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Day 357 of 1827: Time for a Check-Up

Day 357 of 1827: Time for a Check-Up

I spent a delightful afternoon today describing my bowel movements in great detail to a complete stranger.

It’s not as bad as it sounds, really!  I paid the guy to let me do it!

Ok, let me try again here.

So, for the last week, I’ve noticed some rather worrying health problems starting to develop, and it was getting me concerned enough that I decided I needed to see a doctor to find out what was going on.

I called up my fixer (referred to me by a good friend), and he recommended I visit Clinica Anglo Americana.  I asked around a bit, and the word on the street is that Clinica Anglo Americana is top-quality (albeit top-price as well, but my travel insurance will cover the visit!), so I had him set up an appointment for me.

The clinic looks like… well, a mini-hospital, really.  The complex is composed of a big blocky hospital-looking building, and a professional services building next door.  Aside from a rather sturdy-looking fence around the perimeter, I could have been visiting a small hospital in any city in my country of origin.

Even once we were inside, it felt like we were… well, in a real hospital.

I don’t know why all of this was surprising to me.  I really went into it with no expectations; I just didn’t expect the experience to be so… ordinary.

Determined to do something about that, I proceeded to fill out my registration form as internationally as possible.

Let’s see here… nationality?  American.

Identification?  Ooh, let’s use my Paraguayan cédula.

Street address… hm… oh!  I can use my address in Chile!

hehe This is fun!  What’s next?  Well, I feel a little bad I haven’t used any of my local info.  I’ll put down my Peruvian cell number.

I think I ended up having to wait a few extra minutes while the secretary tried to decipher my form, but it was worth it.

Eventually, my name was called, and we went in to see the doctor.

Annnnnd… it was just like any other doctor visit I’ve done.

Ok, there was a bit more Spanish involved, but the doctor was (mostly) bilingual and very friendly.  With the exception of having to describe my bodily functions a bit more explicitly than I am normally used to, it was a rather pleasant experience.

My fixer also learned quite a bit about me today that I’m not sure he was expecting.

The whole thing took about half an hour, the doctor recommended a few medications that I should use for a little while (all of which are available over-the-counter, of course), and he suggested a few changes to my diet.

And with that, we were done.

I was so ecstatic to find out that I wasn’t dying that I happily paid the consultation fee of 250 soles.

Hm.  Now that I’m looking at it, that was a bit more than I was expecting.

Ah, well; at least my insurance will cover it.

Plus, there’s the whole not-dying thing.  That’s pretty sweet.

Clinica!
The whole experience was surprisingly unsurprising.

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