Dr. Jaime and a new city

On Friday, I took a trip to a nearby city to see one of the PC-recommended doctors. There isn’t anything wrong with me; my skin has just been going a little crazy since I arrived in site and, with the best insurance ever, I thought it prudent to visit the doctor for free. Basically, if I get a prescription for face wash or whatever, the PC will pay for it. If I go out and buy my own stuff, I pay for it. All toiletry stuff is pretty expensive in general, so I thought this was a good idea. Plus, I also have had two weird white dot things on my eyelids for four or five months that I wanted to get looked at. After calling the PCMOs, they recommended to me a doctor in the nearby city of Ocotepeque (the capital and biggest city in my department of the same name). I was a little nervous, since they hadn’t checked out this doctor like they do for most and he didn’t speak English at all like some do, but they reassured me that several PCVs had seen him and liked him.

With vague directions, I set off for Ocotepeque after breakfast. I decided to go Friday since it wasn’t going to be a good day for me to observe in school and the only other thing I had was a meeting scheduled at three (this was, of course, later cancelled, bringing my total to nine of the last 11 work things I had scheduled). I had talked to my family and one other PCV that had been to Ocotepeque, so I felt like I had an idea of where I was going and what to expect. I was thinking I wouldn’t like it, since no one had said really anything positive about it. I had a very easy trip there, barely having to walk or wait. I even sat with a friend on the bus from Senti to the desvio of San Marco and made a friend with the not-so-creepy bus helper guy on the ride to Ocotepeque. He wasn’t so bad, but after telling him that I didn’t have a phone, I spent the rest of the time I was talking to him praying my phone wouldn’t ring. It didn’t and I got off the bus with him trying to convince me to come back on his 1:30 bus. Sorry, buddy.

So when I got into Ocotepeque, the bus dropped us off right in front of the market, which was nice, since the entirety of the directions I had for the office were “across from the market.” Thanks, PC. I decided I would walk in a square around the market first and only if I didn’t find it then would I start trying to ask for directions. Imagine my surprise when I found the clean, neat, labeled office right after turning onto the second side of the market! I was thrilled. I went in, checking in with a nurse who had dealt with PCVs before. She took out a loose-leaf piece of paper, had me write my name on it, wrote where I was from (using only my municipality but spelling it wrong), and took my blood pressure (normal) and weight (a little bit scary for me, since I had already eaten that day and was fully dressed, but whatever). She then gave me a number and sent me to the waiting room, where I was surprised to find, again, a neat, clean room with a working TV, comfortable chairs, and even a little slide for kids to play on. There was only a mother and child waiting with me. After a few minutes of chatting and me reading a magazine, she was called in. I went in about fifteen minutes later.

Dr. Jaime (that’s his first name so I don’t think I’m giving anything away here) did turn out, indeed, to be a very nice guy. He first wanted to reassure me that he was the PC doctor, which I had no reason to believe he wasn’t, and showed me a card he had from the PC along with reading out the names of all the other PCVs who had come to see him (including a few of their ailments, which is so unethical, but whatever). He asked me about how I was doing in general, took my pulse, and we chatted about Honduras and New Jersey for a bit. Finally, he asked me what I was there for and we talked about my skin and looked at the weird things on my eyes. After looking at my face with a flashlight and magnifying glass and taking a phone call, he asked me some weird questions, like how much exercising I did and whether or not I ate a lot of mantequilla. Finally, he started painstakingly writing down his diagnoses and prescriptions, once in his own notes (my loose-leaf sheet of paper), once for the PC (on a form they had given him in English and Spanish), and once on the prescription sheet for me to take to the pharmacy. But really, overall, I was very impressed with everything -- he also gave me his personal cell phone number. There was minimal waiting, it all felt clean, the doctor was nice and understandable, and I was pleased with the outcome. I was out of the office, following the directions given to me by the nurse to the pharmacy, less than an hour after I’d entered the city. Extremely good by both Honduran and American healthcare standards!

The pharmacy expedition proved to be a bit more challenging, but not unmanageable. I had to try four different places to get my three prescriptions (each place had one or none of what I wanted), two that the nurse had told me about and two that I just found walking around. All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to get to know the city. Everything was located off the main road, which was busy and interesting. I liked the city a lot more than I thought I would, and even found a few restaurants I want to come back to try when I’m not in a time crunch. Even with wanting to make sure I was back for my meeting at three, I had time to walk around a bit, so I took the main road down to that edge of the city, which was only a walk of a few minutes. But it lead me to the two different banks I use, the mayor’s office, and the central park – all good things to know the location of. When I made my way back to the bus station, after getting a cheap iced coffee, I chatted with the bus driver who told me they’d be leaving in about a half an hour. So I went off to visit the market, which was one of the nicest I have been to in Honduras, and bought some apples and strawberries. I went down a few more streets surrounding the market to check out the area, but it wasn’t anything especially interesting.

Finally, I ended up back by the bus station with still about ten minutes to kill. I decided I’d go and buy some of the melty chocolate to use with the strawberries, so I found a nearby place – it’s somewhere between a big pulperia and a small grocery store, but I can’t remember the exact word for it now – and grabbed that. It was while browsing that I found that cheap peanut butter and bought three jars. The owner even let me go to the bathroom there (with toilet paper!), so I was glad to be patronizing his place. I’ll definitely be returning there the next time I head over to Ocotepeque. I went back to the bus and we only left twenty minutes later than the bus driver told me, with him stopping by to say hi and that he was glad I came back for his bus. No problem. The ride back was slow and chilly, but I arrived in Senti with plenty of time to make it back up for my meeting…except, of course, I got a call that it was cancelled. At least I didn’t rush back and go all the way to the library, but seriously.

So instead of heading right back up with the bus to Cisco (which ended up leaving EARLY without me anyway, so crazy), I hung out at Matt’s for a little while. When I finally went back to the bus stop, expecting to wait for a while since it was the middle of the day, a man in a truck told me that he’d be back in a few minutes and was driving up. Thanks, mister. I chatted with the pulperia owners there (who I will always buy something from ever since they let me use their personal bathroom, do we see a trend here?) and then hopped on my jalon a few minutes later. I made it home right as the meeting would have started anyway. I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing and writing and filling out my reimbursement forms (my prescriptions cost over $16 but I’m not sure if I get reimbursed for the transportation) and being happy about my successful trip. I have only good things to say about Dr. Jaime and Ocotepeque.