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Health Care in CuencaCan you believe that we have been in Ecuador for one year and we have not even touched the surface of traveling through this beautiful country. What's the saying, "How time flys when your having fun". Lately it has not been about fun. As I mentioned in a Newsletter John had a bad fall down some stairs in Ayampe, just before we returned to Cuenca.Since that fall John also came down with the flue. Last week his elbow (codo in Spanish) which he gashed quite badly in the fall became very infected. Altogether he was NOT a "happy chappy" - on top of dealing with a lot of business stress. Our driver friend arranged for John to go to the Santa Ana clinic in Cuenca to see ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Manolo Maestre. Ok you are probably thinking why a ear, nose and throat specialist when his elbow is infected. Because it's Ecuador. No I am just kidding. John as mentioned also had the flue and was constantly coughing and had a temperature. The Doctor who spoke a little English was wonderful along with our friend who translated. When the doctor examined John he found that his blood pressure was sky high and that his temperature was up and also his elbow needed urgent attention. He was put into a wheel chair and taken over to the hospital where he had xrays and tests and put to bed with a drip of antibiotics and glucose and given blood pressure pills.   John above having a sleep in his large spacious hospital room waiting for the next Doctor to come and visit. This room was absolutely huge and had a great view over towards Turi. That same afternoon John was visited by a Cardiologist and a Traumatologist (a Doctor that deals with the treatment of serious wounds, injuries and disabilities). The Traumatologist advised that the elbow was badly infected and that John would need surgery the next morning so that they could remove all the visible infection inside.  View from the Window. See the red couch in John's room, well that is a fold out bed. You see here in Ecuador a family member always stays with the person in the hospital. Mmmm, so the Nurses looked at me with surprise when our friend told them that I was not staying.  This is John and his special friend who followed him everywhere for 4 days. Here she is watching John sending out an email. For the photo we dressed "her" up in John's surgery gown!! She never left his side day or night. Yes the hospital had WiFi in the rooms which was great and TV Cable so you could watch English speaking programs. John jokes that he was only there because he just wanted to check out the hospital and medical service facility first hand so that we could include the information in a newsletter!! I believe he has been very happy with the level of service. The room was extremely large. Like most hospitals, the food could have been more nutritional and have some healing value, and it would be good if we could speak fluent Spanish. All our friends were only a call away if we wanted anything translated and there were a few young Doctors that could speak English a lot better than we can speak Spanish. The Doctors were fantastic. Finally, after spending four days in the hospital, John came home to where he could facilitate his healing much faster with appropriate juices. Now your probably wondering what the cost of all this was. The room was $80 per night. The total bill after four nights was $2,300.00. This included the operation all xrays and other examinations, medications and of course the room. The medication was $240.00. At present we do not have health cover here. We are looking into it for the future. It's just one of those things we thought we did not require just yet............  When John left the hospital, his blood pressure was still quite high. In Australia John would attend a Health Retreat every few months and have a total detox if he found himself in that sort of situation. So when we came home he went straight into juicing beetroot, celery, garlic, carrot and more. Beetroot and celery are great for reducing blood pressure. In two days John has reduced his blood pressure just by juicing. We are not saying the medication has not also helped. But in the hospital even with medication the blood pressure could not be reduced.  This is John after juicing beetroot juice which unfortunately did not make it into his body. Instead our kitchen ended up looking like a crime scene. Yep, John's home again.  Kitchen cleaned up after the crime scene.........but for how long. Just as well I don't mind cleaning up but I must admit I do also receive the benefit of drinking healthy juices. Yesterday afternoon we went to the hospital to have John's elbow attended to with Dr Pasantes and when he saw John's blood pressure, he was very impressed. It was already down to be lower than normal (after only two days of juices).  It's 5 p.m. on a Sunday and Dr Pasantes and his English speaking daughter arrive from home to re dress John's elbow. I had a look when the dressing came off and it is healing very nicely. No swelling or infection and I did take a photo but believe it may be off putting for some. That's what we have been up to in the last week. We would like to thank all the Doctors and staff at Santa Ana Hospital in Cuenca. Even though we cannot speak the language they were very helpful. We also thank our friends who helped in translations. We also believe that the altitude (being 8,000 feet above sea level) here in Cuenca can make a difference to a persons blood pressure. We checked it out on Wikepedia and came up with this. "Increase of altitude
does affect blood pressure, but not by much. And your body will adapt
over time. For example, people at higher altitudes produce more red
blood cells to carry oxygen. If you have chronic hypertension or you
are on meds for high blood pressure you should probably talk to your
doctor before going to an altitude of over 4000 feet. " Although this is a small country, there is a lot to see, and you cannot travel the same distances in one day that you might in your own country. If you can take your time. Enjoy a smaller chunk rather than rush around thinking you can see it all in two weeks. I hope this has been of some help sharing our personal experience in an Ecuadorian Hospital in Cuenca. For more about our Healthy Living in Ecuador Click Here
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