This past Saturday, Derrick came home from the Bible school with the beginnings of a migraine. He had vision loss, numbness, and a huge headache was to follow. He has never had a migraine this painful. It was so painful that it made him throw up. He was throwing up all evening.
Knowing that he was throwing up because the pain was so bad, and knowing that he couldn't take anything orally, I decide to go to the pharmacy and ask for some kind of supository. When I asked the lady behind the counter, she looked at me as if I had just made it up or something. But hey, I was willing to suffer the "look at the stupid gringa" attitude in the hopes that my husband would feel better.
When I got home I called our doctor. He was out of town and could not be reached. So I called my dear friend, Kelley. She used to be a nurse, plus she has 10+ years here. She informed me that they do have supositories here, you just have to ask the right person. She called her doctor and called me back. She gave me the name of a medicine that I would need to give in the form of a shot. No big deal, we've done it plenty of times here.
I buy the medicine, from a different pharmacy than before. I go home and immediately give him the shot. After I give it to him, I decided to google the medicine to find out exactly what I had given him. It turns out that the medicine that I gave him is banned in the US. It's not the first time that we've taken medicine here not offered in the US. But this was the first time I had found entire websites dedicated to telling you what kind of poison this was. Needless to say, that was his only shot. And I still have 9 more units of it because it came in a pack of 10. I called Kelley to tell her about the medicine and she said that they've taken it plenty of times. I guess he will survive.
Just an end note, in case you haven't read this before on here. Pharmacies here are mostly over the counter. They have "pharmacists" and a pharmacy area. But most everything is over the counter and cheap. Like a pack of amoxicillan is about $5. The only time that you need a written perscription is if you need a very strong drug. We have purchased antibiotics, inhalers, and shots (needles provided) over the counter. It is what it is, but Google before you buy!!!
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3 comments:
ok, that whole story reminded me of when my husband got very ill while we were in Guatemala and they got him a shot (he was throwing up constantly) that was sorta unknown to us... we had a GI Nurse on the team and she was like, I'm not giving him this shot because I've never heard of what this even is. It's questionable. But I hope he will be fine.
hi stopping by for a visit and to have a look-see at what's here . I also love to read, love cats, and have a different sense of humor. Have a great day and God Bless
we had an experience like that when we were in Congo. We bought some malaria medicine and some other medicine at a pharmacy before leaving Africa to come home. I'm not sure what it was and thankfully we never had to use it but the missionary said if we did need it, we'd be glad we had it. lol who knows what was in that medicine! :) great post!
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