¿Por que?

Porque Uruguay no es Estados Unidos. (Why? Because Uruguay is not the United States.)

Now that we have that out of the way let me tell you about my glucose tolerance test this week. My appointment was for 8:30 and I was able to get in pretty close to that time. After seven other glucose tolerance tests I expected that they would draw my blood, have me drink the less than tasty carbonated orange syrup withinten minutes and then I would be there for an hour or so, have my blood drawn again and then I could go home.

Instead, they drew my blood...let me pause for a needed explanation of the use of examination gloves here in Colonia. Commonly (from my experience in the USA anyway) nurses and doctors don the protective latex when they draw our blood. However, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the use of this basic medical supply. Each time I, or the children, have had blood drawn I've not set eyes on a latex glove. This time I was actually surprised to see a latex glove on the tray next to the syringe. As I watched the nurse pick up the glove I fully expected her to put it on herself, not me. Can you believe the nurse took that glove and used it as a tourniquet?! Oh, boy!

Back to the test...after they drew my blood the first time I waited for over an hour for them to get the initial results. Then they sent me to the basement to wait for my dreaded carbonated concotion. Which actually turned out to be half of a small pitcher of very, very, very sweet hot tea. When I finished drinking the tea, which I could drink at my leisure - a nice change, to someone who doesn't like a lot of sugar it tasted nearly as bad as the orange drink, I headed back upstairs to wait in the ER lobby for two hours. I showed up at the hospital at 8:20 am and left the hospital at 12:30. I sure hope the results come back normal because I would hate to see how long the longer test takes.