I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to the Dr for the first time and it all seemed different but alright? Okay, well now, after more experiences, I would like update that thought.
So last Wednesday night I get a text from Lisa, one of the auxiliars I work with who lives in Alcalá as well, saying her ears really really hurt and she needs to go to the Dr but needs help cause she is really sick. Its 10pm so the Doctor she usually goes to is closed and she doesn't know where to do. I happened to be hanging out with a group of my Spanish friends at the time so I asked them where was an Urgencias or something. Then I realized, they all have public state provided health care and we have private so whatever they normally do won't work for us. I will note, however, that they said they would just go to the hospital after hours for anything they needed. Then me and my friends looked online to try to find some sort of Urgent care or 24 hour health care, what we found were 24 hour veterinarians. Really. So I abandoned he search with the Españoles and headed over to Lisa's flat.
When I got there I asked her if she'd done any internet searching to see what services she could find. She had, all she'd found were vets. Okay, well at least we are on the same page... I flip through our private healthcare book and there is no category for urgent care or 24 hour care. The hours for all doctors are either not listed or not open past 8pm. Then I remember the healthcare facility I went to earlier in the week had a banner on their webpage that said "Cuidamos a su salud 24 horas al día" or "We care for your heath 24 hours a day". I call them to make sure they are open because frequently hours Spanish businesses say they will be open and they hours they are actually open do not always align. No one answers. This is also not uncommon for Spanish businesses, it is likely there was someone by the phone who just didn't feel like picking it up. I figure I'll walk over there because its like 15 minutes away and see if its open and then call Lisa and have her walk over if it is. I get there, definitely closed. So I guess the "We care for your health 24 hours a day" all over their website was just meant that they care in their hearts and minds, not actually care as in provide care. Well thats kind of sweet but mostly annoying. I call Lisa to discuss our options. Oh yes, we also cannot find a hospital listed anywhere in Alcalá but I know there is one because people talk about it. The only hospitals we could find are in Madrid, so like 60 euro cap ride? is one option OR dressing Lisa up as a dog and taking her to one of the many 24 hour vets. Then I remember seeing an Urgencias sign on my way to the bus stop for work at a public health place. I head there thinking even if they can't treat us they would probably know where we could go.
I get there and explain the situation, we have Mapfre private health care, my friend is really sick, we don't know where to go. The man behind the counter is pensive. He says go ahead and bring her there but don't mention anything to anyone ever about us having Mapfre. Okay! So at lease we have a place to go! I go get lisa, and this place is like far from her house, 30min walking probably. So we make it there and she gets treatment. BUT I realize that if the healthcare man told us to just secretly come there then there is probably no place for us to go after hours. Skkkuuurrrryyy, what if I have a late night emergency? I guess its the vets for me! What I thought was really great health insurance that covers me on practically everything (prosthetics, fertility treatment, every kind of everything) is actually only great if I need treatment between the hours of 8a and 8p, oh wait, except from 2-5p because thats siesta....
Experience #2
So after this late night Doctors extravaganza (I finally got home at 1a) I went to Barcelona. Which was great great great except for the fact I was really sick. Mostly just body aches and excruciating throat pain. So anyway, I wait till I get back to Alcalá to go to the Dr and I think I probably have strep throat. In the US you definitely get swabbed for strep but here I told him my symptoms he looked at my throat and said yep, its inflamed. You said you had a fever? Me-Yes, yesterday for sure. Can we take my temperature now though? Him- No, there is no thermometer here. Me in my head- What?! No thermometer??? At a Doctor's office? Wheerrreeee ammmmm IIIIIII? Him-- I'm prescribing you antibiotics. So I got antibiotics but without any sort of a test or any trying to figure out what it actually was, just the fact that I said I had a fever and that my throat looked inflamed.
