One thing I was really hoping not to do while traveling was
look for medical help. Turns out, it is
all part of the adventure.
While we were in India, we were keeping a frightful
pace. Some of the young couples in the
group were marveling at our ability to keep up.
Apparently, this was a case of the spirit being willing, but the flesh
being weak. We were determined to go on
all the excursions and fully participate, but we have both been hit at our weak
link.
After several pre-wedding events which resulted in nights of
minimal sleep on top of jet lag, Bill did one of his “crash and burn”
routines. We were at the gathering just
before the actual wedding ceremony. He
had received his turban. He started to
feel dizzy and nauseated and his color was awful. I had him sit down, but I became worried. I mentioned my concern to one of our group,
who mentioned it to a Jain employee, who mentioned it to one of the Jain
family. Next thing we knew, we were
being whisked away by a driver to go to see a doctor who is a personal friend
of one of the Jains. His clinic is in
one of those little hole-in-the-wall places which are so common in India. His equipment is probably 50 years old, but
he was kind and thorough. His English
was a bit shaky, but we managed to communicate.
He prescribed 3 medications and a 4th to be taken in the
event Bill actually vomited….which thankfully he never did.
The next step was getting the medication from a
pharmacy. The driver took us to a
typical Indian street with small shops.
The first pharmacy did not have the medications we needed, so I walked
with the driver about 3 blocks through the trash littered street to another
pharmacy. Bill sat in the car with his
eyes closed. I was dressed in go-to-the-wedding
finery, and I was walking through filth.
Happily, the second pharmacy had the medication. I didn't have enough rupees to pay for it, and the man shook his head 'no' to the first credit card I offered, so I pulled all of them out, spread them on the counter, and asked him to pick one.
We went back to the wedding and Bill felt OK for an hour or
two….the ceremony itself was 4-5 hours long….lots of ritual. Eventually, we had to leave, because he
started to feel unwell again. We missed
the reception and ordered room service at the hotel. That was interesting….try explaining to
someone who doesn’t understand English very well, that your husband wants Rice
Krispies for supper. Bill knew they had
them, because he had seen them at breakfast, but they were not, of course, on
the room service menu. I talked to 3
different people and had no confidence he would get his Rice Krispies, until
someone called our room and asked in pretty decent English, what kind of milk
he would like on them.
Today, it was my turn to test the medical system in Italy. We are now in Rome. I have been feeling discomfort in my lower
abdomen and was afraid I might be getting a bladder infection. This has happened to me previously at times I
have pushed myself to the max. This
morning I got up and realized I had blood in my urine, and I was in quite a bit
of discomfort. So…what to do?
I asked the man at the hotel desk about a doctor. He thought I was saying “adapter,” and pulled
a couple of electrical adapters out of a drawer. Eventually he got the picture and told me
where to find what he believed was an Urgent Care. It was in the train station which is a short
block away and which is full of shops, restaurants, etc. The sign at the clinic said what I assumed to
be “urgent care” in Italian, but they refused to see me as a walk-in. Only one person there spoke some fractured
English. She directed me to tourist
information near the train platforms.
They directed me to a pharmacy on the lower level.
The pharmacist was very kind and spoke decent English, but
when he saw my list of allergies, he was afraid to give me anything without me
seeing a doctor. Apparently things are
looser here, as he would have given me an antibiotic without a prescription. He told me to go to a hospital.
So….we had coffee and a donut because we were famished by
this time, and headed back to the hotel.
The desk clerk called a cab which took us to a hospital and dropped us
at the emergency room. We were pushed aside
before we got in the door, as an ambulance arrived with someone who was being
bag-breathed and looked like he was more dead than alive.
While we stood to the side, we saw a sign and arrow which
seemed to say in Italian that minor emergencies should go that way. We followed the arrows and ended up in the
right spot, but it turns out we were supposed to go through the ER to have the
paper work generated. A lady who spoke
impeccable English took us under her wing and directed someone to do the paperwork
without sending us back through the ER.
This evidently saved us an enormous amount of time. The doctor was not fluent in English, but we
managed to communicate. I had written
out the antibiotics to which I am allergic. I got my prescription order and discovered
there was no charge for the doctor’s services.
I guess all medical care is free here.
The guard at the ER kindly told an EMT standing nearby to
use his cell phone and call a taxi for us.
When we got back to the hotel, we asked about pharmacies and went to the
nearest one. There we learned that no
one carries the antibiotic the doctor prescribed which is the only one I know I
can safely take. The pharmacist or maybe
it was a pharmacy tech pulled something else off the shelf saying it wasn’t an
antibiotic. It was an
anti-bacterial. I thought maybe it was a
urinary tract antiseptic which I have taken before. I accepted it and went back to the hotel to check it out on the internet. Uh-oh….it is an antibiotic. Some research on the internet seems to indicate
it is in the same family as the one I know has been safe for me in the past, so
I have downed the first dose with prayer and hope that I can tolerate it. I made sure we had some Benadryl handy before
I took it.
We had planned to go to the Colosseum today. It is only a kilometer from our hotel and
there appear to be some interesting sights between here and there. It should be an easy walk for us…BUT…..at the
moment, it looks like this needs to be a day to rest and recuperate from the
long Delhi to Rome flight yesterday. After
today, we have two entire days before we get on the cruise ship, so we can go
on some adventures tomorrow and Wednesday.
I guess we planned this trip for our mental age not
realizing our bodies aren’t quite in sync with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment