I’ve been sick the past few days. This weekend I thought I could beat it by spending two days inside sitting on the couch. I’ve been drinking lots of fluids and sleeping as much as I could, which hasn’t been much.
Friday I went to the pharmacy and got cough medicine. It was red and gross, but I took it anyway. I explained to the woman that my coughing was relatively dry and she recommended a standard cough medicine. It did nothing. I think my cold actually got worse over the weekend. I couldn’t sleep Saturday night, so Sunday I slept in the living room because I could be better propped up.
This morning (Monday), I decided to go to the doctor. I left the house a little before ten a.m. because I wasn’t sure if the public health center opened at nine or ten. When I got there, it became evident that it had been open for quite a while. I entered and took D00 from the red deli-counter number dispenser. They were on C72. I took a seat. There were only about 8 chairs, but most were unoccupied because the impatient Spanish insist on standing as close to the “wait behind this line” mark on the floor as possible. I must have looked like death while I was sitting there because people were giving me really strange looks. I was using a roll of toilet paper to sop up my nasal drip. I was also sitting in my Tufts sweatshirt with my scarf wrapped around the hood. These are not common sights for the little, old Spanish women shuffling around the waiting entranceway (it wasn’t a room).
After only 35 minutes of waiting my number appeared on the screen. I went up to the desk and handed the man my identity card. He typed in my information and went to go do some other paperwork. The people on either side of me (there isn’t much privacy here) were getting appointments for tomorrow morning. Here they are, standing in the medical center and they have to come back tomorrow. At this point I was resting my head on the counter while the man worked. I think he might have taken some pity on me because I got an appointment for 1:35 p.m.
So, I zipped up my coat, put my hood on my head, and put on my gloves and went back outside. It wasn’t that cold today, so I really looked like a freak. I went to the vegetable store and bought some stuff and then went to the grocery store (never taking my hood off) and bought some juice, chicken broth and chicken. Then I went home and made chicken soup with leeks, carrots, zucchini, celery, onion, celery leaves, and garlic.
At 1:20 p.m. I went back up to the health center. This time I walked straight in and went to office 15 where my appointment was. When the doctor showed up, ten minutes late, I was shown into a room where there was a hospital bed (small and against one wall) as well as a desk with a computer and two chairs. I took a chair and explained my symptoms. He looked at my ears and immediately told me I had an ear infection. Then he listened to my chest and said I had slight bronchitis. He gave me prescriptions which were on print-outs. They had a bar code on the paper and he fed it through his computer and printed it out.
I took them across the street to the pharmacy where the bar codes were scanned and my medicines given to me (in five minutes- CVS should take a lesson from this system). The best part: I got an antibiotic, cough syrup, ear drops and a thermometer for ten euros (less than $14). No insurance necessary. No doctor co-payment or money exchanged for my doctor visit.
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