Luckily I have a good international insurance provider, HTH worldwide. I used the HTH website to get a list of recommended hospital/clinics. I'm going to Claremont Life Hospital. It's about 10 minutes from my house by car. Wish me luck.
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Janina and I just got back from Consteintiaberg Hospital. She was so very nice and took such good care of me. First we tried the Claremont Life Hospital, but for some odd reason they only had one doctor on call in the ER Unit and he had just gotten sick and left. So they sent us to another hospital....it took us about 30 minutes to find it. Being sent to the other hospital was a blessing in disguise because it was a much better facility that the previous one. I was diagnosed with a lung infection and asthma. All of the smog and cigarette smoke around the area has caused my lungs to be inflamed and my throat to swell, trapping the mucous in my lungs. I was given two breathing treatments with antibiotics and an inflamation reducer to open my airway (pic curteousy of Janina's phone) and a prescription for more allergy medication, an inhaler and heart burn medicine (heart burn can often worsen respiratory allergies). Overall, it cost me R638 for the hospital visit and R324 for the medicine (approx. $120). I am so so so thankful to have insurance. Otherwise, I would have been turned away like so many poor people in this country. The health care system is in vast need of supporting more of its people.
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I had to make a second visit because I couldn't catch my breath and the inhaler was of no use. The doctor on duty was not so good. He didn't examine me since I had been in before. He just gave me another nebulizer treatment, let me sit for over an hour without coming back and tried to give me a prescription for penicillin (ON MY CHART). Please pray pray pray I don't get sick anymore while in South Africa.
geez kiddo.. I'll cross the fingers for ya.
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