Infecciones

Well, that "darned scratchy throat" become unbearable Monday night, and yesterday I went to the hospital hoping that they would be able to give me something to subside el dolor insoportable (untolerable pain). But here's about how my day went:
I woke up at 8, when my host mom came into my room asking if I wanted to go to the university's infermery. I did, but I wanted to sleep a little longer, so she said she would call Ivelina to see when it was open until. I woke up again at 11, and went to see if Jaime would take me there. We got in the car and first drove to Taco Bell for lunch (Taco Bell is so different here... they serve fries...), but then Jaime got a phone call from our dad. He said that some guys, I guess related to us somehow, were going to meet us at Taco Bell and then look at our car. So we let them look, opened the front hood, and then left. Jaime was pretty sure that it was a drug pass, but I think that's just a theory we like to toss around. Most likely, the guys are going to buy the car later on. At least, I hope that's what it is. Then Nela called Jaime and said that the infermery closes at 7:30 am... I asked what time it opened, and she said 7:30. You have to be there at 7:30 and then they close the doors for the day, like a quota or whatever. What a terrible way to run your health services! If someone gets violently ill at 2:00 pm, too bad, come back tomorrow morning or go to the hospital. So we decided the hospital was our best bet.
Then we had to go back home to change cars, and then Jaime got yet another phone call from dad saying to go to San Jose to pick up some papers at a lawyer's office. That took forever because the place was hidden in a parking lot. Then we had to go home again to change cars because my host mom can only drive the one that we had taken. Then finally, at 5:30 we set off for the hospital. Jaime wanted to take me to the nicest one, which was back in San Jose. Traffic was of course horrible, rush hour in Central America is not pretty, and we arrived at CIMA (the best hospital in Central America, supposedly) at 6:30. Jaime was antsy because he had a gig to play back by home at 8 so we were hoping for a quick time. They took my name and info, and thankfully we were seen within about 10 minutes. The doctor was really nice, and told me that I had an infection - but that it had spread from my throat to my ear. Not cool. So he gave me a heavy antibiotic, something to get all the congestion away that had formed, and another to stop the headache-inducing cough. We got home at 7:47. Nice.
I'm feeling a lot better today with the meds flowing, but I am trying to shake this cough that I have. Every time I inhale, I experience a shortness of breath and a little tickle in my throat which causes me to cough... a lot. Yes, it's getting better, but over the course of this past week, I have used up the entire bottle of cough medicine that I brought with me.
And here are my thoughts: First of all, I wish that people here believed more in modern medicine. I appreciate all the home remedies because obviously they want me to feel better, but come on, all that honey and lemon juice does is make me pucker my lips. Nothing is to cure, just to sooth the symptoms. Another thing, I just wanted to go to the hospital. Nothing that hard. But I had to wait for almost an entire day before that could happen. It's hard being in a country without direct family, because, even though I know my family cares about me, they're not going to drop everything and take me. And I can't take myself like I would in the states, because I can't drive and the taxi ride would cost a fortune. It just stinks being dependently independent, you know? And I had to take a little timeout from life when we were home switching cars just to let it all out, cry out my frustration and homesickness. We passed Tony Roma's, Outback Steakhouse, and all these other places that reminded my of home, of friends, or of other good times that I wasn't experiencing. Hopefully, if there's a next time I get sick, I can just take care of myself from the get-go and not wait forever.