Receiving medical care in a country other than your own is scary, no matter the illness or injury.  What if we don’t have a common language? What if I’m allergic to something? What if? What if? What if?  Truth is – I have been very fortunate and with the exception of reacting to a Chinese traditional medicine that was “impossible” to react to, the care I’ve received has been just as good, if not better than the States.  In many ways, I would say that is also true for my latest and greatest exploration of “healthcare abroad.”

In case you missed it in my last post, I was bitten by a camel.  Yep, a camel – feel free to laugh at the absurdity of this.  Everyone, including the doctor, thought this was odd. “Camels don’t normally bite,” I was told.  Well that’s great, but currently I don’t care what their normal behavior is – I have a hand the size of a nerf football, hence begins this tale of a trip to the Moroccan ER.

Sanitized with vodka and wrapped with a turban

I thought the adventure would begin with seeing the doctor, nope – first you have to find the ER.  As ERs are normally for emergencies, it should be straightforward. Incorrect.  It was a MAZE, and this wasn’t for my lack of reading “Urgencies” on French signs.  There were no signs.  We ended up going through a “do not enter” door in order to get the general vicinity only to find that what we thought was registration was really check out. Finally, a sympathetic paramedic escorted us to the correct place.

All I had to do was hold up my hand and say “Un chameau m’a mordu.  Je voudrais de voir un docteur.  Parle anglais?”  A nice gentleman that was chilling behind the desk in brown scrubs with long, rocker style hair jumped up and said “Oui” then led me to the nearest room.  He was the doctor! I was in an ER and talking with a doctor within 30 seconds of finding the ER!!!! I had come equipped with Netflix, prepared to wait hours.

The doctor proceeded to look at my hand and announce that is was infected.  Oh yes, it’s huge and I can use it to warm my nose.  Wicked inflected.  We had a nice conversation about all the antibiotics I’m allergic to, which confused him a bit.  Next thing I know, the nurses were sticking me with an IV and I was getting pumped full of drugs.  I’d like to call-out, best IV insertion ever.  The guy actually listened to me when I said, don’t try my hand – A+ satisfaction.

What’s missing from the above? Registering, asking my name, paperwork.  You are right! None of that happened! I went through this whole interaction without any personal details other than allergies.  Once the IV was in, the doctor decided it was time for me to register, but don’t worry I didn’t actually have to do it – Zach, a friend from the trip, got to have all that fun which literally consisted of handing over my passport and getting labels in return.

The rest of the process was uneventful.  While I got pumped full of solutions from unknown IV bags, we passed the time watching House of Cards on my iPad.  Pretty sure the hospital staff were just as intrigued as we had numerous people peep into the room.  At one point, the doctor came in with my prescriptions (antibiotics, pain killers -Tylenol strength and a cream to for my hand). Once the IV was emptied, the doctor told Zach to go pay my bill and 3 minutes later the nurse took my IV out.  After an awkward moment of silence, I realized I was free to leave.  Found Zach paying the bill, all of $52!  Two hours later, 3 bags of IV solutions and only $52.

“The Cure”

Final adventure of the day was filling these prescriptions.  SO easy again.  Walked into a pharmacy.  Handed over prescription.  Received something similar to what is on there.  Worked for me.  The issue was that they only had one box of the antibiotics.  No worries, I was told to just keep prescription and go to another pharmacy.  This is exactly what I did 3 days later in Marrakesh.  Walked in and said I needed 2 more boxes of antibiotics.  No questions asked – totally a normal thing to do.  Definitely made me wonder if we make medical care more complicated in the US than it needs to be.

Two weeks later and the infection is gone.  The main wound is slowly healing.  I’ve decided that if it leaves a scar, I’ll be getting a camel bitmoji tattoo over it.

I’d like to quickly thank everyone on the We Roam desert trip for helping me out during that week.  Hilary and Francesca put my hair up in a ponytail and helped dress me when I couldn’t move.  Krista’s tea tree oil and castile soap worked miracles and she was always there to keep an eye on the wound.  Diana lifted all of my suitcases as we moved to Chile. And last but not least, Zach – who ended up on hospital duty and kept me sane on the 15 hour bus ride!  Thank you all so much!

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