No News isn't Necessarily Good News

Thursday, July 14, 2011 0 comments
Well, I'm going to start writing this post despite the fact that I don't have any new news.  It's 3:30 in the afternoon here, and the doctors have already made their morning rounds, but, once again, nobody has come to take a look at Mauri's wound.  Just a little while ago I decided to go out to the nurses' area of the trauma ward to ask about it because we were promised that today a doctor would definitely come by and visit Mauri to take a look and tell us something.
When I asked the nurses if the doctor still was making rounds, the nurse I spoke to seemed surprised by my question.  I guess she figured rounds were over.  Mauri's room is in a dead end branch with only two rooms at the very end of a long corridor, and it feels like we aren't a part of the rest of the hallway of rooms which comprises the trauma ward.
She proceeded to ask another nurse, who asked if I was asking about Mauricio.  I nodded...
Well, when the doctor was going to go see him, he was called into surgery.
But he will be coming to see him, right?
Supposedly
It's just that no doctors have seen the wound since last Sunday!!  On Monday a doctor came by, but the nurses had just changed his bandages, so she didn't look at the wound and just asked if it had bled a lot.
Since then, nobody, doctors nor nurses, have given the wound so much as a glance.
There are times that it feels like this is a big joke, and you're waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and say that we've been punked.  I mean even with yesterday being a holiday, I was able to go to the supermarket and buy food at almost 9PM on the way home.  I'm usually complaining about the schedule that the supermarkets are open because the government has stupid, unemployment-causing laws about the number of holidays/Sundays and daily hours the bigger stores can be open.  Sadly, though, it seems like the hospitals are "open" even fewer hours.
In a logical world, hospitals would have the most working hours followed by grocery stores and pharmacies and then bars and restaurants.  Here, though, it's the complete opposite.  Bars (and some restaurants) are the most important, and there are always some open.  There is always one pharmacy open for the whole city, but it may only be open for emergency prescription filling.  So, if you are awake with the sniffles and looking for something to soothe you to sleep in the middle of the night, don't bother going to the open pharmacy because they won't give it to you.  Trust me, I know from experience.  Unless you go to the ER looking for a prescription, you are out of luck.
If your aquarium breaks in the middle of the night, you can't rush to Meijer's at 5AM for a new one to save your fish like you can in Michigan.  Yes, that is from experience, too.  In fact, if it breaks during Saturday's lunch hour, don't expect to find an aquarium anywhere until after 10AM on Monday.  That, of course, is assuming it isn't a holiday weekend, because in that case it may be even longer.
So, while fiestas can be fun, they can also be a huge source of frustration.
As for Eric, he seems to be doing better, and I doubt I will bring him in for the appointment with his doctor tomorrow morning.  At the suggestion of one of the neighbors, Mauri's mom had put some talcum powder on one of the affected areas and thought it had improved quite a bit.  After warning her that they no longer suggest you use talcum powder, especially on babies, due to the risk of inhaling the powder which can irritate the lungs like asbestos, I decided that the idea, in itself, had been good.  So, I made a safer paste out of cornstarch and virgin coconut oil to spread on the areas.  I figured that a paste would avoid the mess of a powder, but the cornstarch would help absorb sweat, and the coconut oil (also with antifungal and antibacterial properties) would moisturize the area at the same time.
When he woke up, the rash had pretty much disappeared.  I could still see a little bit of red where the raised spots had been, but there isn't really a rash anymore.  So, it makes no sense to bring Eric to have the doctor take a look at nothing, especially when I have other things to worry about right now.
Who knows what Eric had?  It was likely a heat rash or something like that.
Well, it is now 4PM, and things haven't changed.  So, I guess I'll make a new entry as soon as I have something new to tell.

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