Well, Mark and I made our second trip to the ER since we have been here, but this time it was for Mark. We are unfortunately still waiting on our health cards that we were finally able to apply for about a month ago, so until then all medical trips need to go through the ER. Luckily, our trips have not been for anything life threatening, and we are grateful for that.
Earlier this week Mark was cleaning out his ears with a Q-tip and must have pushed the wax in too far, because he has not been able to hear out of that ear ever since. It has been quite annoying for him (and I), but I keep joking with him that his is just an excuse for him to ignore me. ;)
Anyways, after several days of this and trying various home remedies and ear drops from the pharmacy (you don't need a prescription to get quite a few medications from the pharmacy, but the pharmacy at the hospital has different drugs), we opted to see a doctor. Going to the hospital here is quite different than in the States, well if you're going to the public hospital at least. We first tried going to the family ER that I went to, but found out they only see woman patients.
So, we then proceeded to the Male ER entrance and boy was that quite different than the female one. The female/family ER wasn't very packed at all and had both men and woman, but they were sitting in separate areas. When we walked into the men's ER, I stuck out like a sore thumb as I was literally the only female, minus a few nurses, inside among about 50 sick men. I'm quite used to the ratio here, but this was a bit extreme in such a confined area. After seeing the long line for registration, I told Mark I would get us a few seats. As soon as I sat down, a man with a surgical mask, who was hospital security, came and told me that I was not allowed in there. He told me I had to wait outside. Mark and I were both frustrated at this, as we just wanted to be able to stay together.
This is definitely a frustration here as it is part of their culture/religion to separate the men and women as much as possible. So, as we were questioning if there is anywhere we can go to be together, the security guard did tell us that I would be able to go in with Mark to see the doctor. So, I went and found a chair just outside the waiting area and read. Mark came out and sat with me for awhile as there was quite a lot of people infront of him and we were expecting to be there for quite some time. We definitely saw a few interesting people come through, but luckily we didn't see any severe cases.
After waiting for a little over an hour, we finally heard "Mark Daniel Wilcoxen" announced over the intercom. We walked back into this area where they had about 6 "cubicle" medical areas, and Mark is directed to go sit in one of them with a couple of other men. Lets just say they were doing their best to get people in and out of here as quick as possible. The doctor, who happened to be the same one I saw when I went, looked at Mark's ear with his handy dandy medical ear scope and said there wasn't a hole in his eardrum and it was just a build up of earwax. We were hoping he would flush it out, but all he did was write a prescription for it.
So, one and half hours later we were walking home after spending less than $1 USD on his prescription and nothing for the hospital visit. We were somewhat disappointed in that they didn't do anything but prescribe medication, but were hopeful that it was strong and would work quickly.
Well, that was two days ago and the problem still persists. We came home from our small group last night and I began researching more home remedies/suggestions. I then proceeded to look into the medication that they prescribed to Mark, and couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw that it was not for ears but they were eye drops instead.
The moral of the story, ALWAYS check the prescription before taking the medicine any doctor here prescribes. That's probably a good rule of thumb anywhere, but I can't help but think that it's more rare of something like that happening in the States.
I'm not sure Mark sees the humor in the situation as much as I do, but you could definitely say we go out moneys worth. ;)
PS- Any suggestions you may have are welcome! We are going to attempt to find Hydrogen Peroxide today, as that is not something they have at the the pharmacy or grocery near us.
Side Note: It was brought to our attention that people were not able to "follow" our blog. We have finally figured it out, and you need to enter your e-mail address in the box under "Follow by Email" (top right). Afterward, you need to click the link they e-mail you to verify your e-mail address. This was a widget we needed to add, so mission accomplished. ;)
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