The Great Canadian … Gut!

2 or 3 months after moving to Canada, my wife and I discovered a problem; our pants were getting too tight! We found a scale, weighed ourselves and discovered that we had each gained about 10-15 pounds!

 

While weight comes and goes depending on different factors in lifestyle, there was no question about it; we had both gained considerably more weight during 3 months in Canada than we had at any point during our 5 years together in Mexico!

 

We have a few theories, some of which can be discarded, and others more plausible. 

 

The discarded theories include:

• Relatively recent childbirth: It’s a fact that most women gain weight during and after birth.  But there are two problems; this doesn’t offer me any excuse, and my wife had actually lost all of this extra weight before we moved to Canada, and she was down to her normal weight!  So this one’s out the window.

 

• I started a second blog: More blogs means more sitting time. But this is no excuse for my wife.  Also, I cancelled this blog, and we found no difference for the two weeks when we were in Halifax, and I wrote no blogs whatsoever.

 

• Canadians eat more fat and more carbs: True, Canadians seem to know no limits to these two nutrients; even “healthy” Canadians seem to think that eating fried steak with fried eggs and mayonnaise is a good low-carb diet. But Mexicans are at least as bad.  In fact typical Mexican food is probably worse.  Mexicans eat lots of bread loaded with sugar every day, plus tacos and tortas and tamales with grease dripping of them. See ().

 

We came to these more acceptable conclusions:

 

• Canada is built for cars: In Mexico, if you don’t have a car, you end up walking a lot more and getting more exercise. I would say 3/4 of the country’s communities are designed to be walked in. In Canada, most people have a car; if you don’t have one, you simply don’t go anywhere.  Most communities are not designed to be walked in, and don’t have anywhere to walk to. (There are, of course, major exceptions.)  We live in a small village that takes 5 minutes to walk across, which hardly offers any exercise. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a car made available to us when we need it.  (We are really thankful for this!  But we’re also sure the guts are somehow related …) We started daily bike rides, but it’s one thing to have daily bike rides as an optional form of entertainment, and a completely different thing to have a couple of hours of biking or walking as a normal, non-optional part of your daily routine (= our life in Mexico.)

 

• It’s easier to eat healthily in Mexico: While the typical Mexican diet is at least as bad as the Canadian one, it’s easier to be healthy in Mexico if you want to.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are cheap, as is freshly caught fish.  Someone pointed out how much oatmeal we eat for breakfast; in Mexico, we ate twice much oatmeal for breakfast, but we also ate twice as many fruit and vegetables, and we almost never ate desert or sweet things, since it’s so easy by cheap and good alternatives (fresh fruit.)  Red meat was a once a week meal, rather than the 2 or 3 times a day many Canadians seem to like. 

 

The difficult thing is that it’s really hard to eat differently in Canada; fruit and vegetables are expensive, often imported from the other side of the world, and rarely of good quality.  The fall is an exception here, since there is a good deal of local fruit available; yet if you are eating the fresh blueberries with Canadians, they like to mix them into ice cream!  Fish is outrageously expensive (compared to Mexico.)

 

I guess the bottom line is, even though most people in Mexico aren’t interested, it’s much easier to be active and eat healthy on a low budget than in Canada.  We’re hoping the guts will disappear when we get back to Mexico, and for our next time around in Canada, I think we’ll have to do more careful planning for exercise and healthy eating.

Scorpions in Cuernavaca

My least favourite part of day to day life in Cuernavaca are the scorpions.  They are small, but there are lots of them. Just about everyone has either had a scorpion sting, or knows someone who has.  It's so common, that upon arriving at a clinic or hospital with a scorpion sting, you receive immediate, free and fast attention, after only giving your name and place of residence.  It's not a shock or surprise, but they know that it's urgent, and easy to cure. On average, we killed on scorpion a day.  The house we were staying in was especially bad because of being surrounding by forest with a nearby river.

The evening we were planning to leave Cuernavaca, my wife reached into one of our bags to take out a diaper, and was stung by a hidden scorpion; they like to hide in dark, small places. We had been keeping all our bags well closed, but this one we had left behind, and partially open when we went to her grandpa's village.

Within 30 minutes we had visited a local clinic, where a doctor gave her an injection to slow the spread of the poison, and sent us off to the general hospital.  She was admitted immediately into emergency for supervision.  When she started complaining about a dry throat and trouble breathing, they gave her an anti-scorpion injection, which is, ironically, scorpion poison.  I have no idea how an injection of scorpion poison stops scorpion poison, but somehow it works. Within another 20 minutes, she felt better, and they sent her home.  The place where they injected the I.V. hurts her more than the scorpion sting itself, which felt less drastic than an ant bite.

