What To Do When You Get Sick While Traveling

I've learned a lot on our visit to Madrid, not about Madrid, but what to do when you get sick while traveling.

About 14 days ago when Peanut was sick, we thought he might need a doctor so we talked to the kids' school and one of the teachers took us to the local hospital.  We had the choice of seeing a physician immediately for 200 Euros or scheduling an appointment for a later visit for 150 Euros.  In either case, we would have needed to have the English speaking teacher accompany us because this hospital, while very nice, did not have English speaking doctors.  It ended up that Peanut did not need a doctor after all.

Rocky's Doctor Exam in Our Apartment

Lesson 1:  Five Star Hotels are Very Useful.

Then Rocky got sick and on Wednesday, woke up with a painful ear infection.  I knew the ear infection would not go away quickly without some antibiotics and, in Spain, you need a prescription from a doctor to get some.  I tried to think of some ways to get her help without dragging her around town or imposing on the school.  Madrid has, what seems quite nice, an Anglo American clinic, but they did not have any appointments with a pediatrician or ear, nose, throat doctor until the next day and Rocky was in too much pain to wait.  

Then I came with with a brilliant idea.  Why not call one of the five star hotels in Madrid and see if they have a doctor on staff?  We called the nearest hotel and they did not have one on staff, but they use a private clinic that makes house calls and -- the doctors speak English.  Within 2 hours of my phone call, a doctor examined Rocky without us having to go anywhere, for 120 Euros.

Lesson 2:  Doctors in Madrid make house calls.

Here's who we called:

Santa Marta Clinic

Phone:  916.32.25.40

Receptionist and Doctors speak very good English

Lesson 3:  You have to mix your own prescriptions in Madrid.

With a prescription for Azithromycin in hand, I ran over to the corner pharmacy.  I was prepared to wait about 30 minutes to get the prescription filled like I do at home.  However, the pharmacist just picked the box and gave it to me as I stood at the cash register.  I was expecting a suspension liquid, but this box was way too light, so luckily I asked, and learned that in Spain, you mix your own prescriptions.  One big difference between Madrid and Paris is not as many people here speak English, so it forces me to speak Spanish.  Combining the pharmacist's little English with my remedial Spanish and lots of "sign language", we managed to understand each other and I figured out how to prepare the antibiotic.  (I did double-check the prescription insert (written in Spanish) and compared it to what I found on the web in English to make sure I got the formula right.)