A blogworthy medical moment

I went to the local frijole lady last Sunday to buy some frijoles.  I took my little container for my 5 cordobas worth of frijoles ( 22 cordobas to the dollar)  and as I turned to leave, smiling down at my frijoles and saying "bien rico" I completely forgot that the little lady and her little husband live in a miniature house ( which is actually very very charming with its tile roof and adobe brick) so my forehead is the same height as the roof rafter sticking out of the side of their house...so, yep, I hit it with all my force and not only was it a rafter, it had a nail ( clavo in Spanish) sticking out of the end of it.  So...I got another hole punched in my head.  I hit it really hard and can even remember feeling the impact in my teeth....so blood started flowing and I asked for some heilo, well, heilo is about as rare as hens teeth so I settled for some water.  The little lady put some sort of salve on it which got me home before it started bleeding again.

 So, I called the PC office, which I am supposed to do and they told me to go to the local er.( we have an actual er here in Malpaisillo since it is the capital of the municipo)   I did and got a Nurse Wratchet there who remembered that you are supposed to apply pressure..boy, did she ever apply pressure with  a rag or something soaked in the old fashioned iodine !!! The doc on duty talked on the phone to the PC doc and they decided to give me a stitch, antibiotics and send me for a x-ray of my skull.  Well, I got the stitch, and the anitbiotics ( 14 cefalexina 500 mg for 42 cordobas , about $2.00 over the counter in a farmacia) but waited on the x-ray and later they all forgot about it.

 It was so funny in their treatment room.   They had these little packages of instruments in a steel tray, wrapped up in paper and I actually thought to myself , how nice, sterile stuff.  Well, they got out a little package, opened it up, used some of the instruments and  after they did what the did to my wound, they rewrapped the remaining instruments in the paper.....not the ones they used on me, and put the package back in the steel tray.   I think here the whole package would be "tainted."  Right ?

It has been amazing , the sympathy I have gotten from the kids for my pitiful little stitch.  They all ask about it and flinch with sympathy when I tell them the story.  so, cute.

So, I went back today to get the stitch out.  I sat on the bench out side the ER door as there were a couple kids in their mother's arms waiting ahead of me.  As I sat there, a couple of young chickens came and went from the ER, pecking whatever they could find.  No one but me even noticed !!

The kids, of course, screamed when the doc looked at them, so when he motioned for me to come in, I commented quietly, no qiero llorar ( I don't want to cry).  I think he knew I was kidding....but, never sure.

He looked at my stitch then went into the other room and came back with a blade of some sort wrapped in a package ( another sterile incident) and I thought, oh good, sterile. Silly me  Well, you can guess, he used it to cut my stitch out  then he put it back in its paper and laid it on the table there in the treatment room ( waiting for the next gringo to wander in, I guess)

So, I'll have to find something else to arouse the sympathy of the kids....my stitch is gone.

PS.  The frijoles were fabulous !!!!!

More later.
Pat