Strep

We went to the big Expo at Valladolid last Sunday afternoon, taking a slight detour to Uayman- a tiny, remote town with an incredible cathedral, way off the tourist trail.  Kam says he hasn’t seen another like it in the Yucatan. 

We arrived right at magic hour.  While I was taking photos, I was surprised to see an older gringo couple taking photos right behind me.  I waved and said “Hi”, asking what they were doing there in a friendly manner.  “Probably the same thing you are”, was their response, effectively cutting off communication.  I think some gringos like to live the fantasy of being explorers in an undiscovered wilderness, and don’t take kindly to other gringos bursting that bubble.  Truthfully, not many gringos do make it off the Cancun-Tulum-Xcaret circuit.  In 2005, when we were first living in Merida- a gorgeous, highly developed colonial city 2 hours away from Espita, we were somewhat of an oddity- there weren’t a lot of tourists, especially not ones with children.  Since then, a lot of Americans and Canadians have begun retiring in Merida.  There is a whole section of town now that is primarily English-speaking.  They have created a wonderful English library, for which we are extremely grateful.  www.meridaenglishlibrary.com

Anyway, Kam took the back road to Valladolid from Espita, which is supposedly two-lane, but is so overgrown with these gorgeous yellow wildflowers on either side, it has been cut down to one lane.

 

  The road is very picturesque and goes through a lot of neat little towns with turkeys, chickens, and pigs running through the town squares, people riding their bicycles and triciclos, kids playing soccer, old ladies in traditional embroidered huipiles,  men weaving hammocks, old-school huts with thatched roofs, and lots of ruined haciendas.   After we saw two people in a row with only one eye, Kam said it felt like we were in a David Lynch movie. 

Kam was talking the other day to a group of turtle researchers, giving them the background to our hacienda (I guess I should probably include that in the blog at some point).  He mentioned that our hacienda would have been much larger, as after the Mexican revolution the government converted  80% of the private hacienda lands to public property that could be used for farming and ranching.  Driving across the landscape that day, I thought about how incredible that accomplishment really was.  I thought about our country’s sad “Occupy Wall Street” movement and how little it accomplished.  And I thought about how most of the people responsible for our recession made out like bandits.  I’m reading World War Z right now, which makes some interesting cultural critiques, plus living outside of your own country and culture helps you see things in a different light.

Anyway…

The fair was pretty fun- pretty similar to ones in the US, but all the rides are imported from Asia and have absolutely no safety provisions and are most likely not inspected, which adds to the thrill factor.  There are no fences around any of the rides, so you really have to watch where you walk that you don’t get hit by a gondola.  It was really crowded and there were a lot of drunks and little kids.  I am really surprised that we didn’t see any nasty accidents.  On the bumper cars Mary almost ran into a guy just standing on the side twice.  People have to be responsible for themselves down here.  They don’t get to sue other people for their own stupidity or even when they do have a valid claim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So... in comparison, they have a better food selection, similar rides, a neat 2-story bounce house, no farm animals (except a gorgeous brahma bull photo opp.), no haunted house or fun house, but there was a freak show, which consisted of pickled deformed animals,  a few live animals (2 boa constrictors,2  small gators, polydactl cats, a big lizard, a “rooster-penguin”, and an ordinary turtle), and the alligator-woman who was just a taxidermied alligator with a black wig stuck on its head).  Pretty lame, but I was happy there were no people, the animals seemed pretty healthy, and the sign out front was pretty terrific. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing I really enjoyed was the folklorico dancers- some dance school was doing a performance with hula dancers, which was followed by a great Mexican dance group.  It’s always fun seeing people in traditional clothing, since the majority of folks nowadays, with the exception of some old men and women, only wear traditional costume for dance performances (just like with Oktoberfest).

I was concerned about the germ factor, and sure enough, the next day Henry had a touch of diarrhea.  Then he developed a bad headache and a low fever (100.4).  The next day his diarrhea was gone and his fever rose to 102.2 and he said he had a sore throat.  So I took him to the doctor in Tizimin, as Espita just has a simple clinic without real doctors.  She never weighed him or felt his glands or stomach- never even had him sit on the doctors bench, never looked in his ears.  She made her diagnosis by listening to my description of symptoms and by listening to his front and back with a stethoscope.  She did ask about allergies, at least.

 She fixated on the diarrhea, which I told her was gone and was preparing a shot of antibiotics for him when I asked her to at least look at his throat.  She obliged and said he had a severe throat infection with major swelling and pus pockets.  Henry has a long history of successive bouts of strep throat, so I am guessing that was the diagnosis, as she didn’t do a strep culture.  I asked her how she decided on his dosage, since she hadn’t weighed him.  She said that although he is 4, he is about the size of a Mexican 6 year old and that she was going by the dosage for that age.  She gave him a shot of amoxicillin, followed by a week of oral amoxicillin.  She told me to bring him back in a week for a follow-up appointment and that she wanted to give him a vaccine that covers strep, staph, pneumonia, and flu.  “It’s just a little prick, like an insect bite”.  I told her he had already had a flu shot and she said it was something different. 

I know that there isn’t a vaccine for staph and strep, so I’m wondering if this is some sort of alternative medicine thing?  I don’t plan to go back for it.  I know that the drug companies have a strangle hold on Mexican doctors.  Every time you leave an appointment, you have a huge list of medicines in your hands.  I usually just buy the antibiotics and give my kids Motrin.  When Henry was leaving the hospital after his snakebite, Kam looked up one of the medicines they tried to send us home with and it said it was not approved for use in children. 

Maybe some of the things that doctors in the US do are for the theater aspect of things, maybe you really don’t need to culture the bacteria to diagnose every disease, when you can just prescribe a multilateral antibiotic?  I don’t know.  I try to do as much research as I can on any of the medications down here before giving them to my kids and just try to keep a critical eye on the health care they receive.  I have to say I do really love the way doctors down here give shots for infections- it knocks them out so much more quickly.  I have requested shots from both my doctor and my kids’ doctors in the US, but they just don’t do them there. 

Anyway, Henry is doing much better now, so the doctor ultimately did the right thing.  I may investigate my other options in the future, though.