Being Sick Abroad

I hates it.

Not because the healthcare system is bad mind you, but because I hate being sick in general and I hate it even more in a foreign country far away from my mother and familiar medication. So let's talk about the healthcare here.

I have the national insurance. Once I got my residency visa, I automatically got covered by the government healthcare. Luckily, there is a place near my school that accepts it. Sure, there are private healthcare insurances (especially since ours doesn't cover maternity or dental I think) but the school uses the national healthcare. I saw a general practitioner last night. She was a nice lady from Lebanon. She admired my Egyptian necklace and we talked a bit about our trips to Egypt. She and her nurse examined me just as well as any doctor would at home.

The office looked just like any other doctor's office, just bigger. It houses a whole bunch of specialists, too. She spoke pretty good English, as did most of the staff. The nurses were Arabic, Filipino, and Indian. Most of the doctors there were Indian or Arabic. The language that connects them all is English. Thank goodness for that.

I will say this. They give out medication like it's candy. The doctor wrote me no less than FOUR prescriptions: a nasal spray, a cold and flu med, an antibiotic, and an effervescent expectorant (dissolve in water and drink it). Talk about treatment by shock and awe! It's like they treat sickness by attacking it with a bit of everything! And I didn't pay for any of it. The copay for the visit came to 50 AED (about $15 USD). It was the cheapest doctor's visit I have ever had.

I went again today because I am having back problems. Again. I paid my 50 AED copay, and that included my x-rays and prescription. Amazing. What was also amazing was what the radiologist said. A few years back, I was in a car accident. That was when my back problems started. I had x-rays at that time, but was told that nothing showed up and that there was no bone injury. The doctor I saw today had x-rays taken, but not just of me lying flat but also lying on my side. The x-rays taken a few years ago were only of me lying flat if I remember correctly. The radiologist said he saw evidence of an older bone injury indicated by the disparity of the space between the disks at the lower end of my spine. He said that when there is a bone injury, sometimes it heals with a kind of bump which can irritate the nerves and cause the muscles to spasm. Right now, the muscles are so tight that they are pulling my spine completely straight which is what is causing discomfort when I stay in any position too long. This was all seen in the side view of my spine. Whodathunkit?

Anymawho, the long and short of it is they are recommending me for physical therapy. Again. They need to get a pre-approval for it. They have a ladies PT facility right there, only five minutes from school. They want me to come every day. Because the other doctor had prescribed such a barrage of medications, the ortho doctor did not want to give me pills. He did prescribe a muscle relaxing gel, though. Hopefully that will help release the deathgrip my muscles have on each other currently.

All in all? Yeah, healthcare is a strange experience here. The communication is fair, but stilted because I have to speak slowly and listen carefully to everything everyone says because they all have such thick accents from all over the place. The clinic is very busy and services mostly Arabs so I stick out like an elephant in the waiting room. But overall? A fairly positive experience, I would say. Definitely something good to say for their national healthcare here.