I have not been feeling well this last week and I kept trying to treat myself w cranberry and other things. Went in service and was just dragging so I decided I had to see a dr. Well in Portugal you can't just go to a dr (that you are not an est. Patient of) , you must go to the ER. So once again our dear Crystal came and rescued us and took us to the public hospital. We said "oh just show us where it is, we'll be okay". I am so thankful that she didn't listen. She described it as a zoo and that was an understatement!
We walk in the doors and there are probably 100 people milling around with no seeming order to anything. Crystal asked one person where we should go and as we went that way they turned us around and sent us back to the place we had been. They spoke very little English and we all know how much Portuguese I speak! The halls were lined with stretchers from ambulances...at one time I saw 5 or 6 lined up with ambulance drivers telling jokes loudly, lined up with their charges.
First I got registered and you pay just for that...20 euros plus. After a wait you see a triage nurse who evaluates you. Then we waited probably 3 hrs to see the dr. He was very nice and spoke some English. After he examined me I gave a urine sample and waited another hr while they tested it and then went in to see the dr again. He gave me a prescription on a piece of paper that he said was not official until I took it back out to the zoo and had it stamped. Very official now!
The bank machine was out of money and they only take cash so we pooled together enough money ( 115 euros and 1 euro for urine test!).
Had enough left over to get antibiotics, about 12 euros w the pain pill he gave me. We were there around 4 hr 15 minutes and I thought you would have spent that much time in the US so there must have been some order behind the chaos. Crystal very calmly left us to keep her next appt. for service. What a gem!
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