We had an unplanned experience with the Australian Health Care System Saturday night. I took off my shirt in preparation for bed when we realized the two bug bites on my side had become infected and were the source of some scary looking red streaks spreading outward. About three years ago something very similar happened on two different occasions. Both times required visits to the emergency room and large quantities of antibiotics. We thought, “Oh no, here we go again…” We were going to take a taxi to the nearest hospital but our kind neighbor Delia offered to drive us.
After meeting with the triage nurse we waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile, a parade of strange characters entered and occasionally exited the emergency room including a young man with a bloody gash over his eyebrow who couldn’t stop talking about pizza, a rowdy pack of punks, one of whom had a hand cut up from punching out a window, and a overweight woman on a gurney who was so dying for a smoke that pizza boy was seriously contemplating giving her one of his cigarettes and wheeling her gurney outside so she could smoke it. All I’m thinking at this time is, “Please, just give me some antibiotics so I can get the hell out of here!”
On this busy Saturday night four and a half very long hours passed before we were taken back to see the doctor. Given my past history it didn’t take long for the doctor to figure out what was needed. We spent more time discussing what a bad area we were living in and how this particular hospital was in an even worse one. We described our waiting room experience. He said, “Yeah, it’s scary out there isn’t it?” But even with my box of antibiotics in hand, we then had to call three different times and wait an entire hour for a taxi to show up. By the time we got home it was 5:30 in the morning, seven hours after the ordeal began. The dogs were very glad to see us.
We slept until 11:30 and were relieved to see my wound looked better already. Happily, I continue to improve. Since I seem to be susceptible to this the next trip I’m going to keep a supply of antibiotics with me just in case. In the meantime I have to keep my bug bites clean and resist the urge to scratch. That emergency room experience provides plenty of motivation to keep me in line.