The next morning when I get out of the shower I notice (well I see blaring at me in the mirror) a red blotchy rash all over my face, neck, and back. So, I go to the Dr. again but this time it is in the morning so its a different doctor. They don't make a chart or record any information on you even if you go to the same facility like I have been doing so I tell her my story. She tells me to stop using soap on my face. But I've used my same face soap for ears and its Cetaphil which is for extra sensitive skin, no perfumes, nothing. Nope, its surely your face soap, don't use soap just wash with water. Okay, well what about the rash on my back? Thats probably from something else she says and she leaves it at that. She doesn't ask to see my back the only rash exploration is does is look at my face and touch my cheek. She also prescribes me an anti-inflammatory cream for my face. My instructions are, wash with with water, apply lotion and this cream. I leave wanting an American doctor.
The rash continues the whole time I'm taking these antibiotics and has now gone away that I'm off them. Its a relatively common side effect of the antibiotic I was taking which I found out by looking online but what my Doctor didn't know.
Long blog short, if anything happens to me here, I'm coming home for health care. I want my doctor to at least have a thermometer amongst his/her medical equipment.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Ranting n happenings
I've changed the language of this blog to English due to complaints. I hope navigating is now easier for you allz.
Sketchy people are on my mind today so lets talk about them. So the other night I was in downtown Madrid and was headed back to Alcalá at 3am which is terribly early by Spain standards and was the reason why I was making the trek alone. At 11:30p the Cercanias trains which connect Madrid to its suburbs stop and at 1:30p the Madrid Metro stops. When you pass both these times it means you are destined to navigated los búhos (the owls) or the night buses that start running at 1a and go till 6a when the metro opens (the cercanias open at 5am but if the metro isn't open then there really isn't a easy way to get to the stops). So I was figuring out my route bus by bus and as I was waiting for my first one this guy who maybe drunk or on drugs or maybe just an interesting guy starts talking to people at the bus stop and others were talking to him so when he starting talking to me I joined in the conversation. One thing I hate though and I don't understand why people ask is the, "where are you headed?" question. Which, okay when you are making conversation at a bus stop maybe is kind of expected but needing specific answers isn't. I'm headed home/to a club/to a friend's house etc should be really really more than sufficient but soo many times people really really want to know more. Where? Obviously when I'm traveling alone this is not a question I answer but instead of showing them I'm sketched I'll usually always mention the small town my school is in because no one ever has any idea where that is. Sometimes though people are just too darn curious and still want more. Eventually I have to get to the point where I tell them "I prefer not to say". I would think that any normal person who wasn't planning on following me home wouldn't be asking me the exact directions to my house and yet I run into people practically asking me exactly this all the time. I'm starting to wonder if its a cultural thing but I find it really annoying and kind of rude. Especially, when people take offense to me not telling them exactly where I'm headed--well too bad for them, they can cry to me all they want I'm stay stubborn about this rule of mine.
Another pet-peeve. People trying to pressure me to eat their snacks. Kinda sounds silly but to me its really not. I've heard a few stories of people (especially on buses) who meet a really nice person who offers them a drink which they see them open, they accept and then they are drugged. I remember on specific instance on the bus from Córdoba to Madrid, which was like 6 hours, there was a man sitting next to me with alll sorts of snacks and opened like everything he had trying to get me to eat or drink something laughing at me and saying well you have to eat something! Actually I don't. I'm never going to eat your stranger snacks Mr. Stranger.
I actually believe that the vast majority of these experiences I have which make me really uncomfortable and I feel are really sketch actually aren't. I think the world is filled with almost all good people. Its just that one sentence phrased wrong or just being really really nice and offering me your food or trying to be really helpful or wanting me to tell you exactly where I live to help me figure out my route late at night to get home safely is going to make me label you a sketchball and make me keep my distance just in the rare chance that you aren't Mr. or Ms. Helpful.
Sometimes it just gets really tiring always being on the lookout for Mr. n Ms. Sketch and it gets really frustrating when people who probably aren't actually you, Mr. Sketch, do obviously sketchy things to someone who is obviously traveling alone. When people ask me if I am and I go with the, "No, no, I'm with my friend but they are meeting me right when I get off the bus etc etc etc" people always laugh to themselves. Its an old line, everyone knows exactly what that means--you are totally totally traveling alone alone. Anyway, basically I just wish people would stop asking me where I'm headed and trying to feed me. I'm gluten intolerant and probs can't eat anything you have anyway peoples! If everyone in the whole world would stop doing this, I wouldn't have to write this blog out of frustration and my travels would be easier.
