Sick on the Caribbean

Everywhere we go, I call it Paradise, so while this is paradise, we'll simply call it the "Caribbean". The days are falling into a pattern here; it is blistering hot in the morning and midday and around mid afternoon the clouds, thunder and lightening roll in and we have a lovely thunderstorm. Just what the kids were missing; rain and puddles and mud.

Getting a doctor referral here is interesting. I headed to the office to pay the next week and see what they had to say about doctors. On the way, I passed one of a thousand "South Dakota" license plated cars and their palapa. The reason that "South Dakota" license plates are humorous is that everyone fulltiming (without a stick home) uses either Texas (Escapees) or South Dakota (a myriad of forwarding services) to create a US residence (without living there). So you see lots of people with HEAVY southern accents and South Dakota plates. I'm starting to pine for that "Fargo" accent. Anyway... They turned me onto "Dr. Carlos" but didn't have his number. "Check at the dive shop", they advised, so off I headed. Found the guy at the dive shop but he didn't have his number BUT he knew a nurse who sometimes worked with Dr Carlos and sent me over to her palapa. She had Dr Carlos's number and did me the favor of calling him herself. He came over (he makes HOUSECALLS - or in our instance TRAILER CALLS) and he spent a good 30-45 minutes with Jamie, examining and taking history. Would you believe that he disagreed with the self medication? How strange!!! :) He said that his current symptoms are being masked by the antibiotics so he suggested lab work.

Today we did the lab work (470 pesos) and are awaiting the results. They'll fax them to Dr. Carlos and he'll then pop by and give us his diagnosis and recommendations. Jamie is the worst he's been yet; Dr. Carlos suspects salmonella, but is waiting for lab work to confirm. Anyway, hopefully, we'll have a plan of action by tomorrow.