It all started last summer. My family was in Bulgaria visiting and I got an infection in my big toe nail. My mom came with me to the Peace Corps doctors where they told me I would have to have a procedure done to take out my ingrown toenail. (ICK!) Later in the summer, they did the procedure and I passed with flying colors. No infection, no nastiness.
This summer, my mom had to take me to a Greek hospital. I showed off my toe to an EMT and she reccommended I go to the public hospital in town to get it checked out. I would have held off until I got back to Bulgaria or even the states, but it just seemed to get worse and worse. And I didnt think that with all the heat, sweat and dirt, it was making things better. This hospital was something out of a movie back in the 50s. It was old, run down and no one spoke English, but that was only to be expected. I paid 5 Euros, and waited about 2 hours and finally saw a doctor. He just looked at my toe (didnt even bother to put on gloves), wrote up a prescription and I was on my way.
It was quite an interesting interaction with his broken English, and my complete lack of any Greek except "prost" which means cheers. And I didnt really think that would get me anywhere except a good spot at the bar.
Needless to say by the looks of my toe slowly progressing from bad to worse, I filled the presription, and let the magic begin. It was a gel like substance I had to rub on the infected area. Lucky for me it was hot sandal weather!
Over the course of the trip, my toe slowly started to heal. The yellowy-green pus was released, and my toe back to normal. But I will tell you one thing, I dont ever want to end up in another foreign hospital, especially without a translator. That was 7 too many times (5 times in Bulgaria, and 2 times in Greece). Yikes!
2 comments:
I was there and it was nasty!
nice toes
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