Purgatory in Portugal

I had an adventure in Portugal that I didn't bargain for. Take a dive into the harrowing and sometimes amusing experience of unexpected medical tourism.

Purgatory in Portugal • 16th February 2022

Chapter 1: Mobility

Planning our week-long trip to Portugal felt to me like a fantasy exercise from the outset. After all this time of Covid confinement and learning to embrace a stationary life, the prospect of overseas exploration, adventure and a fresh taste of our former worldschooling life was surreal.

Purgatory in Portugal • 17th February 2022

Chapter 2: Santa Maria

Eirik and Big Eyes each took an arm and helped me hop my way to a taxi outside the station. In the pain and rush, it wasn’t until Smiley and I were already in the car that we realized not everyone could go together. So Big Eyes jumped in, leaving Eirik and Sashay to follow separately. Off we sped to the nearest hospital.

Purgatory in Portugal • 17th February 2022

Chapter 3: The Hallway

The Santa Maria ER hallway was a glaringly lit, high-traffic combat zone. Dozens of gurneys lined the wall, each topped with a unique character and case.

Purgatory in Portugal • 18th February 2022

Chapter 4: Bombeiros

There were no beds available at Santa Maria Hospital. No bed ready for recovery meant no possibility of surgery. But even if there had been room, by the time I had arrived at the ER late Sunday afternoon, there were already nearly a dozen patients with similar broken bones in line for orthopedic care.

Purgatory in Portugal • 19th February 2022

Chapter 5: Medical Globetrotting

Although it was hard to say goodbye to Eirik that evening so that he and the kids could carry on their trip the next day without me, this was unfortunately not my first experience being treated alone in a foreign hospital. In fact, as my dear friend Heather pointed out to me, for a healthy person, I seem to make a strange habit of getting to know countries via their medical systems.

Purgatory in Portugal • 20th February 2022

Chapter 6: Perspective

As night set in fully, so did our pain. The intravenous bags of pain killers could not come fast enough. No sooner had a nurse responded to my red button than the dashboard lit up from Vera’s button, and vice versa.

Purgatory in Portugal • 21st February 2022

Chapter 7: Lusiadas: Voyage of Discovery (End)

It felt like a macro zoom lens was applied to the Portuguese tile mosaic that had been my previous life. There was nothing before, nothing after and nothing outside the tranquil, all-encompassing, azure square of hour-to-hour existence in a parallel universe of nurses, medical assistants, serial roommates, medicine and meal delivery, enclosed by four thick lines of grout.