Whirlwind hospital visit

How many times have I heard stories of people waiting for hours in the emergency room just to see a doctor?? A lot!!!!

A week ago this past Thursday early morning, before Michelle and I left to go to Ségou for a 2 day training I was to help deliver, I felt my tummy hurt a lot. Suddenly at around midnight I woke up and went to the bathroom and was sick. At this point I thought it was caused by something I had had for lunch or dinner. After this, I felt better and relieved from this big weight in my stomach which had been preventing me from sleeping. Then at 6 am the driver came to drive us three hours north of Bamako to Ségou. For a good six hours I felt relief but then later in the day, the pain came back slowly and began haunting me again. I felt like nothing I was ingesting was going all the way down. It was just staying in the middle. All day Michelle asked me how I was feeling and every time I told her that I was fine but because she knows that I don’t get sick really often she took it really seriously . Soon after lunch I felt really bad again and I told Michelle that we might have to leave before the end of the training. Soon after I told her that I felt really bad and it got worse, so we made the decision to leave and go directly to the hospital. At this point Michelle was really scared because I never complain when I’m sick and I was the one who said that I wanted to go to the hospital. We agreed the driver would drop me off at the hospital and she would drop our stuff off at the hotel, while I waited at the hospital. When I got there everything went really fast. I crossed a room with 3 tiny windows and then entered a court yard where I could see signs for the pharmacy, lab, doctor, emergency etc. I followed the sign for the emergency ward. When I got to emergency there were 2 people sitting on a bench, I asked them where I could see a doctor. One of them showed me a door in the corner of the hallway that was half open. I pushed the door half way open thinking it was the waiting room. Inside was a doctor sitting with his feet on the desk waiting for patient. He asked me what I was doing here, so I explained my symptoms and then he stopped me and told me to go and get a receipt at the entrance. I went back to the room with the 3 tiny windows. I walk to the only one open and asked for a receipt to see a doctor. The men inside asked me for 800 francs ($2), which I paid and, in return, he gave me a tiny pink piece of paper. I went back to see the doctor. Nobody was waiting in front of the door, so I knocked and entered. There was another doctor there waiting with the one I had already seen. I present the receipt and then he asked me to lie down on the examination table. He examined me and then said by precaution he would like me to go get tested for malaria. In the mean time Michelle came back from the hotel. She asked me what was happening. I told her he wanted me to be tested for Malaria. In Mali, Malaria is more common than HIV/AIDS and almost everybody has a bit of it in their blood stream. If you are not treated on time it can be deadly. Michelle and I went to the lab, where the men asked for a receipt. I showed him the one I got and tells me you need to get another one, so Michelle and I went to the same place I went to get the first receipt and this time the person asked for 1000 francs. When we returned to the lab, the man took a drop of blood from one of my fingers and told me to wait 20 mins for the results. We waited outside talking to some people. I was looking around and I could see a stretcher with a broken wheel on the side. After half an hour the results came back negative. Michelle and I went back to the doctor. I entered his office and saw him with two other guys talking, I gave him the results, he looked at them and wrote me a prescription for some meds. After just over an hour I was in and out of the hospital and tested for malaria!!!!!