Calbayog Hospital & Sanitarium Emergency room entrance, I waited in the chair on the right and was on the only bed that can be seen in this picture.
[smartads]
As most of y’all probably know I had an infection on my leg last month. My leg swelled up to over twice it’s size, and I have a pretty big leg already. There were 2 sores on my leg that were hurting and needed attention. I finally got around to going to the doctor and she gave me some cream to put on it, plus a couple of different types of medication to take. It seemed to be working fine. The smaller sore went away and the larger one was well on the way to being gone. Next thing I know, the larger one is coming back. My leg started to swell again. It never did get as big as it did the first time, but also this time I didn’t give it much of a chance. This time around I went to the hospital instead of just a local doctor. I went to the Adventist Hospital and Sanitarium in Barangay San Policarpo. It’s the first time that I’ve been to that hospital and I liked it. I thought it was a better hospital than OLPHI downtown. The doctor there gave me some antibiotics to fight off the infection and a little something for the pain that I was having for most of the night, making it hard to sleep. He didn’t do any digging into the sore, but wanted to. He decided that I should do at least one day of antibiotics first before any digging.
I went back the next day, and again got seen pretty quickly. I got up on one of their tables and he commenced digging into the sore looking to drain out anything that would drain. He was mainly looking to see if there was any pus in there. There wasn’t. He said that told him that it was only a skin infection and nothing too serious. The antibiotics that he had already gave me should be enough to take care of it and no other medicines were needed. The total cost for both visits to the hospital, plus the medication was around P2600. It was about half and half on the doctor/medication.
When I first got this problem, I was thinking diabetes. That’s also the first thing both doctors thought. Thank goodness it doesn’t seem to be that. I’m telling you, it scared the crap out of me. The best friend that I ever had in the whole world died of diabetes complications at age 60, and I do not want to follow in his footsteps. I know I said this a few times before, but there are going to be some changes made in my life. I have already given up 3 in 1 coffee, peanut butter and soft drinks. I’m also going to eat only whole grain bread, and even limit that. The only things I drink these days is water and beer. The doctor said that beer is not so good either, but soda was worse, so I’m just giving up on one of them. I don’t want to try to do too many things at one time.
I still get the marks on my arm from the sun, but it seems a double layer of SPF 30 sunscreen will block that. That means that walking and taking videos again for the blog should be happening again soon.
For now my leg is healing … again and I’m hoping that within a few day it will be well enough that I don’t have to spend most of the day in bed with my leg raised up. I took a picture of the sore, but the picture is shortly after it started to heal. It still looks a bit nasty so if you have a weak stomach, don’t look at the picture at the bottom of the page.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make my first visit to Metro Supermarket next week. I’m not sure when next week we are going now, but it will be Wednesday, Thursday or Friday morning (March 3-5). I’ve heard about many things that are and are not at the market, but I’m ready to see it all for myself.
The picture of the healing sore is below. It’s not so pretty, but it was worse.
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I just had my first physical as I turned 50. High cholesterol and worse, prediabetes. Cholesterol I can manage with crestor, but the blood sugar levels are still too high.
I know a few guys who just went to hell when they moved here, one lost his leg due to diabetes, Watch your health if you can.
I am already on medication for high blood pressure and gout. Both of those are because I’m overweight. If I lost the weight and got into a regular exercise routine, I could get off those and I’m sure I’d feel a whole lot better. I’m lucky that my cholesterol and blood sugar are not much of a problem. Of course, like I mentioned, this sore on my leg scared me. If it turned out to be diabetes, then I’d be in a world of hurt for sure. When this leg heals up, you watch, I’ll be out walking everyday. Lots of sunblock, but I’ll be out there.
Glad its starting to heal, hope your back up on your pins soon 🙂
I’m glad it’s healing too. I’m hoping that this time it won’t flare up again like it did last time.
Sanitarium is my choice. I know many of the employees there because many of them also play tennis on the court they have behind the hospital. They just finished a hospital expansion and have a new emergency room (without new equipment though). Guess they couldn’t afford both! In my opinion, it is a better facility than St. Camillus. Hey, I might suggest you start smoking and drink more beer… that will kill all them germs!
Cousin Victor suggested that I should drink more beer also. He didn’t say anything about smoking though. I think I’d rather have the germs than to smoke again.
As for the hospital, we plan on using it for all our needs from now on. Lita liked it also. I noticed they were renovating in there. The Emergency Room looked small from what I could see. You’re right though, no equipment. Hopefully on a near future budget they’ll be able to afford ample equipment.
Hey John I had a friend who had arrived from US. About a week later his leg swollen up like yours and was very red like he had bad sun burn. Had nasty sore like yours, the Doctors told him that he might of been bitten by bug or spider. I think it took him over a month before he was able to walk around again. Have you ever seen those Big Gray hairy spiders which come into the house at night if they can find opening. I have ran across a few in our Barangay and in Manila. They are even bigger then Tarantula which I had seen in US when growing up. I took Video of them one time and showed them to my kids. Now they do not want to Visit the Philippines. Ha! Ha! I had my wife ask her mother if they are poison and she said she didn’t think so because the kids play with them.
It could have been one of those. I see them now and again. I did feel like something bit my leg one night before this thing started, but the only thing I saw when I looked down looked like a cockroach running into hiding. I didn’t get a good look. Neither of the doctors that I went to said anything about it being a bite. Both said that it was probably a cut or sore that got infected. I bump into shit all the time, so it could have been that also. I know it’s getting better, slowly, but better, even slowly, is the right direction. I think I will be able to make it to the new supermarket on 2 March as we had planned. I’ll still have the bandage on my leg, but being a big, white guy I get plenty of attention already, so a little bit more attention my way is not a big deal.
By the way, those tarantulas you were speaking of, they are not poisonous either. They look big and nasty, but can play with them if you don’t mind handling such things.