The Clinic!

I learned a new Spanish phrase this week, it's "No hay dos, sin tres" (there is no two, without a three) or in other words, bad things happen in threes. Some people may have heard the saying, sometimes when it rains it pours! I'm feeling a bit drenched like that just now.

First of all, now that winter has started and I really need to use my wood stove, the stove's handle decides to fall off. I can shove it through the hole again but it has to be finessed into holding the door closed now. The result is that sometimes I come back into a smoke filled room when the door slips open. There nothing like getting a house nice and cozy and then having to run around opening windows in the dead of winter, to quickly air out a smoky room, burr.

 Little things are starting to act up around the house now. For instance, the door on Wally's bathroom won't open all the way, for some reason it's sagging. I thought that one of the little rocks my cat plays with had possibly gotten caught under the door, so I gently lifted it up to free what ever was impeding it. There was nothing there but I did manage in that act to unhinge the door entirely. It took me 45 minutes to finally get the heavy wood door back on to it's hinges. The door still does not open all of the way. I'll have to get a carpenter to shave the bottom off for me one day. 

Another item under the "little things bugging me" category,  is that the internet is being temperamental. I seem to have a new nemesis name Justin in the neighborhood. I've never met him but whenever he's on line my computer can't seem to establish a connection, even though my router says I am connected. He must have a curfew because I can wait him out by posting at 2 o'clock in the morning! I really wish I could be sleeping at that hour instead of waiting him out.

Oh, and by the way, did I mention I had to go to the medical clinic this week? My last straw, so to speak!

Nathan my cat, has been an inside the house cat for over a year now, since coming home scraped up several times in the past. Well, normally he enjoys looking out through, the many animal friendly windows that we have here in the house. 

He sits with his buddies, my 2 dogs and watches the goings on of the neighborhood, but sometimes he escapes. He ran out of the house Monday and then jumped into my neighbor's yard. They have dogs that gather there, so I went around to fetch Nathan. Nathan has seen several of the dogs before but as I was holding Nathan to bring him back home a new dog came up to us (not a bad dog) but Nathan freaked, like I was going to feed him to the dog. Since I wasn't going to drop him he dug his claws into me, to force me into letting him go. I have never felt such excruciating pain before. I dropped him then dropped to my knees (un molested by any dogs). Both arms were now scratched but I also had one deep puncture wound across my wrist (the part where you have to flex it). I looked at that puncture mark and could swear I saw a tendon peering back at me! By now I couldn't care less about Nathan (he had made it to a shed's roof, out of reach by a 10 foot span from our wall). I just knew that I had better get myself down to the medical clinic in Salinas.

I walked into Salinas, cursing under my breath about my cat, the entire journey.  Fortunately the Clinic was open. It's walk in hours are from 9am to 12pm then it closes for the traditional 3 hour lunch break so popular in Latin American countries. The clinic then reopens at 3 o'clock and stays open till 6pm. Mondays through Fridays. Saturdays it's open from 9 am to 12 o'clock only and it's closed on Sundays.

For 24 hour emergencies you can call an emergency phone number and believe it or not doctors will still make house calls here in Uruguay. You have to explain over the phone what the emergency is for them to come. There are also ambulance services that you can get to bring you to a hospital. Any of you living in Atlántida will be glad to know that your clinic is open to walk ins 24 hours a day.

I arrived at 3 o'clock and went to the admitting window and handed them my all important cedula card or national identity card and my health insurance card. They wrote my numbers down and my name and had me take a seat. At 10 minutes to six, I was finally called into the doctors office. I had to figure out how to tell them in Spanish that I was attacked by my own cat!

I explained that I was mainly concerned about the deep puncture mark. They had me go into another room and they washed my arm with disinfectant and then bandaged my wrist. I didn't need any stitches since it was a small wound, just deep. They told me to come back to the clinic two days later, so they could check up on my wrist.

Wednesday I repeated monday's experience (another 3 hour wait) this time however my hand was a little puffy and red. That caused some panic and I was told I would need to take some oral antibiotics and come back the next day to see a different doctor. I was given a "she's not to wait" note. So tomorrow I'm to be seen right away. They drew a line around the red spot and since I take the pills starting tonight, they will then check the outline and see if the red spot has grown or receded. If that red spot travels or  grows then they have to be more aggressive with my treatment.

I am glad, that I had the good sense to go to the clinic and that I have health insurance. The first visit was free and I only had to buy the pills on my second visit. I will see what tomorrow will bring me.

There is some good news/ bad news (for me) regarding the Salinas clinic. They are soon to be moving to a new and bigger facility near the current Español clinic on the main highway. The good news is that that new facility will be opened 24 hours unlike now, but it is also much farther away (the bad news). I won't be able to walk there any more.

Nathan the cat, spent all night and the next day, on the neighbors shed's roof (serves him right). He finally came home when the second night was about to fall. The first thing he did upon entering the house after two days stuck out in the cold was.... to use his cat box! Yeah, thanks a lot Nathan, for your concern.