Well That Was An Eye Opener! continued

 

 

Hospital General Dr. Felipe Garcia Dobarganes, San Miguel de Allende

 

Tania, the darling little social worker made an appointment for me to meet with an oncologist in Leon in about 3 weeks. She also arranged for several blood tests and a chest ex-ray to be done here in the San Miguel general hospital. As I mentioned before, when you are given an appointment you are likely to share it with a lot of other people. Bearing this in mind I arrived at about 7:30 AM for my 8:00 AM appointment for blood tests.

The people having ex-rays, sonograms, CAT scans etc, donating blood, having blood tests or other types of lab work are all driven, like cattle, past one administrative nurse at a desk between the two departments. By 7:30 AM the waiting room for blood testing was full and the lineup to the administration desk went all the way past the ex-ray waiting room and around the corner almost to the front door of the hospital, and the nurse had left the desk as the waiting room was full.

She returned about 8:15 AM when some space in the waiting room had opened up and the lineup began to slowly move forward. I reached the desk at about 9:00 AM. The nurse took my request for blood tests and told me to wait until my name was called. By then the waiting room seats were full again and there was a lineup running the entire length of the waiting room along one windowed wall. Some time between 10:00 and 10:30 AM my name was called and I entered the little room where they take blood for testing, which took about a minute and a half, and I was told that I could pick up my test results the following day between 2:00 and 2:30 PM.

And so, of course, could the other 200 or so people who had just given blood for testing. Considering the amount of people that they deal with every day the hospital is really amazingly efficient and organized, but because of the huge numbers, getting anything done it is still very time consuming.

 

Hospital General Regional de León

 

So the day of my appointment in Leon finally arrived and we set out about 6:00 AM for my 8:00 AM appointment knowing that I would not be alone. There were several doctor’s offices surrounding the waiting room in the oncology department but it was still 11:00 AM before I actually got in to see the doctor. The following was my discussion with Dra. Hernandez Naranjo……

Dra. “ Well I sure hope you speak Spanish, because I don’t speak a word of English!”

Me  “ That’s alright I think I can manage”

Dra. “ Do you have test results, let’s see them”

I gave her my test results and she quickly leafed through them.

Dra. “ Why haven’t you had a CAT scan?  Why haven’t you had an EKG? Why haven’t you had this, this, this, this and this blood test? I mean really, what are you doing here?”

Me “ummmm”

Dra, (writing furiously) “Here is a list of all the tests that I need you to have before I can operate. Now go back to San Miguel de Allende and I’ll see you in three weeks!”

Me (meekly) “Yes Dra.”

Dra. “ Well I don’t want you dying on the operating table!”

And so I went, tail between my legs, back to Tania with a list of tests that took every day of the three weeks I had before I had to see Dra. Hernandez Naranjo again.

To be continued……again.