My hospital adventures (and the Russian House M.D)

Hey there, dear friends!!

If you read my blog often you probably missed me for the last 24 hours. I usually post at night and then at lunch time, which I didn’t do.

After my last post, I began to feel very unwell again, extremely dizzy (almost passing out) and experiencing nausea and a huge headache. I called my psychiatrist and she said I should go to the hospital, to make sure it’s just side effects of the pills. She told me that, if they didn’t find anything, it was probably my medication and we would adjust that.

I showered and Rui came home early.

Where we live, there’s a health care center that is open 24 hours and takes care of emergencies. We decided that should be enough and went there. We waited for about 2 hours, until I finally got a very rude doctor, who wouldn’t even let me speak. He asked me when was my last period, took my blood pressure and sugar, and asked for a urine sample. After all of that he called me and said they were just going to give me some fluids (some saline)

And I got pissed!

Conversation:

Me: But why?

Doctor: Because you have dizziness!

Me: But no diagnosis?

Doctor: That’s a diagnosis!

Me: Isn’t that a symptom?

Doctor: Being dizzy is a symptom, dizziness is a diagnosis. (WTF? ISN’T THAT THE SAME SHIT WITH DIFFERENT WORDS?)

Me: But I would like to have some exams done or something else.

Doctor: That’s supposed to be with your family doctor.

Me: Which I don’t have… we don’t have one. There aren’t enough doctors.

Doctor: Yes, you do. It’s doctor x.

Me: Why did they tell me I had no doctor?

Doctor: When was that?

Me: About a month ago. You don’t take blood samples here?

Doctor: No, this is a healthcare center, not a hospital.

Me: ….

Doctor: Unless you want me to refer you to the hospital so you can have some blood work.

Me: Yes, I would like that

…….

Doctor proceeds to shove the results he had in an envelope and give them to me and refer me to the hospital.

So we went there (it’s about 20 minutes away, maybe more) and I had to wait from 9.34 p.m to almost 1 a.m to be seen by a doctor. Yes, Portugal has free healthcare, but you die while waiting so…

The doctor called me and asked a bunch of questions, in his Russian accent, measured my blood pressure again, took my temperature and told me “Go do a (something) nasal x-ray and come back here)”.

I went and did my ex-ray and came back. He immediately showed me my x-ray on his computer and said:

Doctor: See here. You have acute frontal sinusitis. That’s what causing the dizziness, the nausea, the balance issues, the headache and all of the symptoms. This is a sponge tissue that gets inflamed and creates pressure against your skull, which makes your head hurt. This is chronic and it has no cure. You need to be careful about a few things…. (as he proceeded to explain me everything about my situation and the things I needed to be careful about)

Me: (thinking to myself) Are you like… the Russian version of House?

The guy was spot on, instead of telling me to pee in a cup. I was amazed.

So guys, this is why I have been unwell for the last week or so… I’m having a crisis, there’s inflammation, which explains everything.

I finally got a diagnosis!!

It’s shit to have this because my ears will always be super sensitive, I can’t eat certain foods and I might have a crisis a couple of times a year, but at least I know what I have and can take care of it!!!

That’s it for now!!

xx