Despite common belief, most people don't react severely to scorpions and do fine with a simple injection to stop the spread of poison, or, as my wife's uncles later told us, a magnet, which supposedly draws the poison out. (This is a folk remedy, and I would only try it once I were already on the way to the hospital.)

A handful of people experience anaphylactic shock.  It's more common to experience anaphylactic shock from a scorpion than from a bee sting (I guess since the poison is more potent), so it's highly recommended for anyone who gets stung to go the hospital for supervision and an anti-scorpion injection if necessary.  I guess my wife is one of the people who suffers anaphylactic shock from scorpions - a point we'd have to consider if we ever moved back to Cuernavaca. 

Cold or Alergies? Here's a Good, Semi-Natural Treatment

An Effective, Semi-Natural Cold or Allergy Treatment

For the past  2 months, I've had an ongoing cold or allergies; the funny thing is that since I've moved to Playa del Carmen, a nice sunny, warm beachfront town, both have been noticeably worse than either in central Mexico or in Canada.  And, on top of that, my allergies seem surprisingly similar to a cold.  The very few times I've gone to the doctor, it's always turned out to be allergies, even though EVERYTHING about it feels like a cold.

This morning my 3-year-old son woke me up at 6:30, and I had a runny nose, I was sneezing and had a headache, and I had to blow my nose every 3 minutes.  10 minutes later, the baby was crying and wanted to eat.  (Saturday is my wife's only precious sleep-in day during the whole week, so it's out of the question to take that away from her.)

I felt like closing myself into a dark, quiet room to just forget about the world.  I thought about heading to the drugstore for allergy medicine, but then I decided to try our alternative approach first.  The last time my family came from Canada, my dad had given us a bottle of tea tree oil as a natural treatment for ticks on our dog. (Ticks are very, very common here in the jungle, and all dogs get them if they are not treated.  Most people use a horrible chemical that cannot be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women, or anyone under the age of 19.  The tea tree oil actually works very, very well - better than the chemical.)

A few months ago, reading the natural health booklet that came with it, I realized that it had lots of uses, including treating the common cold. I found it also works for allergies.  So, this morning, this is how I treated my allergies/cold or whatever it is:

• Tea Tree Oil - I heated a pot of water until it was steaming very well, and added 10 drops of tea tree oil.  I place a towel over my head and leaned over the steaming pot inhaling the vapor of the oil.  The relief in my nose was almost instant.
• Hot Tea -  I used Tetley Orange Pekoe tea, but I would normally us an herbal tea - we've run out.  I prepared it while I was heating the water, so I could enjoy it immediately after the tea tree oil.
• Paracetamol - I took one tablet to help with the headache.  The only not natural part of my treatment.  This is still much better than going to the doctor here; most doctors (although most certainly not all) in Mexico tend to way over medicate; I'm highly suspicious an hesitant when it comes to over-medication.  We've found 2 doctors who are very conservative about medicine, and give treatments (which include only small amounts of medicine if any) whic, as we suspected, are usually much more successful.  I also believe in generics, most of the time.  Tylenol costs about 10 times as much, and does the same thing.

I probably could have done without the paracetamol, but on the whole the treatment was successful.  Afterwards, I just felt a little sleepy, but otherwise fine.  The rest of the morning was a very relaxing, comfortable Saturday morning.

To read more about my experience with healthcare and medicine in Mexico, read:

• Interesting Expats Part 2 - The Drunk "Dentist" 
• Childbirth in IMSS - Mexico's Social Insurance Health Care System 
• Mexican Health Care – The Really Cheap Side of Things

Interesting Expats Part 2 - The Drunk "Dentist"

Steve Martin in "The Little Shop of Horrors"

What kind of person do you imagine as dentist?

Imagine this.

A 20 year-old American, living near the beach, who's supposed to be living 3 hours away studying dentistry.  His mother, back in Denver, sends him money every Thursday to pay his rent and buy food so he can focus on his studies.  By Saturday, he has no money, for anything.  On Saturday night he's trying to convince neighbours to buy him beer.   Throughout the week he shows up at the neighbourhood shops (mostly run out of people's living rooms) and asks for photocopies, snacks, etc. on credit.  Usually he's very hung over, or still drunk.  When they charge him the 50 cents (5 pesos) he owes, he stops going the store.

I know a lot of people in their early 20s who are still working out the direction of their life, so most of this wouldn't surprise me - if he weren't supposed to be a dentist.

One day, back when my wife  was still running her own mini-business out of our living room, he showed up, reeking of alcohol, and started asking if he could see our teeth.  I passed on the offer.  We already knew that he had studied half a semester or something like that in dentistry before running off the beach.  He then started talking to the other clients and asking to see their mouths, taking their phone numbers, apparently to make appointments for dental work. (I'd like to think the people who gave their phone numbers were giving fake ones.)

