The Goa Medical System

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Yup, another day in the hospital, we checked out the Goa medical services today. This time it was me who needed attention. I woke up today with a swell just behind my large toe on the left foot. It hurts to walk - hurts a lot! Had to limp all day long. That's was just one of my problems. The other - both my eyes are quite red today, same symptoms as Prem’s which she had in Trivandrum a week ago, though not quite tomato red like hers. Off to the local hospital, The Vintage Hospital at about 9:30am. Yes, that's the name of the hospital. True to its name, things are indeed “vintage” in this hospital! Ok, so I'm comparing it to a North American hospital, maybe it’s not fair.

We started off by seeing a doctor, both of us, in the emergency ward. He took my vitals, looked at my foot and called in another doctor (senior doctor) who immediately suspected that I had a uric acid build up that is causing the swell. Of course, to confirm his clinical diagnosis, he will have to test some blood for uric acid levels!! Imagine my horror! Anyway, I had no way out of this one. I eventually succumbed and did have some blood TAKEN out of me. Thought I did not make such a big fuss but Prem may have a different story. Also, my cough got worse overnight and I started coughing badly just like Prem. She insisted that I get it checked and get antibiotics for it.

Meanwhile Prem got checked as well, she was complaining of some pain in the rib area because of the constant cough. They wanted her to get an x-ray for this, so she did. She also had her blood taken and tested simply because! (Prem: Indeed, it took a mere 20mins to get Ramesh settled down before taking his blood!!! Even the nurses were getting impatient!)

While waiting for the x-ray and the blood test results, we were referred to an ophthalmologist in a different clinic, De Sousa Retina & Laser Eye Clinic, so off we went by auto-rickshaw to that clinic. The doctor there saw me first and immediately diagnosed me with conjunctivitis! He prescribed the same antibiotic eye drops as what Prem had in Trivandrum last week. I must have got it from her. The doctor then checked Prem's eyes out and they look fine, hers has started clearing up well.

Then we had head back to the Vintage Hospital for the results. Got there just after 2:00pm. Results were back. Prem's x-ray was clear; she may have pulled a muscle they say. I on the other hand have gout on my foot! Indeed the level of uric acid in my foot was elevated and may have been caused, according to the doctor, by shellfish, prawns, etc. I have had prawns pretty much every day for the last week or so.

Got our medicine at the hospital pharmacy and from another pharmacy a distance away because the first one did not have one of the prescribed medications. This time the hospital visit cost Rs.1580 ($42) for the both of us. This includes the consultation, blood tests for both of us and the x-ray for Prem. All the meds cost about Rs.700 ($19) today. At this point, it was about 3:15pm or so. We still had not had breakfast or lunch! We landed up at the Marriot hotel here in Panjim for food, what else! Had some more authentic Goan food, the Prawn Balchao and Prem tried some Indian wine (Chardonnay). The wine was not good according to her but the Balchao was just awesome - we both agree. Ok, so I'm not supposed to have prawns and stuff but I couldn't resist, I may suffer the consequences tonight!

Tomorrow, we go on a tour. We hired a driver to take us to a few places that we identified all around Goa ending up at a beach to watch the sunset. Cost for the driver is Rs.1350 for the day. Hopefully things work out as planned tomorrow and I can still walk!

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Photos

Late lunch at the Marriott, Goa
After the hospital ordeal. Me, after having half my blood drained... Spent the whole morning and a better part of the afternoon at the Vintage Hospital and the Eye Specialist Centre. We had our 'lunch' at 3pm in the Marriott Hotel.

Mother Mary & Ganesha side-by-side
Taken at the Vintage Hospital reception area.

Exchanging feni stories at the Vintage hospital!
Prem chatting with the English guy from London. Working as a nurse in London, he's been to Goa 9 times! He loves it here. This is the guy who told us how he found feni to be potent as a rocket. We were exchanging stories as to how we found it super strong, and just couldn't finish our drinks.

Comments

[Shantha]

Oh my
Oh my goodness you two are a wreck! I guess that's what happens when you go to india ... I'm glad you are starting to feel better Prem, I had the same rib thing with my india cold however, and the soreness lasted for months ... codeine helps though, it stops you from coughing.

[Cempaka]

Rib soreness
Yeah, my ribs are still hurting like hell. It's not going soon, I've experienced it back home when I had bronchitis. You're right - it does take ages to heal. The medicine I got was codeine syrup but I found the Contact cough medicine we brought from Canada works better, esp. fior Ramesh's cough. Good thing we had good old Pepto-Bismol with us too! Ramesh has a bad bout of diarrhea and it most definitely helped. Truth be told, Ramesh has it worse than me. For me, it was my conjunctivitis and stupid cough which is still bad to this day. But for Ramesh, he has gout, coughs, conjunctivitis and diarrhea. This is the worst I've ever seen him sick!! Thank god his gout is much better, same with the eye. But the nagging cough still is there, esp at night for both of us. The antibiotics helped but I think we could do with more....

[Ket]

get better!
Did you guys plan the 'medical facilities of India' tour ;-) Seriously, hope you are feeling better soon and continue to enjoy the trip! Looking forward to more stories when you're back! Ahhhh.. the adventure that is India!