Okay phew! Sometimes you just need to vent!
Now what have I been up to:
I found quinoa! I walk by an Herbolarío which are just like a small natural stores which I had read on the internet had quinoa and the one I found didn't...ha, but the old man behind the counter wrote it down on a list and said to stop by tomorrow afternoon and he'd have it! Now lets just see the price when I go...
Oh yes, had my first experience with Spanish healthcare this week. Well I have private insurance so its not the real Spanish healthcare that the gov't provides. I just had a really bad cold given to me by all those snotty nose children I work with I'm sure and when you miss a day of school you have to get a dr.'s note justifying your absence so I was just going to get that note. I get there and the front lady tells me to go ahead and go into the Dr.'s room cause she doesn't think that there is anyone inside. So, I do but there is definitely someone inside. Opps! Kinda awkward. That was a red flag difference between US and Spanish healthcare cause they would never just have yo go check out yourself to see if you were interrupting someone's doc visit or not. They also didn't go through all the motions of the Dr.'s visit that they do in the US. I've never gone to the Doc without BP and temp taken, probably height and weight too. None of that was done at this visit and I was even sick! She listened to my breathing, felt my neck and took a look at my throat then gave me mi justificación and I was outta there without making a prior appt in 7 min maybe.
Oh yeah, some other interesting bits. So school sometimes has people come and try to sell us things during our teacher's break where we eat snacks n chat while the kiddles are on recess. I'd heard this happens really frequently at some schools but this is the first time I'd seen it personally. A nice old salesman in a tweed jacket with a paisley handkerchief in the pocket and patches on the elbows brought knives, pots n pans, a vacuum and a memory foam pillow to sell to us. He gave his shpeel and I think a couple of the teachers did buy things. He also handed out free kitchen scissors to everyone that were quite nice and I was psyched cause I didn't have any scissors. Anyway, just thought that was something you wouldn't have seen during school hours in the US. Also something you wouldn't see is teachers kissing the kids which you see all the time here. On girl was crying cause she is 10 and life is hard I suppose and the PE/Math teacher was teaching (he looks and moves almost exactly like Mr. Bean!) and saw it so he just walks over n hugs her, whispers something calming in her ear and kisses her all over her face. I think it is really nice, it was very calming to her and she immediately recovered and the class went on but oh my goodness! If that happened in the US! lawsuits would be filed.
Meow, okay there's your update. Till next time!
Sketchy people are on my mind today so lets talk about them. So the other night I was in downtown Madrid and was headed back to Alcalá at 3am which is terribly early by Spain standards and was the reason why I was making the trek alone. At 11:30p the Cercanias trains which connect Madrid to its suburbs stop and at 1:30p the Madrid Metro stops. When you pass both these times it means you are destined to navigated los búhos (the owls) or the night buses that start running at 1a and go till 6a when the metro opens (the cercanias open at 5am but if the metro isn't open then there really isn't a easy way to get to the stops). So I was figuring out my route bus by bus and as I was waiting for my first one this guy who maybe drunk or on drugs or maybe just an interesting guy starts talking to people at the bus stop and others were talking to him so when he starting talking to me I joined in the conversation. One thing I hate though and I don't understand why people ask is the, "where are you headed?" question. Which, okay when you are making conversation at a bus stop maybe is kind of expected but needing specific answers isn't. I'm headed home/to a club/to a friend's house etc should be really really more than sufficient but soo many times people really really want to know more. Where? Obviously when I'm traveling alone this is not a question I answer but instead of showing them I'm sketched I'll usually always mention the small town my school is in because no one ever has any idea where that is. Sometimes though people are just too darn curious and still want more. Eventually I have to get to the point where I tell them "I prefer not to say". I would think that any normal person who wasn't planning on following me home wouldn't be asking me the exact directions to my house and yet I run into people practically asking me exactly this all the time. I'm starting to wonder if its a cultural thing but I find it really annoying and kind of rude. Especially, when people take offense to me not telling them exactly where I'm headed--well too bad for them, they can cry to me all they want I'm stay stubborn about this rule of mine.
