Scott's Back! (Ouch!)

Over the years, I've had the misfortune to have had some back problems, first on the starboard side (corrected with a small surgical procedure) and then on the port side (temporarily....as it turns out...corrected via some well placed shots of some good stuff).

I'd recently started to be reminded of my port side problems and was not too happy to be visited by my old friend, but I really did a number on myself when I tried to roll\jump out of bed to respond to an anchor drag alarm....I believe the phrase is I went down like a sack of potatoes.

And this one was really bad, I couldn't sit, try to sit or even try to stand up.

So, Armando had a non-functioning, heap of plasma on his hands that was strongly suggesting that medical professionals were going to be required at some point in the very near future.

I do have a bag of prescription drugs that my physician was good enough to help me put together for the trip, unfortunately I lack a medical dictionary and attempts to alleviate pain might end up with a desperate need to visit the head, exactly the opposite of what was required (someday I need to figure out just what the heck I have in those bottles).

So, Armando weighed anchor and proceeded to the nearest port....some 10nm away.

Now, I could feel sorry for myself, but he's the one with the real problem. He's got to get the boat into port, tie up and engage whatever port authorities he can find to get things sorted out, all without doing any (more) damage to the boat, which has had a tough go of things on this trip.

He handles this beautifully and pulls alongside a pier, a rare thing in the world of Med mooring (which typically involves backing in, tying off to a line on the bow that goes to the seabed and trying to get the stern close enough to the seawall that one can climb off....sometime I'll do a whole posting on this).

I'm thinking...ok, medical 1st responders can probably extract me from the boat (very optimistic thinking if you've ever been down below on Severance and know how small the companionway is) and lift me over the side and get me on the pier.!

And so, he gets assigned a spot (after they told him to leave but he said he wouldn't as we were declaring a medical emergency....which unfortunately for me was me)....and has no real option but to go bow in, which is a feat in and of itself as he's single handling things.

So, now he goes back to the office and inquires about medical assistance....calls go out and an ambulance is sent.

At this point I'm doing the typical American thing about making sure my insurance will cover all this, so I'm on the sat phone trying to get a hold of Diane, who can't answer as she's busy making a living and keeping us covered with health insurance.

So, the ambulance attendants show up, the woman takes one look at how the boat is tied up and stays on the dock, the guy follows Armando onboard and comes down to look at what they are dealing with.

He calls the doctor and explains that he can't even get his assistant on the boat and that it's not going to be possible to get me off and into the clinic and tells the doctor they need to come to the boat.

The only way I know this is that Armando, besides speaking Italian, English, Portugese and a smattering of French, is fluent in Spanish (yes....God looks after atheists!).

So, everyone retreats and within 45 minutes the doctor and her assistant show up, clamber on the boat (along with the ambulance guy but his assistant is still too smart to climb onboard) and she checks me out, we discuss things (she thinks she speaks bad English but I don't) and she orders and injection of a painkiller and cordison(sp?), then gives me an oral antiinflamatory\painkiller, plus a painkiller and Diazapam (to help me sleep and as a muscle relaxer).

She tells me to stay put (no problem there) and to come and see her in two days, which she figures it will take to get me back in condition to stand up and put one foot in front of the other.

As the entire medical contingency leaves I ask Armando to ask for the bill and to try to figure out how to handle all this.

They look back at us with suprise....no bill, they are a public health service!

But I'm not a citizen.....but they say "you had an emergency....you needed help!"

Ok folks.....think about trying this at home.

No Dr would ever be able to come to you, they would have extracted me one way or another, doctors can only see someone in a hospital or clinic.

Anyway, 2 days later I did make my way off the boat and went to the public clinic.

There were maybe 20 people there.

I was asked for a medical card and proudly produced my Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which supposedly pays for things.

They handed it back, some discussions took place and I was instructed to sit in the waiting room.

When my time came (less than 20 minutes) the same doctor and her assistant saw me, we discussed things, she explained her diagnosis and how important it was to continue with the anti-inflammatory meds (and gave me another handful) and I told her about my problems in the past (basically the underlying problems), we talked about therapy and she warned me to not lift anything heavy and to take it easy (typical concerned health professional).....and I again asked about the bill.

And she explained that this was a public health facility. I told her that they had really saved my ass (ok, back) and could I donate what should have been the bill amount....she said they had no way for that to happen.

And then she said, you're going to Brazil.....they have more needs that we do, why don't you wait and donate to something there?

Anyway, read this anyway you want, but (to paraphrase John Lennon), Imagine health care professionals that aren't forced to run a business, not bled dry by lawyers (and those of us that sue) and that get to care for people and that the people (government) just think that health care is something that people should have....

Every health care exchange in the US starts out with "what's your health insurance coverage"....Imagine if it started out with "What's the problem and how can we help you get through this?".

I'm back on my feet, when I get back to the States I'll get out my medical insurance card and work out all the stuff to get more precisely placed injections to get at the root of my problem, but I have to say that I'm really glad that, when I was laid low in a bunk, I landed in a Spanish port....