A trip to the doctor

One of the not-so-good things about being in Ghana is what it does to your health. Luckily, I’ve been much well-er this year than last, and, fortunately, much less sick than a lot of friends. (I hope I’ve not just jinxed my future wellbeing!)

A friend was sick yesterday, so, after a little convincing, we went to the doctor for her to get checked out. By the time we went it was 3pm, and it had been raining earlier, so I had hoped that things would be quieter and fortunately they were.

3.15pm - On arrival at the clinic, you put your card in a box and wait. Everyone has a card with their details on it that the clinic use to find your file. So long as the person with the key has come and opened the room that your file happens to be in that is… Luckily for us the room was open yesterday (unlike another friend’s experience recently). Your file details your name, date of birth, age (apparently I’ll be 26 forever!), religion (“None” is not an option as a friend discovered…) and then any investigations they do. We sit and play Yatzee!

3.45pm - My friend was given her file.

3.55pm – We joined the queue for being weighed and blood pressure. This is done in the reception area surrounded by other people – who said privacy was important?!

4.05pm – We then joined the queue to see the doctor. The last time I was here, this queue was over 20 people long and took well over an hour. This time, the queue was decidedly shorter, but didn’t really have a start or end… My friend was seen after a 5 minute or so wait. I start playing Yatzee with a young man – I don’t think he understood it but we played a game.

4.15pm – Lab tests. Pretty much anytime you go to the doctor, they send you for lab tests for malaria, typhoid and goodness knows what else. Yesterday, the lab had run out of the solution they needed to test for anything other than malaria. We almost give up and go home!

4.45pm – Lab test results are given. You then join the queue to see the doctor again to interpret the results (medical practitioners the world over must be given training in illegible handwriting). A male nurse comes and chats to me.

4.55pm – Malaria +1 diagnosis. This is not as bad as it sounds, and, God-willing (as Ghanaians would say) it should clear up after 3 days of drugs.

5.00pm – Go to the pharmacy in the clinic to collect and pay for the drugs. Try and ask the pharmacist any questions about these strong drugs you’re about to put in your body and they will be highly offended – I think it’s like questioning their professional judgement.

5.05pm – Go back to the doctor to get a prescription for the drugs so that she can claim back from VSO.

5.10pm – Leave the clinic.

A less-than two hour turnaround is pretty exceptional in Bolga, and normally a trip to the doctor takes an entire morning.

Fingers crossed I will continue to be strong, God-willing!