Aaround 6 years ago - I got a really bad rash on my lower left leg, which was painful, almost purple in colour, with the skin very dry and it appeared to be spreading. I went to our hospital here - which doesn't have an A&E - signed in and was asked to wait. This was just after 8 in the morning ... and I eventually saw the doctor at 4.00pm! There was a Dengue epidemic at the time, so I realised my problem was possibly not as life-threatening, and as it was my first visit to the hospital I wasn't sure if this was the norm!
When I finally got in the young doctor was very apologetic - he knew I had been waiting hours, and explained that he was the only doctor, with two nurses, for a population of around 10,000, funding was terrible, and he, in fact, hadn't been paid for months! He had a look at my leg and said he thought I should go and see a dermatologist in Seabra, some 70kms (40miles) away, but prescribed some cream. Next day I drove to Seabra, only to find that the dermatologist only holds a clinic twice a month, and the next one is 10 days away! I try to make an appointment but they tell me to just turn up on the day.
The rash spreads a little and also appears on my left arm, but not so bad, but by the time the clinic day arrives it is somewhat improved. I drive again to Seabra arriving just before 9.00am, and take a ticket - the ticket is just to be checked in at reception - so take a seat. After about 90 minutes my number is called, so I register, pay the R$300 (at the time about £75) consultation fee, and am told to come back at 11.30! I go and wander round Seabra for a couple of hours and come back and am told to take a seat again and my name will be called.Around 2.00pm I am called and see the dermatologist. He looks carefully at the rashes and tells me he thinks I should have some blood tests and come back again, but gives me a prescription for some more cream! I did tell him I had done some work in my garden and wondered if it was a plant allergy, something like poison ivy.
He gave me a piece of paper with a list of the tests he wants me to have done, so I take that to the local testing clinic back home and they tell me these will cost R$380 (£95), so I have some blood taken, and give them a urine sample, and wait for the results to come back - about 5 days. I then have to wait for the next dermatologist clinic, during which time my left leg heals, but I get another smaller rash on the right leg, and also some irritation on my right arm.
Clinic day and I head for Seabra, earlier than before so I arrive there at 8.15 (they open at 8.00) and the place is heaving! I take a number and this time it takes 90 minutes to get processed! When I am finally called my appointment is at .... 4.00pm! So I go home - rather than spend over 6 hours in Seabra. I am back there at 3.30 and am told to take a seat in a different waiting area, but that he is running a "little late". It was 7.30 before I get called in! He looks at the test result, looks again at my (by now much improved) arm and leg, and proceeds to tell me I have "sun insensitivity"! As I drive that it why it was worst on my left arm (left hand drive here) and leg! I explain that I only drive my car to come to Seabra, and in the intervening period I use a motorbike, so surely this "insensitivity" would manifest itself in other areas of my body - and that I felt, as I explained before, that it was possibly caused by a "poison ivy" type of plant in my garden that I was allergic to?
He repeated that it was a sun sensitivity and that I should cover up in the sun, and use SPF80 sunscreen all the time! Then said if it got any worse I should come and see him again! I finally got home around 9.00pm!
Fortunately I have not had the problem since, but am still not at all convinced it was caused by exposure to the sun - and I do not cover myself in factor 80 every time I go out - but I did learn a lot about the state of the Brazilian medical system - and that time is relative here!!
Circumstances made me move to Brazil in 2009, and I spent 6 months of the year there, and the remaining time in Peru, until 2020 when the Covid hit, trapping me in Peru for 14 months, before I managed to return to the UK, where I now reside permanently. I see the world through slightly rose-tinted glasses, but maybe because I have been fortunate in not suffering too many hardships along the way, and maintaining an optimistic, but realistic outlook on life.
Showing posts with label Dermatologist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dermatologist. Show all posts
Thursday, 1 February 2018
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