Well, I’ve moved into my new apartment in Elche, a great little city with everything and over a million palm trees planted all over… a world heritage site to boot…. Woohoo!

I tested the central heat the minute I moved in. It works. I have a washer and a drier and a clothesline. I have a real bath that is also a jacuzzi; score! And the other bathroom has a huge walk-in shower with grab bars and a built-in shower seat. Funny, I know the owner’s elderly father lived here before, and it’s obvious. It figures a geriatric case manager lives in the apartment of a geriatric patient haha

But the ceilings are 12 feet high, and the 2 vents well don’t exactly blow enough to get to the floor. But it’s ok…I’ll take it and wearing socks beat the hell out of wearing a coat and an electric blanket just to survive the night.

Jorge helped me drag my 2 huge duffel bags and 2 backpacks from Albatera onto the bus to get everything here. I live a 10-minute walk from the bus and dragging the bags down the street was awkward, but we did it. The good thing is no one cares or notices as people walk everywhere here. Especially since it’s a college town, to carry stuff is the norm..

We got moved in and Jorge immediately went with me to a Digi cell phone internet place to order the net for my apartment. In 2 days they said. Hmm… nope, no call nothing…Well as of today I’ve been here for nearly 2 weeks and still no internet.  Hasta manana has been taken way farther than normal. So I have not written anything as unless I use my phone as a hotspot I can’t get on and I’m over my limit and that is adding up.

Today is Valentine’s weekend here. But they don’t seem to celebrate it much as I went looking to buy a box of chocolates to bring the teachers on Monday and went to 3 grocery stores and finally found something at only 1 store.. I also got the bus figured out with Jorge’s help and now can get places in the city easily, including the only mall to go shopping. Although there are tons of mom-and-pop clothing and electronic stores everywhere here Which I’m discovering have pretty decent prices on clothes. However if you need something like a humidifier or a coffee maker: the electric appliance stores ( I call them)  are where to go but prices are high…..no home depot or Walmarts to run to.

So, this past week was my first week alone. I started riding with the teachers last Monday. I walk nearly a mile to another area of the city at 8 am and meet the teachers. We get to the school at 855 am barely on time for the 0900 start of classes. But since the kids don’t really get in class until 9:10  no one is worried. “Don’t worry” the teachers always say when I’m worried about time…. No pasa nada as everyone says… (no problem)….

Getting home I ride back at 3 pm with them and walk back. I am getting 4-5 miles of walking in a day. I can feel it as it’s all cement and cobblestone streets so my hips and legs are aching all the time now.

But I need the exercise I’m getting gorda from eating anything I want including the late-night meals.

I need to get a handle on myself. But it’s a culture of cafes with outdoor seating everywhere on every street and I love it so much I want to stop and have a cana (small beer) everywhere I go. I have become more attuned to prices though since my apartment is in the dead center of the tourist area, beers are $2 wine $2.50 whereas walking several streets away its only $1.50… it’s still way cheaper than the US but well I’m way over budget since getting here and my $1000 a month ain’t cutting it.

I do love being able to eat different places every day and see the thousands of palm trees lining the river and park. Getting to a place of comfort has definitely cost me. The wrong apartment in the beginning, made me want to leave so much to travel I ended up spending $3000 getting away. Now I’m in a $625-month apartment that I had to pay 6 months upfront in cash because my “income” is not enough to guarantee I’ll pay..plus 2 months deposit…but I do love the apartment… for now…

 Now that I’m in my new apartment I feel revived, I’m not freezing and can type without gloves on…so I’m now planning trips for my 4 months off when the school ends May 31^st. But that’s another story as I can’t just “hop a plane” in June because my visa expires at the end of the school year on May 31st.. and until I have my renewal letter for next year’s school,  I can’t leave the country…. Or I may not get back in…I’ll update yall on that as it gets closer..

On another note… medical visits are proving different…

I went to see a rheumatologist and an eye doctor since getting here. Interesting visits.

I just had my first appointment at the local private hospital with a lady doc that was less than stellar. I took a bus to get to the hospital for my 10 am appointment last week. I get there and the 4 people at the front desk never look up to wave you over… then they never make small talk even though most speak some English. Maybe they feel like me and fear talking since they are not fluent. So I give them a break.

 I check-in and I’m sent down a hallway that is immaculate, sterile, with scalding white walls, not a stick of artwork to warm up the place, and not a sign anywhere to say where to go. I walk past a row of leather chairs, and another white desk at the end of a hall with a woman in a an austere dark navy suit with a stern face to match. I check-in and the lady says “sit there “pointing to the chairs.  Will they call me I say? Yes. Ok, I sit, and I see a line of doors with the name of some doctors on the outside. It’s eerily quiet. I’m wondering will I see a nurse?