Another pet-peeve. People trying to pressure me to eat their snacks. Kinda sounds silly but to me its really not. I've heard a few stories of people (especially on buses) who meet a really nice person who offers them a drink which they see them open, they accept and then they are drugged. I remember on specific instance on the bus from Córdoba to Madrid, which was like 6 hours, there was a man sitting next to me with alll sorts of snacks and opened like everything he had trying to get me to eat or drink something laughing at me and saying well you have to eat something! Actually I don't. I'm never going to eat your stranger snacks Mr. Stranger.
I actually believe that the vast majority of these experiences I have which make me really uncomfortable and I feel are really sketch actually aren't. I think the world is filled with almost all good people. Its just that one sentence phrased wrong or just being really really nice and offering me your food or trying to be really helpful or wanting me to tell you exactly where I live to help me figure out my route late at night to get home safely is going to make me label you a sketchball and make me keep my distance just in the rare chance that you aren't Mr. or Ms. Helpful.
Sometimes it just gets really tiring always being on the lookout for Mr. n Ms. Sketch and it gets really frustrating when people who probably aren't actually you, Mr. Sketch, do obviously sketchy things to someone who is obviously traveling alone. When people ask me if I am and I go with the, "No, no, I'm with my friend but they are meeting me right when I get off the bus etc etc etc" people always laugh to themselves. Its an old line, everyone knows exactly what that means--you are totally totally traveling alone alone. Anyway, basically I just wish people would stop asking me where I'm headed and trying to feed me. I'm gluten intolerant and probs can't eat anything you have anyway peoples! If everyone in the whole world would stop doing this, I wouldn't have to write this blog out of frustration and my travels would be easier.
Okay phew! Sometimes you just need to vent!
Now what have I been up to:
I found quinoa! I walk by an Herbolarío which are just like a small natural stores which I had read on the internet had quinoa and the one I found didn't...ha, but the old man behind the counter wrote it down on a list and said to stop by tomorrow afternoon and he'd have it! Now lets just see the price when I go...
Oh yes, had my first experience with Spanish healthcare this week. Well I have private insurance so its not the real Spanish healthcare that the gov't provides. I just had a really bad cold given to me by all those snotty nose children I work with I'm sure and when you miss a day of school you have to get a dr.'s note justifying your absence so I was just going to get that note. I get there and the front lady tells me to go ahead and go into the Dr.'s room cause she doesn't think that there is anyone inside. So, I do but there is definitely someone inside. Opps! Kinda awkward. That was a red flag difference between US and Spanish healthcare cause they would never just have yo go check out yourself to see if you were interrupting someone's doc visit or not. They also didn't go through all the motions of the Dr.'s visit that they do in the US. I've never gone to the Doc without BP and temp taken, probably height and weight too. None of that was done at this visit and I was even sick! She listened to my breathing, felt my neck and took a look at my throat then gave me mi justificación and I was outta there without making a prior appt in 7 min maybe.
Oh yeah, some other interesting bits. So school sometimes has people come and try to sell us things during our teacher's break where we eat snacks n chat while the kiddles are on recess. I'd heard this happens really frequently at some schools but this is the first time I'd seen it personally. A nice old salesman in a tweed jacket with a paisley handkerchief in the pocket and patches on the elbows brought knives, pots n pans, a vacuum and a memory foam pillow to sell to us. He gave his shpeel and I think a couple of the teachers did buy things. He also handed out free kitchen scissors to everyone that were quite nice and I was psyched cause I didn't have any scissors. Anyway, just thought that was something you wouldn't have seen during school hours in the US. Also something you wouldn't see is teachers kissing the kids which you see all the time here. On girl was crying cause she is 10 and life is hard I suppose and the PE/Math teacher was teaching (he looks and moves almost exactly like Mr. Bean!) and saw it so he just walks over n hugs her, whispers something calming in her ear and kisses her all over her face. I think it is really nice, it was very calming to her and she immediately recovered and the class went on but oh my goodness! If that happened in the US! lawsuits would be filed.
Meow, okay there's your update. Till next time!
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