I thought I had outgrown my youthful kinship to go on holidays and try out the medical system whereever I travelled to with my parents. I have been to medi-centers and hospitals all over western Canada. I had this affinity to see which province had the best doctors for stitching me up. Then for a short period of time in our early married life, I tried out dentists in the USA. It seemed I would lose a filling every time I snorkeled.
Well, my affection for trying out the medical system has come to surface again. I had this wonderful ear problem that has blossomed into a full scale ear infection, necessitating a visit to the Costa Rican medical system. I am susceptible to swimmers ear and silly ME forgot the remedy at home. So, we tried the usual home remedies: we added more salt water (sometimes that clears it up); then we tried hydrogen peroxide (sometimes works as well) and we tried a couple drops of olive oil with a little thyme extract in the ear and left it over-night. All which have worked wonderfully for me in the past. But, as one transplanted Canadian told us, nothing works like it’s supposed to here in Puerto Viejo.
The constant throbbing in my ear kept me up for most of the night before I finally broke down and decided it was time to head to the Doctor.
If I was to rate my interaction with the local Doctor (English Speaking) it would have to be ***** (five stars out of five).
We walked into the Doctors Office and within five minutes of arriving we were ushered in to the see the doctor. He was very thorough in his questions to me about what was wrong, how long it has been bothering me, etc. The most painful part was when he looked into my infected ear – very thorough job of that as well. Some of my martial arts training leapt into my mind… but a cooler mind prevailed.
He prescribed some anti-inflammatories and an antibiotic and, as an added bonus, some ear drops to help keep the wax from building up in my ears. He provided a printout of my Doctors bill so I can submit it to our travel medical insurance provider. Less than half an hour later (and eighty dollars poorer) we were off to the pharmacy.