I wait, and then a man comes out one of the doors, and I hear my name from someone inside the door behind him… I stand up, me? I ask. Yes, she says, a lady behind a desk just inside the door who never stands up. . I walk in to see the woman in a white lab coat.  Next to her desk is an exam table with wrinkled tissue paper on it… I guess she doesn’t change the paper on the table before the next patient I’m thinking. How lovely.

 I see no nurse. Um, no blood pressure? I’m wondering.  No nurse to ask what you need before you see the doc? Nope. She says to have a seat… ok fast forward right to the Dr visit. She is the doctor.

I sit and she asks me what I’m there for. I tell her I have rheumatoid, and I need medications etc. ok, she asks my history and she seems to speak decent English, and she is from Paraguay.  I hand her my medical History from the US. She reads it and types in the first couple of lines.  She asks what meds I need, and I tell her.. she types it in. I say I also have Sjogren’s another autoimmune disease and I need medication for my dry mouth, I was told it’s not offered in Spain is that true, and if so is there an alternative? She looks at the medication and says she doesn’t know what it is…and asks me nothing about my Sjogren’s disease. Uh oh….um, that disease affects the joints… and she is a rheumatologist… I’m not feeling too optimistic…

I ask about my very expensive shots, I tell her I understand there is a generic in Spain that is way cheaper than the Enbrel I’m on… she says well…. I don’t know what they cost but I don’t recommend you switch medications. She then says I need a “check-up” she wants to order labs and X-rays. She types in an order for labs and X-rays as she wants them of my hands and feet.

She then says how do you feel today? I say ok but my wrist hurts and my hips..

She never touches me. Doesn’t check my joints or even looks at them. Uh oh….2^nd clue…

So next thing I know she hands me a paper and says go to the lab… its downstairs and then to radiology and make an appointment. Come back in 2-3 weeks and I’ll see if I can find out the prices of the medications. Bye-bye. That’s it.. I was underwhelmed, to say the least..

I leave and it takes me 20 minutes to find the radiology department because there are no signs anywhere, (did I say that already?), just empty sterile halls with super modern furniture. I ask 3 different people who say go that way, then go that way, I ended up in oncology, the staff never looked up at me so I kept going. I nearly go through some double doors then realize its staff only related to surgeries…I’m a nurse and wandering hospitals is not new to me… but I don’t want to stumble in someone’s surgery either.

Finally, I end up down another hall and there it is. “Radiological clinica”I go to a desk and they make me an appointment for the next Monday at 6 pm. I then wander another 20 minutes looking for the lab.. I go upstairs, then downstairs, and then I see a chubby man with a cooler in his hand walking ahead of me. Yes! He must be going to a lab… I stop him donde  labatoria? “No se, no intendo” he says and he keeps walking…I go back to the front and ask again.. I’m sent downstairs via a stairwell, really? No elevator near by? What if I’m an older person… oh wait I am one.

I come out of the stairwell and there it is. “labatoria clinica.” Ok, finally. I step to the desk they take my paper and hand me a plastic card with a number on it,  “go sit” they say. I turn and see rows of pristine leather chairs, white walls again, and super modern black smoked glass doors enclosing cubicles where they are drawing blood I’m assuming. Its kind of star trekish in a way.. A TV screen on each wall shows the # next. No one around me is speaking, it’s eerily quiet again with only the sound of the glass doors opening and closing.

My # pops up. I step to the dark glass cube and it magically opens as there is no doorknob. Two techs are inside talking. They usher me in. I sit, they take my card and start printing labels and pulling tubes. Not once did they ask my name. No verification. One labels the tubes the other drew my blood… I ask them how do you know who I am? They look at me like I startled them from a dream. I say you never asked my name. They just brushed over it…that would be a no-no in the US as it’s a recipe to screw up having someone else label the specimens. Then they hand me a cup to pee in, no specimen bag, no instructions… luckily I’m a nurse I know what to do…

Um underwhelmed again.

I complain there is no sign in the halls. They understand English. “Yes we know,” one says stone-faced. That’s it. Good thing I don’t work here I thought. you would get a lesson in customer service and empathy.

I pee and come back, hand them the cup which they take with no gloves on… Out I go, I leave and I don’t stop at any desk, nothing.  If no one tells me anything I’m not doing anything I thought. I get on the bus and go home.

The next day I go back for x-rays… I arrive a little late. My bus is late. I check-in and say I’m sorry I’m 10 minutes late. “ “no pasa nada” no problem the man says, he hands me 2 plastic cards with #s on them and I’m to sit down in a similar place;  a lifeless sterile waiting room and people saying nothing.

