Kidney

The next thing I needed to attend to was the urine in my blood. I scheduled a 2:00 taxi ride to take me back to the San Fernando medical center. At about 1:50 the skies opened and thunder boomed. The type of thunder that was setting off multiple car alarms and shaking the building. The rain was torrential.

I went out front, intending to wait under cover but the cab was there. By 2:08 I was in the office for my 3:00 appointment. In half an hour I saw the doctor. We had a short interview and he gave me an exam. He pressed on my chest and abdomen and then worked on my back, when he hit my kidneys my legs kicked, my body shook and I groaned. The exam was finished, he brought into his office and ordered a UROCAT TOMOGRAFIA, a CAT scan for examining the kidneys, marked "URGENTE".

So, off I made my way to imaging services service order in hand, paid my $240 fee, waited 10 minutes and got my exam. "Quentos tiempo pora resulta?" "Manana" "No, este urgente." "Media hora". I was told to have a seat in the waiting area and they would give me the results in half an hour. I have never had a cat scan result delivered to me. I waited an hour and a half and went back to the urologist. The receptionist called into the doctor who was with a patient. The doctor acknowledged that he had received the results and that I should wait there. About 5:30 I saw the doctor who advised me that although my kidney is bruised there are no hematomas present. The good doctor wrote me up a prescription for some serious pain meds and a cream to be applied over the traumatized area. I paid his $45 fee and left.

Off to the pharmacy I fulfilled my prescriptions in four minutes. The boxes were pulled off the shelf and the little plastic aluminum pill trays pulled out and scissored if a fraction were necessary. The usage labels applied to little paper bags and the packets put inside.

In the states it would take 30 to 60 minutes and little plastic bottles would be filled with loose pills. This system seems a bit better.

?? Dollars later I headed out and started to the street to catch a taxi. I spotted the McDonalds next to the hospital and thought, yeah, this is easier than doing anything else. I ordered an Angus Burger Meal. I received my fries and water and was given incomprehensible instructions. I walked off ate my fries, drank two glasses of water. No burger was delivered to me so I walked back to the counter and gave them a WTF look. They immediately surrendered a burger to me. I sat down and looked at it and thought "who the hell eats this much food?" I ate half the burger, threw the rest in the trash and caught a cab back to the hostel.

In my room my applied the cream, then I popped one of Dr Feelgood's painkillers. Thirty minutes later, life was good.