One More Day in Metz

June 1, 2024

My day off in Metz was spent primarily in a hospital emergency room for a minor issue that I wanted to make sure was not going to become a major one. It’s just one of those things but it had been stressing me out and I wanted it looked at. I’m including this dopey medical issue in the journal because it was something I dealt with my entire trip.

For the past year or two I’ve been graced with the formation of pincer fingernails. I’ll let you do the looking up. With some medical intervention, most of the time the annoyance factor is just slightly higher than a hangnail. With the bangs and bumps of travel, though, my newest pincer nail became infected and a little painful. The pharmacies of France gave me some good antiseptic potions, however I was wondering if it had moved into a need for antibiotics. I had to wait until we returned to Metz to find out.

The wonderful ER doctor said nope, antibiotics not indicated, keep doing what you’re doing with the antiseptics, sorry it hurts, see your doctor when you get home. I was relieved to hear all that. It meant I could just get on with my plans.

Since I’d been through this before with other fingers, I already had a protection system using a thimble taken from BJ’s sewing box and paper tape to hold it on. Reduces the bangs and smooshes. All the cool girls are wearing them.

Dinged digit protection system. I travelled prepared for this eventuality.

I was in the ER a very long time. I didn’t really mind that. I only had a finger owie and all the time in the world. Lots of other people had a much worse day than I was having. So I sketched a little, wrote up my notes on this tour, people watched, read on my phone. The time passed. Things were harder because of the language difference but everyone was exceedingly patient and kind.

Earlier in the week, I had gone to a pharmacy and was given the antiseptics. The next day I delayed our departure for the chateau due to a téléconsultation with a doctor. That was a comedy of errors both technologic and linguistic, but again everyone was so patient and kind. The video wasn’t good enough for the doctor to make a judgment so she said to go to a hospital. After that, Susan, also patient and kind, and I finally got on the road.

Once back at the hotel I had an easy evening and got packed up for tomorrow’s train rides.

Street lamp right across the street. I am forever grateful to the online person who told me about this life hack years ago.

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Rachael AndersonDealing with medical issues overseas is really challenging especially if it’s not a language you speak. I’ve had several issues pop up and have had to rely on pharmacists who are actually very knowledgeable.
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4 months ago

Kathleen JonesI love the pharmacists in France. Seems like they get a lot more training and can prescribe a lot more things than those in the US.
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4 months ago