The weather is one reason I relocated here from Canada. I recall that song by a famous Quebec singer: "Mon Pays C'est L'hiver." "My Country Is Winter." Sadly true. Montreal gets six months of snow every year. Mexico is pretty much the land of summer. Where I live, at 6,400 feet altitude, the climate is excellent year round. The Mexican people are warm and welcoming.
Sometimes I am asked about healthcare, but my experiences there have been good. Mexico is known as a healthcare destination for dentistry and plastic surgery. When I lived in Montreal a friend of mine with some dental issues would fly to Mexico City, have work done and fly back and it was still a lot cheaper than Canada. My experience with Mexican dentists is that they are often better than Canadian ones.
Recently I had a couple of issues. A couple of months ago I woke up with a headache and with the loss of some peripheral vision on the right side. Then, on my trip to Europe, as we were landing in Frankfurt, I had a pain in my right ear as if there was a pressure gradient that did not want to 'pop'. The funny feeling in my right ear stayed for quite a while and only recent returned to normal.
So I decided to see the doctor that a good friend recommended. She turned out to be ethnic Chinese, born in Toronto, grew up in Mexico with excellent English. She went to McGill for med school and interned at the Royal Victoria hospital in Montreal. An appointment, which for me included a more or less complete physical, cost $1,000 pesos or about $50 US. Because of the peripheral vision thing, she said I needed an MRI. Turns out there is a new clinic about four blocks from where I live that provides this service. The cost? Just under $3,000 pesos or $150 US. Results available immediately. (And I should add that when I called for an appointment I was given one the very next day.)
Turns out that I do not have a brain tumor, which is often the cause of the vision thing. She thinks it is something vascular and we are going to wait to see if it goes away on its own. Surprisingly, it is the ear symptom that is more important. The MRI revealed that I have mastoiditis which is an infection in the area of the mastoid bone next to the ear. I have to go on two antibiotics for a month! The cost of those, plus a daily pill to prevent possible gastric upset came to about $75 US. So that's Mexican healthcare: quick, accessible and inexpensive.
And yes, private health care insurance is available for a modest cost. The much bally-hooed Canadian health care is, in my experience, not so satisfactory. It is hard to get a doctor's appointment, very hard to see a specialist and there is a long wait for an MRI and treatment. But it's "free." Meaning that the average family pays, last time I checked, about $4,000 CN a year in taxes to support the system.
Plus, I really like my doctor who is full of enthusiasm and has a good sense of humor. She was testing my hearing with a big, overgrown tuning fork. As soon as she twanged it and held it up to my ear I said "ah yes, 440 cycles per second. What next?" She said, "tell me when you can't hear it any more." As it was decaying quite slowly I said, 'we're going to be here a while..."
I do have one beef: the MRI is horrible if you are a musician. You lay on this movable table and before they slide you into the machine, they trap your head inside this plastic cage so you can't move it. They also stuff some ear protectors in and hand you a "panic button." Nothing like a panic button to encourage panic! I asked and he said, yes, the machine is quite loud. Which it is, but even worse, it is like being trapped inside the worst piece of electronic music ever composed. I was tempted several times to hit that panic button. Hey, I never was given a panic button before, not even during rehearsals of extreme experimental avant-garde music!
So, for our envoi today, let's have some electronic music. This is a scary piece by Edgard Varèse: Déserts:
UPDATE: Déserts is the wrong piece by Varèse. The one I actually had in mind was this one: Poème electronique from 1958.
Glad to know that the ear infection is so easily treatable and that nothing worse than it is happening. 'Take the entire course of antibiotics!': am familiar with that but had no idea the MRI is loud-- my only acquaintance with it is movies and television-- I think I'll avoid that as best I can.
ReplyDeleteEverything I know about medicine I learned from watching Dr. House! You hear that it does make some weird sounds, but the TV shows really don't let you know how loud and annoying it really is. For one thing, it goes on for fourteen minutes or so with a variety of unpleasant sounds. Loud, low buzzes, whacking sounds, slamming sounds--a whole panoply of unpleasantness. As I said, just like being trapped inside the worst piece of electronic music!
ReplyDeleteI wonder who has used those sounds in his or her compositions?
ReplyDeleteHave another look at the post. I updated it. I had the wrong Varèse piece. The one I was actually thinking of is called Poème electronique.
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