretty good job overall.  Now I have to take Cipro (antibiotic), Nitazoxanide (antiprotozoal), some pill called Sertal that is apparently an antispasmodic and analgesic medicine for gastrointestinal problems (my understanding based on the Spanish), and Enterogermina (probiotic) for a week.  My grand total at the pharmacy came to $40.  No insurance.  Something is seriously wrong with the system in the US.

But yeah.  I already feel much better today.  Not great, but I was able to ravenously eat a bagel for breakfast.  I've also had some plain oatmeal, a baguette, and a chicken Cup Noodles.  Big improvement from not being able to eat yesterday.  And definitely helps the meds go down.

I learned my lesson, OK?

I very much regret googling my parasite, cuz that thing is nasty!  But assuming I recover quickly, and it doesn't do horrible things to my insides, it was probably worth it.  My El Salvador adventure was awesome, and my hospital experience was a whole other adventure--and much cheaper than travelling anywhere!

In other news, I built me a menorah today out of tinfoil and duct tape:

I wanted to have a Hanukkah/Jewish birthday party on Saturday!  I was gunna make latkes and stuff.  I'm afraid that nobody will want to celebrate on my real (Gregorian) birthday because it's a Sunday in between 13 B'ak'tun (December 21) and Christmas.  Everyone's going to party hard Friday and Saturday, spend my birthday sleeping and puking, and then go to grandmas the next day for Christmas.  My Hanukkah idea was a great alternative...until I found myself unable to eat latkes or drink for a week.  But maybe towards the end of Hanukkah...  :-)