Another neighbor who had seen his house said that he had a ratty old dentist chair in his living room.  I didn't ask about the equipment.

Would you let this guy stick a sharp object in your mouth?  I know I sure wouldn't.

For the story of a more socially responsible expat, read Interesting Expats Part 1 - The Priest
For a discussion of what makes us expats, read What is an "Expat"?

Childbirth in IMSS - Mexico's Social Insurance Health Care System

The new IMSS hospital where my son was born

Over the past week and an a half, I haven't been posting much, because exactly a week ago my second son was born!  (I'm finally getting back into the rhythm of day to day life again, so I think my posts should be a little more on track again.)  This is, precisely, the event that I'm going to write about today.

In my last post, 2 days ago, I  wrote about the variety in Mexico's health care, and the difference between private health care, and the cheaper options whether public, charity or just inexpensive private services.  I mentioned the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) which is a government-run system funded primarily by deductions from workers' checks; the same workers who get the deductions have access to the service.  A small number of people also pay an annual insurance fee, which works just like any private insurance, but is cheaper.

It was in a hospital from IMSS where my son was born.  The hospital is brand new, offering long-awaited specialized services to the IMSS system for Playa del Carmen, which so far had only been a family health care clinic (see picture.)  The new hospital is very well organized, looks nice, has plenty of seating in the waiting areas (this contrasts to the old clinic, where people waiting usually have to stand up.)  The seats are also shiny stainless steel and relatively comfortable; I sat on one for 12 hours, and felt fine.

A lot of Mexicans, especially from Mexico City it seems, have a very negative impression of IMSS, and there are some of horror stories kicking around; I even found a few on the internet for Cancun. 

The service we had in the new hospital, however, was amazing, with no complaints.

We didn't just trust luck, however, or pick IMSS just because it was cheaper for us; we investigated just like we would private health care service.  When we found out my wife was pregnant, we began doing our research and investigated several private hospitals.  The least expensive option was about $1500 dollars for a natural birth, or $1800 for a c-section.  Since from what I understand about 60% percent of births in Mexico end up being c-sections, we decided to count on this expense.

Partway through the pregnancy we got work coverage through IMSS, and we investigated to find out that they do cover childbirth for those covered through work even if they were covered only after the pregnancy started.  So we began to consider this as option.  With all the negative opinions out there about IMSS, we decided to get some first hand stories.

The IMSS Family Health Clinic

My first boss in Cuernavaca had already told us that both his children were born in IMSS, and the service was excellent for childbirth.  But this was 15-20 years ago in a city a couple thousand kilometers away.  At the time, our brand-new IMSS hospital here in Playa had not yet opened, and the clinic didn't handle childbirth; this was only done in Cancun.

So, we set to work looking for neighbors who had recently had babies and asking them if they had been born in IMSS.  We found about 3 or 4, and all of them had the same story; excellent service, no problems.

We continued our investigation and found only two downsides.  One is that you get the doctor who happens to be there at the moment; no matter who your doctor is, or even if you have a specific time programmed, you wouldn't know who the doctor will be, and even if you did, there would simply be no choice in the matter.  Since all feedback had been positive, we weren't too concerned about this fact.

The other was that the father cannot be in the delivery room.  I believe that this is important; but when it came right down to it, my wife and I sat down one evening and realized that this was our only real hesitation; so we asked ourselves, "Is this worth $2000 dollars?"

Our answer was "No."  As important as this, we know that many mothers have had their children without their husband at their side, including her with our first son.  We decided to have our baby in IMSS.

The only third difficulty was the fact that it had to be in Cancun, about 45 minutes away; IMSS offers an ambulance service from Playa, but we did some calculation and realized that even 2 taxis and a hotel room would total about $150 dollars at the most.  Several neighbors had offered us rides or to lend us their cars as well.

This issue, however, sorted itself out; we knew the new hospital would be opening around the same time the baby was born.  When it finally opened, we went for a few check ups and tried out the emergency room services (that's where people go in for child birth); everything was great, and the service was good.  (This contrasts to the family clinic, where the receptionists always talk to you like you've done something wrong and you're wasting their time; the doctors, even there, however, are usually helpful.) 3 days before the baby was born, our neighbor, who works there, informed us that the first 2 deliveries had taken place the night before; everything was set to have our baby in the new IMSS hospital a 10 minute taxi ride away from our house.

The night before the baby was born, my wife had been feeling intense contractions for almost 20 hours, and she was admitted to the hospital at 8 pm.

