In the Peace Corps, strange things happen. Or well, it might be more accurate to say that nothing that happens here is considered strange.
Friday, some stupid yappy dog ran out of his front gate and bit me on the back of the leg. Totally unprovoked. I was so mad. Anyways, so in training they gave us the three-part rabies vaccine, and if you ever get bit you have to have two more doses. So Friday afternoon I had to trek down to the PC office to deal with the vaccine stuff. It should have been relatively simple, except for the fact that both our doctors were in Guatemala for the regional PC med conference.
So, go to office to pick up vaccine and a note. Medical Secretary is "pretty sure" it's just one shot. I'm pretty sure I remember it being more. So anyways, I pretty much have to force her to call the doctor in Guatemala and double check, because it was going to make a difference if I needed to stay in the capital an extra day. Turns out it is two shots and I did need to stay. Lame.
Go I to the emergency room to ask them to shoot it into me. Arrive in ER and explain. Am asked: name, age, phone number, province where I live. Am not asked for ID. Am not asked to sign anything. Am not asked to see the dog bite. Sent to sit on the exam table. Given injection. Nurse took the bloody gauze in her bare hands to throw it away, and then rinsed her hands (no soap) and went back to work. Was done with process. Did not need to see doctor or sign anything for leaving. Neither the nurse nor any other medical staff in the ER had ever heard of the vaccine they were shooting into me.
Can you imagine showing up in an ER in the US with a rabies vaccine and them just saying "oh sure, over here, STAB, ok you can leave now."?
Aye, aye, aye.
I've been out of my site for so long, I need to go back today but I'm just not feeling motivated to do it. Oh, and it appears that someone accidentally, or on purpose, took a big bag of new stuff for my house out of the PC office so now I'm $1300 pesos poorer and I don't have the pillow, towel, kitchen stuff, etc. to show for it. Grr.
About Me
- Kira
- I'm in the Peace Corps in a campo outside of Alta Mira, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. I am brand new, and trying to find my place in my community and in my work. Wish me luck!
Visitors!
1 comment:
"Can you imagine showing up in an ER in the US with a rabies vaccine and them just saying "oh sure, over here, STAB, ok you can leave now."?"
So, true story: a vet student came into one of the ERs where I work and needed to get her pre-rabies series. Now, I am intimately familiar with the process since I was bitten 5 times while in Peru (yeah, yeah, you've seen the scar), but I was surprised that apparently this isn't a super frequent thing in San Diego, and the nurse on duty in the urgent care wasn't sure what the protocol was. It certainly wasn't as cavalier as shake-poke-boot, especially since just the process to make sure they have the billing correct can be a lengthy ordeal, but it was mildly entertaining to sit there and watch the nurse read through the highly technical instructions and teach herself exactly how to administer the vaccine. It was like a scene out of some sort of training manual or nursing school seminar as she worked out just how many CCs to give, where and how to place it (intra muscular, sub-dermal, subcutaneous, etc), and how long she had to wait until the next administration.
The take home point here is that even though it sounds like things were done much more professionally que alla, it still didn't instill a great amount of confidence in either myself or the patient.
Ojala que no te muerda otro perro!
Cuidate mucho!
Post a Comment