A finger, hatchet, & socialized medicine

I know that health care is such a big issue in the USA these days. After living for the past 14 years in Mexico without health insurance, I have come to appreciate socialized medicine. Now, sometimes it can be very frustrating to wait 4 hours to see a doctor at the government clinic in Creel. I must admit that many times I use the advice of Where There Is No Doctor: a village health care handbook instead of going to the clinic. However, after my experience yesterday, I have a new appreciation for the government clinic in Creel.

My story really begins on Sunday afternoon. I was chopping firewood trying to get some smaller strips of wood cut to use to start the fire in our wood-burning stove (our only source of heat in our house). Winters in the mountains of northern Mexico can be very cold and even now in early March the temperature drops below freezing at night outside. So, anyway, I was chopping wood using our hatchet. Jose Luis always tells me to use leather gloves when I do anything with the firewood, and on Sunday I actually remembered to put the gloves on. I was just about finished with my chopping, but decided to chop up 1 more log into smaller strips to have extra for this week (Jose Luis is in Samachike working on Bible translation this week). Then I did something really stupid - I held the log with my left hand while I chopped with the hatchet in my right hand. YES, I missed the log and got one of my fingers! I am so very thankful for the leather gloves - but the hatchet slashed the first finger of my left hand. I went to the neighbors' house to ask them to check out the cut to see if they thought I should go to the clinic. They said that it didn't look very deep. So I went home washed the gash with hydrogen peroxide, wrapped my finger in a wet cloth, and put ice on it for about an hour. It kept bleeding, so I wrapped it tight with a band aid and tried to keep it elevated. Jose Luis had gone to visit the Tarahumara pastor in San Luis Majimachi when all of this occurred. When he got home, he was not very happy with me (to say the least)!

On Monday morn it was still bleeding and I was getting a bit worried. Jose Luis took me to the gov't clinic and I walked into the emergency room. Jose Luis was still not very happy with me and said that hopefully I would get a BIG shot. When I mentioned to the nurse in the ER that I had cut myself with the hatchet, I was immediately taken into the exam room. The dr. checked it out and said that it had already started to heal - I should not cover it with a band aid. The nurse put a couple of strips of tape to hold the gash together and said that they should stay on for 2 or better 3 days. The strips lasted about 24 hours and now the gash is looking very purple with a bit of red ooze. The dr. gave me antibiotics and sent me for a tetanus shot. Jose Luis would get his wish, I thought. But, I went to the other part of the clinic for the shot and discovered that I was due for 3 other shots - Hepatitis B, H1N1, and seasonal flu! So, I had 2 shots in each arm to go along with my cut finger - yikes! And, I have to go back in a month for 2 more shots.

The cost for all of this (including the antibiotics) was $68 pesos or about $5.50 US dollars. Not bad for a morning spent in the ER & gov't clinic, huh?