In all the times that I have been in Malawi I had not as yet been to Blantyre. But that has now changed. On Monday of this past week we took a road trip to Blantyre.... to have an MRI. On the trip down to Blantyre I was thinking to myself how much different it is to get an MRI here as opposed to at home.
So firstly, instead of hopping in my car and driving a short distance to a medical facility to have the scan done our whole family packed overnight bags and 7 of us plus a baby (not ours) piled into our truck and set off on a 4 hour journey down a two lane road that was full of pot holes. Incidently, I learned something new. If it is safe to pass the car in front of you they will turn on their left blinker. If it is not safe to pass the will turn on their right blinker. Thankfully we arrived safely even though it was already dark outside, had dinner at a friends house and then spent the night in a guest house.
Tuesday morning we were up early to check things out before the MRI was scheduled. We got to visit a store called GAME. Imagine KMart minus the clothes. There was also a mini mall with a cinema in it. I will post the pictures from outside the cinema since it is closed on Tuesdays in my next blog since they are on my phone camera and I cant upload them right now.
We then called the Dr. to get directions to office since our appt. wasn't until 2pm. He of course said "Hey, I am at Queens Hospital right now. Why don't you just pop on over and we will get it done now." It is about 10am. So thinking that this is our lucky day we drive the 1/2 mile to the hospital and park.
We then proceed to walk around aimlessly for about 1/2 an hour trying to find the right building to be at. Many people gave us directions....none of them too accurate. Finally at about 10:40 we find the place and go in to find a waiting room full of people including a guy on a stretcher. This is already looking bad to me. I give the receptionist my name at which point she gives me a blank look and says..." You called to make an appointment? You don't need an appt. However you can see we are very busy so you should leave and come back later."
So I ask her multiple times if we can come back at 2 for our previously SCHEDULED appt. She says " Well maybe if you come back sometime after 2 we can squeeze you in." It is making no difference to her that I have a nice referral letter on fancy letter head from the orthopedic surgeon. I politely told her we would be back at 2pm and offered her my phone number. She said that it wasn't nessecary.
So we all pile back in the truck....and go shopping for TShirt manufacturers which is a whole different blog story. At 1pm we are done with our shopping and decide to go to the radiologists office to make sure we can be seen at the hospital later. There he adds a polite little note to my referral letter kindly asking them to get Ryan seen on Wed. Thankfully that was a mistake and he meant to say to do the scan on Tuesday. So we again pile back into the truck and drive back to the hospital where we were able to get the scan since it was right after lunch hour. (on our way out of the office there was a guy on a vent in a hospital bed waiting to be scanned. I couldn't see much though because they made me be a guardian for Ryan during the scan so I couldn't have my glasses on).
We then grabbed some late lunch and headed back to Lilongwe. It was dark on our way home and we were driving about 100km/hr and more than once we came up suddenly on a semi truck driving along without any lights on! Thankfully we made it home without any incidences!
I am glad to report that the emailed results did make it to the orthopedic surgeon and we will follow up with him next week here in Lilongwe.
So much is different about the healthcare system than back at home but I am certainly thankful that there is at least 1 MRI machine in this country!
We are going back to visit Blantyre over a 3 day weekend next Friday. I will be sure and take some good pictures and let you know how that trip goes.
Becky
