Hospitals I have known...

Ola!  

 

It seems that some folks didn’t receive yesterday’s blog, entitled “Heading to Porto!”  If you didn’t, and would like to see it, please let me know and I will resend.  Today’s entry should be entitled “Portuguese Hospitals!”  Yep – as R said, I managed to add yet another country on our “hospitals I have known!” list.  (Although he still keeps the family record with five days spent in Nimes with his broken leg some years ago!)

 

So … a week or so ago it felt like a twinge in my lower back.  Uncomfortable, but certainly not horrible – until a couple of nights ago.  We had been watching a movie in Foz Coa, and when it was over, I got up to climb the stairs to the third floor and the bedroom – and my lower back started spasming.  I’d never had that happen before, but I could definitely tell it was spasming.  I managed somehow to make it to the top of the stairs, took some Advil and made it to the bed.  When I woke up in the morning, my back was tender, but basically all right.  Until this morning.  We had to move the car into a real parking garage, and as I tried to walk out of the apartment (which, thank heavens is on the ground floor) I suddenly couldn’t even manage to put one foot in front of the other!  Very scary!  R helped me back into the apartment and to the couch, where again I took Advil, and eventually the spasms had stopped.  Very tenderly got out to the car and was able to make it to the parking garage.  (Interesting arrangement!  I think the day’s parking is something like €28.  But, you can buy a “pass” for three days for €20.  Except that of course, we need the pass for 4 days, not three…so, on Saturday morning, we need to go back to the garage, turn in our “pass” and pay for one additional day.  Not a problem, just an unusual system, for sure!

 

From the parking garage, we walked down the street to Combi, Coffee Roasters for a late breakfast.  Croissants stuffed with strawberry jam for us, coffee for R and hot chocolate for me.  

Lovely place and people, and it’s nice that it’s so close.  From there, we thought we would get to the nearest Tourist Information site, which is at the Se which means “cathedral” in Portuguese; we Ubered there, which was nice.  I’m thinking that our lives will definitely be including taxis and Ubers for at least this last part of our trip.  At the Tourist Office, I asked the gal we were talking to about medical care.  She said that I would have to wait “5-6 hours” at a public hospital to see somebody, as they don’t have the U.S. equivalent of urgent care.  Bummer!  I asked about private care, and she gave us instructions to a private hospital in Gaia, the other side of the Douro River from Porto.  As this trip entailed only one metro ride, for four stops, we figured we’d give it a try. Got ticketed for the metro and made it there in a very short time.  As we weren’t sure where exactly the hospital was, some very nice people in the area were happy to help us get there.

 

Walked in (or hobbled, more likely!) into a very organized lobby, and a young aid assisted us immediately.  I had to punch a computer and get some sort of ticket, and then went to sit down.  I was called in probably less than 5-10 minutes.  I talked to a technician, who put me into the computer system, and truly, in another 5-10 minutes I was with a very nice doctor.  He looked me over and moved my legs this way and that – decided that I had “lumbago” and needed 1) shot of a steroid of some sort, and 2) muscle relaxers, 3) pain meds and 4) something to help if the pain meds upset my stomach.  He also told me that I wasn’t going to die, which, as we hypochondriacs know, also helps!

 

A lovely gal whose English was excellent took a few minutes to get my shot and give it to me in my hip.  We were done in probably less than an hour.  R paid the bill - €96 - for consultation and shot, and then we went down the street to a pharmacy and collected my meds.  That was another €46, as R wanted me to have some sort of heating pad for my back, which the doctor recommended.  They don’t seem to have a plug-in type heating pad, as we do in the U.S., but they had a large gel pad that heats up in the microwave, and worked really well, and that was included in the pharmacy bill.

 

So!  The nurse who gave me the injection said my back would be feeling much better by tomorrow, and even better by Friday, which was reassuring.  Truthfully, just getting help made me feel a whole lot better! 

 

Our tram crossing the river!

Our tram!

Lion on top of Tourist Info building!

Downtown Porto!

More of the Douro

As it was late-lunch time, we decided to take the metro back across the river and find someplace to eat.  There is a huge area right near the cathedral with lots of restaurants lined up one after another.  We tend to like to eat inside to avoid the smoke, and picked Marianus – not sure why, but we truly did hit the jackpot!

 

My oreo cheesecake

R's red fruit cheesecake

My chicken salad with guacamole

R's shrimp salad

The curative powers of the grape...

I ordered their chicken salad, and R had their prawn salad.  Both were fabulous, I am SOhappy to report, and we both totally cleaned our plates!  Washed everything down with a glass (or two) of local white wine, and even had room for dessert!  R had their red berry cheesecake, and I had their Oreo cheesecake – excellent, both!  By this time, I was wilting a bit, so we taxied back to the flat for a rest.  I remember laying down on the bed, and the gel pack made it to the right place, thanks to R, and that’s about all I remember for almost 2 hours!  So!  Up now, and it’s 6:24 pm and I’m starting to feel like a human bean again!  Yeah!

 

I do have some ironing that I’d like to do – on a mini-size ironing board, so that I can put the drying rack away.  Always a good idea!

 

Me and my mini-ironing board!

Tomorrow we’ve got a full-day tour scheduled that I found thanks to Airbnb, which we’re really looking forward to doing!  I think we meet our small (6 to 8 people) tour group at about 8:30 am and head out to the Douro valley for lunch at a winery, a boat ride on the Douro, and then a second winery.  With somebody else doing all the driving!  Yippee!  Feeling like that will be fun!  Then, we’ll do some sightseeing here in town on Friday and Saturday, before heading to Lisboa on Sunday!

 

So – more later!

m

xxx

 

Footnote: It is a bit difficult dealing with Portuguese because it is similar to Spanish but there are (of course) significant differences.*  We have read somewhere that the Portuguese people really do not like being addressed in Spanish, which is reasonable, so we try hard not to fall into this mistake; but, it isn’t easy.

 

*”Thank you” = “Gracias” in Spanish = “Obrigada” or “Obrigado” in Portuguese.