Aguas Ferteis

Ok, so it's 3:38pm on a lazy brazilian sunday afternoon and I was thinking to myself "hey, don't i have a baby blog on google? whatever happened to it??". Well, here it is, and nothing has happened to it, what a shame.

So, I'm going to make a serious effort to write about/share my experiences while we're living in S. America.

I guess I'll start by telling you all about a group of artists we watched yesterday afternoon at Praca General Osorio in Ipanema (it's the last stop on the metro in the zona sul, about a 6 minute walk from our apartemento).

Alright, getting back to the show. These artists were dressed in white sheets that were draped on them like togas and they were carrying colored buckets filled with water from the beach up to the fountain in the plaza. What caught our eye was the way they were carrying the buckets up to the fountain. They would bring a bucket up a few feet and then put it down, then they would go and get a bucket that was at the end of the pack and bring it up a few feet and put it down. It is safe to say that this was a long and very dramatic process.

Once the buckets were lined up around the edge of the fountain the artists/actors began pouring the 1/2 full buckets of sea water into the other buckets. When the buckets were filled they began bringing the buckets up to the fountain and placing them in groups around/on different parts of the fountain. Once they had all of their buckets were they wanted them, assistants began placing dye (red, blue, green, and orange) in the buckets remaining on the edge of the fountain. Then the show really began.

There were two individuals on the top tier of the fountain and four actors below them. They were all dancing and calling in unison, or should I say writhing and squawking. It was a beautiful performance. Audience participation=us clapping our hands to the beat of their bucket drums, pretty cool because it made you feel as though you were a part of the production. Then the two troop members on top of the fountain began pouring buckets of water on the dancers below, who began bathing their appendages in the ocean water as they sang, made bird calls, or made other sounds.

Once they had finished dancing and bathing, they poured more water in the fountain pools (there were four) and then they jumped in them. A moment later they pulled out what I believe to be white queen sized sheets and began putting them in the buckets of water that had the dye in them. After the sheets were dyed they removed the now tie-dyed sheets out of the buckets and spread them out around the fountain. THE END

To say that it was a very moving experience would be an understatement. You could feel the intensity and the emotion. It was AMAZING, I wish our camera was not stolen, so that I could have taken pictures to document this event.

Ok, so I asked a woman who was standing next to us what the show was about, they gave us all flyers but my portuguese is beyond horrible, and she began to explain the story.

In urban 18'th century Brazil, the fountains in the plazas were the suppliers of water for the people. The slaves and water porters would make trips to the fountains which stored the excess or run off water, it was a public utility for the urban population. Now because of global warming and over population the fountains run dry. It is a sad but very familiar story in modern societies.

All in all, it was my favorite experience for this weekend and I am happy to share it with you all.

S.E. Ga and it's Great "Modern" Health Care

"Welcome to PoDunk Ga" is what I told myself the first time I got sick.

The first time I needed to see a doctor was about 6 months after we moved to this almost unbearable town and I cannot express how shocked I was by the lack of care I received.

It wasn't until last night that I was reminded of how little doctors in Camden County Ga care or maybe I should say I was reminded that the doctors I have had the misfortune of receiving treatment from don't care or don't want to be bothered by their "patients".

Let me explain:

1'st experience:

Last summer I went into the local family practice office because I had problems breathing, I was coughing up blood, and I had very little energy. What do I get a bunch of blood work, and I was told to take benedryl. Then I had to come back for more tests that I thought were for my breathing issues, but no they needed to run more tests to tell me that I'm low on iron. WoW, I can't believe they wasted my time, money, and patience to tell me I was low on iron. I've been low on iron since I hit puberty along w/ more than half the women I know. I can't believe they went to college to tell me that. The kicker to that was when I was reading their notes on me, they started with " white female" entered office w/ complaints of chests pains etc etc. Seriously folks, I've got one hell of a tan for anyone to think that I am white.

I did end up seeing an allergy specialist in the area and he put me on the right track.....thank you

2'nd experience:

This past summer the hubby took me to the emergency room in Camden Cty because I was having a bit of a time breathing. Well, they do some xrays and Dr. Do Little comes in and says that i have "baffled him and his e.r. staff" and then he sends me on my way. This is after he has spent all of 3 minutes (i'm giving him that much) of his time with me. I baffled you doctor dumb dumb? I'm not surprised because it seems as though many of your patients "baffle" you and your peers. That's why when we're truly ill S.E. Ga residents go to Jacksonville. Thank goodness I learned that JAX is only a hop, skip, and a jump from here.

3'rd experience:
Ok, so I've been a bit under the weather for the past few days and I decided to go to the local urgent care. I explain to the doctor that I have a serious lack of energy, my throat and the back of my neck are sore, and that my arm pits and inner thigh are sore. oops almost left out that I have been coughing up and blowing up chunky yellow stuff. Let me say at this point though that I did let him know that it wasn't a whole lot of gooey goodness. I told him that I had taken my temp the night before and it was 97.5 which wasn't a big deal because my normal body temp is 97.2 then I asked him what my temp was today and he said "oh, she has it out there" referring to my chart. Ohhhhh, I get it, your such a pro you don't need to look at my chart to see what my stats are.

Well after my quick checkup I was given an Rx for Levaquin (a STRONG antibiotic), Delsym (a cough suppressant), and an antihistamine. I asked why I needed to take an antibiotic and I was told that I could wait a few days to see if it was a virus or I could take the antibiotic now and see if I started to feel better.

Well, you know I filled the script. What a mistake that was, I was up all night, I puked all morning, and my faith in the medical community is now at an all time low.

How is it that a doctor thinks it's ok to prescribe such a powerful antibiotic to someone when he isn't even aware of her bacterial level/s??????? Truthfully I only have myself to blame for taking the drugs, but what ever happened to good old amoxicillin?

You know the kicker to my visit to the urgent care was that Dr. Drugs was busy with his lesson on how to say "kiss my ass" in Spanish from his staff. Yeah, your patients can hear you. How unprofessional can you be? I don't need to hear you practice saying beso mi booty, or your plans to have alcoholic refreshments after work. Seriously, just because you have a handful of patients in the office doen't mean that you need to be any less professional than if you had a whole office full. I'm happy that you passed your cursing in Espanol class that way you'll understand it in either language.

If by chance any doctors run across my blog I have a few thoughts to share with you:
1. take your time with us. your patients spend minutes to hours on end waiting to see you. maybe you should consider hiring more help and spending quality time with the people who are keeping you in your big house and fancy car.
2. You don't always know everything. If you are "baffled" by a patient don't be a jerk and just shrug them off, consider calling in someone else for their opinion.
3. If you think that we need drugs and the situation does not seem life threatening, a less powerful drug or dose might be a good idea. Not every infection needs super drugs. Giving extreme dosages will only lead to problems in the long run (like high tolerance, or over dose).
4. Instead of practicing how to cuss people out in another language, perhaps you should concentrate on your patients or their charts. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm