The Thumb

Well today was just one more adventure in Buenos Aires.

Before I left, I was biting my nails (I guess I was nervous about the trip) and I bit one of those little pieces of skin that hangs off the nail on my thumb. It felt sore afterwards, and I got worried, so I put a band-aid with anti-biotic on it.

I was talking to my friend Armen, and when I told her I was coming to Argentina, she told me a story of someone who had an ingrown toenail and went to have it operated on and the anesthesiologist messed up and the guy went into a coma and died - or something like that. I actually know of someone my brother went to school with and is the daughter of someone I used to work with who had the same thing happen to her and she has been in a coma for almost 30 years!

So here I was with this thumb that was a little sore where I bit off the extra piece of skin, but I didn't think much of it.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, when I got up, I noticed that the thumb had started to swell. I stopped off at a pharmacy on the way to school and the pharmacist gave me something called "Agua D'Alibour", which I mixed with water as instructed and soaked my thumb during our boring class. I don't think it helped.

Last night after dinner, my thumb was throbbing and I came home and soaked it again, this time in warm water. It felt better after soaking, and I went to bed.

This morning I woke up and it was swollen but not throbbing. I looked on Web MD and found a description of an "infected hangnail" which seemed to describe what I had. They said if the swelling moves to the pad of the finger, go directly to the hospital. My finger pad was swollen to the point that I thought it was going to burst. After several rounds of, "I don't think it's that swollen...oh, it's really swollen...I don't think it's that bad...oh, it's really bad...etc..." I finally decided to take a chance and go to the hospital.

At my orientation on Monday, they recommended the German Hospital, so I hopped in cab and went to the Hospital Aleman.

I went up to a cashier and told her I wanted to see a doctor. After a little discussion and showing her my thumb, she decided a general practitioner would be sufficient. I paid 59 pesos (about 20 dollars) and went and had a seat (this was the non-insurance fee). I waited about 40 minutes before I was called in to see the doctor. She was a young, beautiful doctor, who looked like she belonged on Grey's Anatomy or General Hospital. She said I thought correctly, when I told her I thought I had an infection. She wrote me a prescription for Cipro and sent me downstairs to Traumatology to have my thumb lanced and the absess drained. Again, I went to another window and paid another 59 pesos (another 20 dollars) and waited to be called. Several young doctors walked by, every one of them looking like they should be on a soap opera.

I got called in and a young handsome person (don't know if he was a doctor) asked me what was going on. I showed him my thumb, answered some of his questions and sat on a table while he lanced it. The whole time of course, I was thinking about Armen's story of the guy who died from such a procedure and wondered if I would end up in a coma in Buenos Aires for the rest of my life. But, he gave me no anesthetic and just did a quick lance, put a very big bandage on my thumb and sent me on my way.

I returned to the pharmacy I had passed on the way to Traumatology department and it took me a while to figure out the system. Do I pay first, do I stand in line? Oh, I take a number. But there were two places to take a number - a red line and a yellow line. First I took a ticket from the yellow side, but then noticed that it was for people who had regular prescriptions. I moved to the red line and took a different number and waited my turn, only to be told that they couldn't fill my prescription because I wasn't a member of the hospital. I was sent to the pharmacy outside. My prescription cost me 69 pesos, a little over 20 dollars (about 23). My entire visit to the hospital cost be about 60 dollars - to see 2 doctors and get a prescription filled. If I had insurance, it would have been much less. With my insurance in the US, it would have cost me about the same. Why can a supposedly economically-challenged country provide such complete healthcare, even to tourists, when our "developed" country, can barely provide care to those who have insurance?

I went to school and afterwards we went on a trip to La Boca, an old, working-class neighborhood, settled by Italian immigrants and famous for corrugated tin houses painted bright colors (apparently a Genoese custom of using paint that was left over after painting their boats). It was an interesting trip and when we arrived the place was closing up because it was getting dark. We stayed long enough for me to get some good photos and then left. The neighborhood has a reputation for being a little rough around the edges.

On the way back to school, Larry noted that we were near Puerto Madero (a fairly new waterfront development), so Larry, Mike, Anna and I jumped off of our bus and went to Puerto Madero to explore and have dinner.

Larry and Anna had heard of this restaurant called Las Lilas, which was in Puerto Madero, that according to a NY Times article, was one of the 10 best places in the world to eat. We walked and looked for it and couldn't find it. So, Larry sent Anna into several places to ask for directions. No one seemed to know where it was. Finally, he sent her into a restaurant called Donata, and they told her it was too far to walk, and that we'd have to take a cab. They called her in to see their restaurant. They told her they'd give us a glass of free champagne and a 10% discount. After some discussion we decided to go for it. We had to kill some time but went back and had an amazing meal. We shared an antipasto, and each one of us had a steak - three of us had sirloin steaks and Mike had a filet mignon, we had two bottles of wine and mineral water and it ended up being $20 per person including tax and tip. Amazing!

In our taxi on our way home we passed Las Lilas. Of course, it was not that far, but we decided we will make a plan to go back and get dressed for the ocassion.

I am now home, ready to soak my thumb, take another dose of Cipro and put my feet up and relax.