Enfermo Pedro

So, as some of you may have heard, I took a little vacation to Somoto.  Somoto is my department capital aka the nearest big city.  Why did I spend a night in Somoto?  Well, I wanted to take “universal healthcare” for a test drive.  Quick background on the Nica healthcare.  It is FREE but like all things here, vastly underfunded.  The structure is: puestos (small clinics staffed with nurses and sometimes doctors open during the day), centro de salud (health centers that have a doctor on staff, but not always present and open at night for emergencies only) and hospitals (only in department capitals).

Friday morning I woke up feeling abnormal (which is normal for me).  But after breakfast, things took a turn for the worst.  Out of nowhere, I a throbbing pain began in my upper right abdomen which was shortly followed by nausea, fever, paleness and near syncope.  Host mom called a taxi and took me to the centro de salud which is about 9 blocks away.  After taking my blood pressure (which was a disturbingly low 90/60) they started an IV (with much difficultly I must add).  Unfortunately the phlebotomist wasn’t there so I had to be transferred, via ambulance, to Somoto.  And by ambulance I mean a pickup truck while I held my IV.

Once at the hospital I was checked out by doctors and surgeons and then sent to get an ultrasound.  After everything came back normalish, I was admitted wheelchaired to my bed in a room with seven other men in sad shape (I think one was recovering from a stab wound).  From my limited Spanish medical vocabulary, my gallbladder got infected somehow.  So then hung another IV fluids and pushed a heavy duty antibiotic every couple of hours.  Unfortunately this means I was not allowed to eat nor drink for duration of medications which would total about 30 hours.  This brought my weight down to a shocking 131 lbs., more than 20 pounds lighter than I was 5 months ago!

When I woke up at 4:30am on Saturday (my cellphone died and there were no windows to gage time) I felt much better.  I still have some discomfort in my abdomen but it only hurts when walk.  I was given a stomach protective medication, an anti-parasite and some vials to be injected at the centro de salud.  The whole endeavor costing me (or you, the taxpayers), nada!  I wouldn’t give them a ‘A’ in patient care (the doctors would disappear and not return and the nurses knocked out my IV, TWICE) but not having to pay a single córdoba was amazing.

Tomorrow, or soon thereafter, I’ll be traveling to Managua to get checked out again by the Peace Corps Medical Office.  I’ll keep you posted and thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

-Pedro