New Experience....Medical Care

I have lived here for nearly 7 months and have yet to experience the medical care. That is until this week! I have had headaches most of my life. The last 10 years I have had migraines that I could usually take over the counter meds, like Excederin, and it would get rid of them. The last couple of months I have not had much success with these over the counter meds. So this week I decided to see a doctor and get something that would work. I called the hospital that a lot of foreigners here use. I made an appointment to see a neurologist for the next morning. The call went something like this....

Hospital clerk: Hello Madam.
Me: Hello, I need an appointment with a neurologist.
Hospital clerk: You need an appointment with a urologist.
Me: No, (raising my voice) a neurologist. You know for the head.
Hospital clerk: Oh, OK very good. Can you come tomorrow in the morning at 11:10?
Me: Yes, I want to see a Neurologist with an "N" at 11:10.

So, after hanging up the phone I was hoping to have an appointment with the correct doctor. My sweet hubby and I went to the hospital and went to the check in counter. I told them I had an appointment with a neurologist. They said, "A urologist?" OK, at this point I decided that if they set me up with a urologist, I was going to see him anyways and tell him about my headaches.

20 minutes later we were in the NEUROLOGIST office and chatting about being believers and he told us how he worked at our Baptist hospital here. He immediately wrote his mobile and home number down for us to call him if we need any help. He happens to live in our area. He then asked us if we knew Amy Smith (I can't remember the name but something like that). We told him we didn't know her. He then proceeded to tell us he felt so sorry for her because she was addicted to pain meds and couldn't get off them. He said he advised her to go back to America and get into a hospital to get off them. He wondered if we could help her. Not sure how we could help her. As he was telling us about her, I was thinking about all the patient privacy laws we have in America. It's a whole different ballgame here!

We finally got to my headaches and he prescribed two meds to take every night for 7 days. He also wanted me to get an MRI done. So we headed over to the Diagnostic Center on the other side of town. THREE hours later I was getting the MRI. I mean, how is that for fast service medical care. Doesn't it take days, weeks, months for appointments for this kind of stuff in America. I went today to pick up my MRI~ I mean the whole thing. It is really cool seeing my brain. I told the kids we could see how smart mommy was when we got the pictures back. :)
The reports said my brain was good....don't know about smart but good! So I need to call the neurologist and let him see the MRI and discuss this medicine a little more in detail. I am still confused why I am going to take it for 7 days??? What do I do when I have a migraine in 1 month? I was completely exhausted by the end of the day but I am pleased that this was done all in ONE day!
Oh, the cost was fairly cheap too...I have never had an MRI done in the states, but I assume they run in the 1000's. We paid $200. The neurologist visit was a whopping $10! Can't beat that!