• At 9 pm the doctor informed me that they would be giving her an injection to help ease the pain since her tolerance for the pain was lower than normal.
• At 11:30 pm, the doctor gave me another update, telling me everything was going well - slowly but well.
• Until about 4 am I had been  fairly calm, knowing that during the night shift, news was only given if there was some complication.  No news was good news.  I had read about 100 pages of The Lord of the Rings in the waiting room, waiting for any announcement. I started getting nervous, excited etc., certain that my child had been born.  I went out for a few short walks, getting some coffee at the nearby all-night convenience store.
• At 6 am, I started getting phone calls from my parents and in-laws wondering why there wasn't any news yet.  I had to explain the system to them.  Needless to say, the phone calls made me more anxious to get the news.
• At 8 am, the day shift finally arrived, and the nurse finally had news!  The baby had been born at 6:40 am.  Both the mother and baby were fine, and were in recovery.  Since everything had gone well, my wife and the baby would be released at around 1 pm.  I went home to rest.  I slept for only about half an hour, and took a shower, shaved, made a lot of phone calls.
• At 12:30 pm went back to the hospital with my 3 year old son and my mother-in-law.  I entered to help my wife change, hold my baby for the first time and take care of the documentation.  The couple I work for were kind enough to come and pick us up at the hospital, and were waiting for us in the waiting room.

The Baby's First Picture - In the Waiting Room

On the way home, my wife said it had been a hard, long labour, but the service had, again, been excellent.  The whole night either the doctor or the nurse was with her.  At one point the nurse put on music, and was very supportive during the most difficult parts.  She said that they treated her even better than where our first son was born, which is a reputable hospital in Mexico City specialized in childbirth.  She said she couldn't have been happier with the service!

Perhaps the most difficult part was the bureaucracy we had to go through in the family clinic in the earlier stages of the pregnancy; but that belongs to another post, where I'll complain about all my encounters with Mexican bureaucracy at the same time.

I don't doubt that other patients in other places, with other services have had their bad experiences.  But for us, the service was excellent.  We made the right decision in choosing the IMSS hospital for our childbirth.

Mexican Health Care – The Really Cheap Side of Things

The Playa del Carmen Family Health Care Clinic

One of growing forms of generating economic growth in many countries is what's called "medical tourism" which means that people travel to another country to take advantage of better availability, shorter waiting and, most importantly, lower prices, of healthcare. This industry, which is usually treated very closely to tourism rather than healthcare on a government level, has also been gaining a good deal of attention in Mexico. "High quality private hospitals for much cheaper prices than in the U.S., more personalized attention, and virtually no waiting lines," is the presentation, which is not completely off the mark.

What medical tourists may or may not know (or may or may not care about) is that the part of Mexican healthcare they see is just small glimpse of a very broad, and like just about everything else in Mexico, extremely contrasting system, or, more correctly, series of almost unrelated systems that form Mexico's health care options. In fact, the options which are presented to them, are the pricier, prettier, and frillier options in Mexico, which for the majority of residents here in most cases would be considered just too expensive.

Many of the Americans who are up in arms these days about the government controlling their private lives and enterprises would probably like what they see here; if officially there is government control, in reality it amounts to very little, as far as I can see at least. The only one constant control I've seen is that all practising doctors have to have a "cedula profesional" which is a professional I.D. number and certificate which certifies that they have completed the studies and received the degree required to be a medical doctor.

Putting my biases and political views on the issue aside, there are definitely ups and downs; I could write a lot about these (and I will in the future) but to begin, one of the real ups is that really, really cheap healthcare is available. As most socialist-leaning observers would expect, there is definitely a divergence between what's available for the rich, who have the best available on the spot all the time since they can pay for it on the moment, and what's available for the poor, who have to settle for whatever's available, often waiting long, and sometimes not even having access to some services which are readily available nearby, but not to them since they don't have the cash or the credit to admitted to those hospitals. There are a number of hospitals where, if you don't have a credit card on-hand with enough credit to cover the process and considerably more when you come in the emergency door (or the really big insurance plan), you'll be left unattended, regardless of your medical state. Ironically, these are usually considered the best.

On the other hand, there are some amazing surprises where charity or low-priced hospitals are among the best available. Some use income levels as criteria to admitting patients, excluding the rich; others use the medical condition as criteria and charge on a sliding-scale based on income level; others are just a free-for-all, and are used by the poor as well as the better-off who want to save some cash. Unfortunately, these are usually available only in cities. Places like Mexico City will, however, have a very large variety of very specialized, reputable hospitals in these categories.

Recently, I have been making growing use of two services that are very accessible in price; one is the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS), and the other is a chain of discount pharmacies which often have a small doctor's office on premise (if you're Mexican or live in Mexico, you'll know exactly which ones I'm talking about). Tomorrow, I'm going to write about my recent experience with IMSS when my second son was born, and another day I'll write about why I choose to use those little doctors' offices in the pharmacies – the main reason is not always the price.