Public v. Private Health Care

Yesterday I witnessed first hand the differences between public and private health care. It made me wonder what our country is thinking. So I've continued being sick. I know I've blogged a couple of times about so reocurring problems I've had here, but it all came to a head yesterday. I had been so sick over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday that I became dehydrated yesterday. I left school and went to the local clinic to turn in some samples and get blood drawn but they only do that from 7-9 and since I got there at 9:20, I couldn't do it. I also wasn't able to see a doctor because I hadn't stood in line at 6 a.m. to get an appointment and now the doctor was filled the whole day. I went home so frustrated and even sicker from walking around. Some friends suggested I go to the public emergency room because I was dehydrated, so my Tico family took me over there. Ridiculous. We waited 1/2 in line to get in the building. I finally got in the door where two ladies took my blood pressure and asked me what was going on. She told me my pulse was really low and gave me a green card and told me to go wait in another line and then sit down. I got through that line and went and sat down with a million other people. I learned that everyone gets a green card unless you are a life-threatening emergency (red card) or high pain emergency (yellow card). You must wait in the order you come if you're a green card, unless more yellow or reds come. In summary, I waited at least two hours to be attended to. I was dying on that bench. Some older lady kept talking to me and finally went up to the window and said I needed to be taken care of. They told her there were 7 more people in front of me, so I waited. I finally got in. The doctor asked a couple of questions, felt around in my stomach and gave me papers and told me to go wait in another line. I waited in this line to get two injections in the bum (don't know what they were) for another half an hour. Then I was sent to another line for another half an hour to get medications. So five hours later, I got home still incredibly dehydrated, but with money in my pocket because it was free. Kate and Albin came home and put me in the car and took me to Clinica Biblica (a private hospital). Within twenty minutes of arriving, I was put in a bed, and hooked up to an IV. They took my samples and did a blood test, spent a good amount of time with me asking questions and poking around. I even got a blanket :). I was there for a long time, but just so they could run all of the tests. What a difference. Of course, the bill was pretty expensive (half my months paycheck expensive), but leaving feeling better and like I finally had some answers was feeling good. So I'm not sure, I mean, thankfully I had the money to pay the bill for the private care which was so much better. And going home sicker than I had been from the free clinic was a little frustrating. It was such an exhausting day. Basically, I don't have any parasites or bacterias, but my blood test came back a little funny. So, if I don't improve in a couple of days, we'll know its not just a virus or something and have to do further testing. I would appreciate your prayers for healing so that I don't have to do the awful clinic again nor the expensive private hopital. :/