Off to the hospital

We don't often talk about health issues, unless they directly affect our travels. And really, we don't have any health issues. We're both healthy and in good condition and neither one of us take any medications for anything.

So when something goes wrong, it's a bit frustrating.

The day we left for Calgary, Ruth mentioned she had a pain in her right lower back, and she felt a bit lethargic and nauseous. This reminded her of the kidney infection she had when we were in Colombia in 2015.

And by Thursday night, we knew something was not right.  By that time, she was popping Advil every four hours and had shakes and fever if she didn't. The exact symptoms she had in Colombia. That time, the problem was quickly fixed with Cipro, which is available without a prescription down there.

But not here.

So, we headed into Swift Current yesterday to go to the walk in clinic.

Canada's health care works well for some things, but not so well for others. Many people have no family doctor, and in the case of the little town of Cabri, they used to have a town doctor, but he moved out a year and a half ago and has been replaced by a nurse practitioner and you need to book well in advance to get in to see her.

We were at the walk in clinic around 11:00am and we were surprised that there weren't many cars in the parking lot, and there didn't look to be many people in the waiting room. Inside, the reception girl asked if we had an appointment, but of course we didn't. She said "sorry, we're not taking any more patients and you'll have to come back at 5:00pm when it will be first come first served".

So it turns out that so many people show up when the place first opens that they book them for the day so they don't have to hang around. Otherwise, if it is more serious, they send you directly to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, I suggested that we stop at a pharmacy and see what the pharmacist says. So we did that, and the guy was really helpful, but said that he could not give us Cipro without a prescription but that there were other more mild antibiotics that he could.

The Cipro worked last time, so we figured we had better go to the hospital and get it that way.

Fortunately, the hospital was not busy and Ruth was taken pretty much right away. Over the next three hours, they took a urine sample, did a CT scan, came to the conclusion that she has a kidney infection, and gave her a prescription for antibiotics and a pain killer. Ruth asked about Cirpo, but he said this other one would work fine. I don't have the name of it right in front of me.

Anyhow, then it was back to the pharmacist where he said "Oh, that's one of the ones I could have given you without a prescription, but I thought your symptoms appeared too severe for that one".

Frustrating. Anyhow, she's taking the pills now, but no improvement yet. The doctor did say it would likely take 24 hours to start to see some improvement. She also says that the Advil worked better than the prescription pain killer.

So, I'm going to go down to the park today and help out a bit. Ruth will stay here and rest.

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