Trouble in Paradise

After my girlfriend went back to California I settled into my usual routine of going to the beach and enjoying myself the rest of the day and night. I had an easy, healthy life going on. I ate mostly fresh fruit and vegies that I bought at the farmer's market on Saturdays. I caught mahi mahi for fresh fish or sometimes tuna or sierra mackeral. Once in a while I would roast a chicken or something too. I was feeling healthier and healthier as my weight was down and my high chronic pain was under control for the most part.

One night around July 4th we had a party with a bunch of expats. All the typical American holidays are celebrated by expats with get togethers for bbqs and the traditional foods or whatever, like turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving or hot dogs and hamburgers for the fourth of July. After the bbq I had a date but she went home to her kids around midnight so I was going to go over to the Casino nearby for a drink before I went to sleep. As I was walking to the casino I had a little incident where I fell down and landed hard before rolling into the ditch along the side of the road. I could not get up for almost ten minutes. When I was able to get back up I was hurting. I stumbled back to my house and jumped in the shower to see if I was alright. I washed off the dirt and cleaned the scrapes but my arm felt like it was broken. Sure enough within a half hour it was very swollen and was getting very black and blue. I tried to sleep but the pain was too much for me to sleep.

When the sun came up I got dressed and went down to the street to flag down a taxi to take me the the hospital. I was lucky that there was no long line when I arrived at the emergency room. The doctor saw me almost right away. She did an Xray and told me my arm was broken but that the break was back in position already so all I would need is a cast for 6 to 8 weeks. She grabbed the plaster to start making a cast.

I started to think about my previous experiences with casts and I began to panic a bit. I was in a tropical rain forest with extremely high humidity and high temperatures on a daily basis. A big thick plaster cast would get really rank under the plaster very quickly and to leave it on for as much as two months would be too much for me with the itchy smelly heavy plaster cast.

I asked her if she would do a fiberglass cast. I knew whe could because I could see the fiberglass in her case of materials. She told me she had to do a plaster cast and we started to argue over it. We went at it for at least twenty minutes going back and forth about the cast material. Finally I boiled down her reason to being the extra cost of the fiberglass over the cheap cost of plaster. I offered to pay the higher costs for the fiberglass and after a little more argument she agreed to make a fiberglass cast for me. I was relieved to have convinced her to use the fiberglass regardless of how much extra I had to pay.

She put the glass cast on in only a few minutes and I was ready to go home. I just had to go pay at the office for my emergency room visit, the Xrays and the cost of the cast. I wasn't sure how much I was in for. Back in the States a broken arm emergency room visit typically runs into thousands of dollars by the time you get out the door. I went to the hospital records office and sat down to wait for my bill. My arm felt better already with the bright blue fiberglass cast holding it nicely in place. At least it was my left arm not my right one.

The woman asked me how I was going to pay and I told her cash. She acted surprised and asked if I had enough cash on me to cover it. I told her to give me the total amount of the bill before I could answer her and if it was more than I had with me I would take a taxi to the bank and get the balance. She agreed to that and started to add up the costs for me. After about a half hour of figuring and record keeping she gave me the bill. I looked down at it and asked her if this was the complete bill and she told me yes it was the total amount. I pulled the $22.75 out of my pocket and paid the woman. The fiberglass cast over the plaster cast cost me the additional $6 or I would have had a bill for only $16 instead of the outrageous $22.75 I had to pay.

I grabbed a taxi and headed home. My arm was in a cast for the next seven weeks. After two weeks I split the fiberglass into a clamshell by myself so that I could wash underneath it. I was very careful not to let the arm move while I rinsed off the grunge every time I opened the clamshell. In the end it healed nicely. I never had any more trouble with it and never even went back to the doctor for the final checkup and Xrays that she told me to come back for.

The medical care in Costa Rica is very good and the cost is more than reasonable. Why does the American medical community cost so much? It is criminal that they charge such outrageous rates in the States. President Obama's new medical overhaul is long overdue in the States but it will not go far enough I am sure. The AMA will mess it up and assure themselves of high costs as long as they exist. I will fly to Costa Rica if I need any medical care in the future.