I see a hall with dark wood doors lined up and down to my left. I see a tech come out and call #s is rapid-fire Spanish to people in the waiting area.  Holy crap I can’t understand Spanish fast enough and they turn and leave if no one answers. Now I’m worried did they call me? Another tech a thin young man with glasses comes out and yells #s. I jump up did you call my #?? He looks at my cards si senora.. I say I didn’t understand the Spanish, he says oh Ok in English then. You think? I say if you said my name Ide been able to understand…

He leads me to a door, I follow him, he turns and says ok you will get on the table and you will need to pull your pants down.. um do I get a gown I say? Um no miss just pull them down to your thighs on the table.. wtf? He also never asks my name to make sure it’s me…Turns out I was to have a bone scan. I get on the table and do as he says. I’m thinking I know the Spanish are much more relaxed about their bodies but I’m a patient not Spanish and I’m in a medical center….and he’s a man… what if I wanted to yell about not having a woman present? Gee, I’m wondering if I ever go to a gynecologist what the hell will that be like?? Um, strip in the waiting room?

The machine scans my body in 5 minutes. All done he says. I get up and pull my pants on. He prints my report and hands them to me right there. That’s cool no waiting on results.

Then I’m taken to another door by another young man who speaks no English. He takes me in and says “take bra off”: and come in when ready” I’m like the x-rays are of my hands and feet, not my chest… he steps out and closes the door.

I do it and keep my sweater on. I step into the room. I see the X-ray machine; it all looks very modern. I see through the glass window next to the machine of a person getting a cat scan in the next room. So much for privacy, I think. He does my feet, then my hands then has me lay on the table on my side.. um she must have ordered something else…hence the remove the bra statement.

He finishes and says “you go now” gracias.

I step out, change, and leave. Again I don’t know what to say.. I leave, get on the bus and go home.

The next day I get a survey in the mail from the hospital. You can bet I wrote a shitload… no signs, no ID verification, no gowns….. yup they are probably reading it and saying, “those uptight Americans” and trash it.

So, I go back in a couple weeks… this should be interesting.

In the meantime, I also see an eye dr. I have severe dry eyes from my Sjogren’s and I’m suffering so much here with the dry air.. I’m bloodshot all the time and I need to see if there is any other treatment here to help it or not. Luckily this went better.

I found a dry eye specialist here in town, right by my apartment. Unfortunately, I was late as my bus was 15 minutes behind and it meant getting there 20 minutes late.  I called and the girl says “no pasa nada” (no problem) take your time…. In the sweetest voice. Really? In the US that would have been so sorry please reschedule.

So, I jump off the bus and then get lost… turns out the office is in a building that you must be buzzed in like an apartment building so I walked past it 2x times looking for a formal entrance of a clinic. I find it with the help of a stranger, and go in walk up 3 flights of stairs to a door and go in. I’m sweating huffing and puffing..

The lady was nice at the desk. It was small and even looked like an apartment turned office. I’m carrying a box and my backpack as I had a package to pick up and had to bring it with me, as I had no time to go home first. I’m thinking I’m going to look like a goof. But they didn’t care.  I sit in a small waiting room with my box next to me and I notice each time a patient comes in they say buenos tardes to others in the room. Wow, that’s cool. Of course, I didn’t do that as I’m the lone American with no Spanish social skills. But I make note of it for next time.

I’m ushered to another room where there is six or seven eye examine machines. A girl (nurse?) with no name tag tests me on 4 of them… that’s cool, they checked my pressure, the eye reactions, vision, and something else I never saw before. Then the Dr sees me. Nice guy, good English. He thinks I’m from the UK.  I say no Texas. He was like that’s cool we never get Americans here only brits. I thank him for waiting on me being late, he says “ah no pasa nada” this is Spain. I say In the US ide been sent away as the office would be closed by 5. He was like” well you Americans work a lot and start very early. We don’t…

We talk for a bit. He has the girl take photos of my retina and the nerve, he confirms everything I already know, thin cornea, pressures ok, dispersion, and terrible dry eye with 90 percent of my eyelid glands are gone.  He says the serum drops I’m on is the only thing to help just like in the US.   But he does one thing; he changes my glaucoma drops to ones with no preservatives in them as the preservatives dry the eyes out more… He puts me on timolol.

He says to come back in 3 weeks and we will see if the pressures are ok… then keep doing everything your already doing: humidifiers, drops, heated night patches, and ointments in the eyes…  ok then I’ll see you soon.

I’m satisfied with his care. All those tests and the visit were only $100 as my insurance is not accepted.  But I’m ok with it. I felt he knew what he was doing and had a nice personality too.

So, in 3 weeks we will see….

So, at the end of the day….

I have a nice apartment and heat now. Things are looking up.  As for the rheumatology situation, I’m not feeling the warmth…

Next things on the agenda?

Dental cleaning

Hair coloring and a manicure…. Ide really like some botox but I think I’ll wait a bit…

No pasa nada……