Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ecuadorian health care, what can I say?

On Sunday, two weeks ago, Jomayra stood in front of her church family and shared her testimony of deciding to go her own way instead of God’s way. It was really touching and I admire her and her courage so much. She spoke with grace and humility and her words were powerful. She shared her repentant heart in a simple, transparent way. I was moved by what she did. It took a lot of guts to get up in front of everyone and share her situation and her feelings about it. Yes, she made some decisions that she regrets (haven’t we all?), but I see a woman of character in her. I see strength and humility and courage. I see genuineness and vulnerability and honesty. I see a lot of what I want to be in her attitude and that’s such a blessing. I think it could have been a lot worse for her. She could have chosen to live in shame and embarrassment forever, shutting herself off from her friends and her church, building up a wall between herself and God, feeling like she let him down and the baby she’s now expecting is nothing more than a consequence of her actions. But that is not the decision she’s made. I think making bad choices is a part of life (an unfortunate part). And I think sometimes when we do choose foolishly, we feel like any credibility we may have had as image-bearers of God is gone. But I see firsthand in Jomayra that sometimes the best witness we have is what we do and how we respond after making a decision that caused us to stumble or fall. Jomayra made it clear that she wants to make wise choices from here on out and shared how she feels that the child she is expecting is a gift from God; a blessing, not a consequence and asked her church family to help her to raise her child in God’s love and in His ways. I thought that was really neat. Thank you for your prayers for her!

Well, I moved back to El Recreo last week, back to Gregorio’s house. I felt I accomplished all that I wanted to in Los Samanes, and it was time to come back to Recreo. I was going to post a blog last week and then BAM…strep throat.

No kidding, the two times in my adult(?) life that I have had strep throat, it has been the worst pain imaginable. Is it just me? I don’t know. It was awful. I had a 103 fever for two days that sporadically dropped down to 101 and then back up again. I had shooting pain in all the muscles in my legs, back and neck. I couldn’t sleep at all for two nights straight. Oh, plus, I’m in South America…so basically, I thought this was the end for me. It was fear, not a sudden burst of energy, that got me up out of bed on Saturday morning asking where I could find some medical attention. I was directed to the clinic here in El Recreo and Kathy (Gregorio’s niece) walked with me the six or so blocks to the clinic. We went in and there was no one waiting so the nurse asked me right away what was the trouble. I told her I had a fever and what looked and felt like an infection in my throat. She asked me where I was from and when I had arrived in Ecuador and then left the room after I answered. She came back a couple minutes later and sat down and explained to me that basically the clinic would not help me because I came from a country where there are cases of the Swine Flu, and that I came to Ecuador around the same time the outbreak happened. She said I needed to go to the hospital in Guayaquil and get tested for Swine Flu before anybody could do anything for me. So…that was great.

Ismael took me to the hospital a few hours later. We had to wear surgical masks as a precaution when we arrived. There was a free clinic trailer outside and we went there first. I walked right in, no waiting, sat down across from the doctor, told her the exact same thing I said at the first clinic—I have a fever and what looks and feels like an infection in my throat. She asked me to pull down my mask so she could look at my throat, she took one look at it for about a second and a half and said, “yeah that looks bad” and then pulled out her prescription pad, wrote three different prescriptions, strangely enough not a single one of which was for more cow bell, and told me to take them inside to the pharmacy. I went in to the pharmacy, stood in line behind three people, got up to the front of the line, handed my prescriptions to the pharmacist, and in about one minute the medicine was in my hands. The only thing was that one prescription called for one pill every six hours for seven days and the free clinic pharmacy only gave me half the amount of pills necessary to complete that. So we had to stop at a regular pharmacy on the way back home.

Total cost of my doctor visit:

Round-trip bus fare for two: $1.20

Antibiotics: $3.36

Racial discrimination: priceless

Someone thinking I had Swine Flu: also priceless


Here’s the other thing…besides being able to purchase antibiotics over the counter at any pharmacy, when prescribed four injections-one daily, you are expected to purchase your own syringes at the pharmacy as well and just go ahead and inject yourself. I did not purchase syringes or inject myself. Ismael’s mom is a nurse and she did it for me. I probably would have really screwed that up. Anyway, I’m feeling much better now. The fever is gone as is the strep throat and now I’m only a little sore in my little backside from the four consecutive shots.

So now, after such an unproductive week, I need to really get back in the swing of things. I'm meeting with Becsy on Friday to interview her. She is a candidate for the University Project. Hopefully that will go well and I can write up a really good bio of her to share based on the interview. She wants to study dentistry. I hope we will find a sponsor for her.

Please pray for me to be able to make up for the lost time, and for me to stay healthy from now on!

2 Comments:

Blogger Denise said...

What a rare and twisted gift it is you have, Amy, that I can't tell whether I'm welling up from concern over your recent challenges, or from laughing (cowbell, ha!). Hang in there. Our prayers for you and all the folks you're helping down there. And remember, there's no such thing as lost time. God never loses or fails to use anything.

11:53 AM  
Blogger Mike J. said...

Cowbell? SNL reference? Are you saying that we should all get sick in Ecuador since it's cheaper? Oh, by the way I knew you didn't have swine flu, that only comes from Sacramento or Washington D.C. *grin*

11:03 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home