Medical services

After a weekend in bed, I felt a little bit better this morning, due to all the ibuprofen I swallowed, no doubt.

Still, I have never seen my tonsils in such a bad shape, so I went to the doctor, nonetheless.

I was afraid they’d put me in a hospital right away for immediate surgery (a friend of mine had to have that down urgently once) and I was afraid I’d miss all my flight and my travel plans would collapse like a house of cards.

Where to find a doctor in Mexico? Well, the German embassy has a list of German speaking doctors.

But my friends advised me otherwise: go to one of the pharmacy chains nearby. Most of them actually have a doctor on call there, who can prescribe what is necessary.

So I went and saw Dr. Noé de Jesús Sánchez Vargas, who looked quickly into my throat, nodded, took my blood pressure (Dr. Keller in Brussels would not be happy!), listened to my lungs, then wrote the prescription for antibiotics, more ibuprofen and vitamin C.

All for the moderate fee of 40 Mexican Pesos, roughly 2 Euro and 35 cent. Human prices.

The medicine came in at 300 Pesos, some 17 Euro.

Back in Brussels, Dr. Keller would have cost 35 Euro. However, I would have seen her about 30 minutes, not only 2.

Last time I went to a doctor in the US, those 2 minutes came at a price of some 150 Dollars…

I start to feel better. My tonsils are getting smaller and return to a normal color. I still have trouble swallowing, and I’m tired, but I’m going to be ok.

It’s just a pity, it is such a beautiful, sunny and warm early autumn day… I want to walk around, sit in the sun, enjoy… and I’m crawling back to bed.