Traversing Healthcare in S-"PAIN"

My first few weeks studying in Spain were not easy. It was truly a tale of resiliency. While I may be smiling in the image above, While it was my first time in Europe and Spain, I was ultimately in a lot of pain. The day before I was set to fly to Madrid, I was diagnosed with mono at my local urgent care clinic. The 8 hour flight across the Atlantic was not easy, but a few Benadryls did the trick. The biggest struggle came my first night when I woke up in tears, struggling to breathe as my throat was almost completely swollen shut by my tonsils (I will spare you all the details and images I have).

This was my first test. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I had to make the most out of my opportunity to be in Europe for the first time. When I finished my round of medications from the US and the issues had not been resolved, I was forced to interact with the Spanish healthcare system. At the time I had no experience in this system and had only just set up my global health insurance that was required for my program. I called the local hospital right near my university and they told me to just show up and wait to be seen. This was such a cool experience for me as I was still a premed student at the time wanting to pursue medicine as my future career. This was my first interaction with a universal healthcare system. Whereas in the US, I would have to make an appointment to be seen unless I wanted to spend a lot of money on an ER visit.

Through my experience with the universal healthcare system, I can definitely say I realized all of the benefits of a system like this. While I was only in Madrid for 10 weeks, I went to visit the doctor around 5-6 times to help alleviate my symptoms and address two sinus infections that arose as well. This ability to access a doctor freely with my global insurance was such a cool perspective to see. Now I will acknowledge that while I didn't experience any hardships in my visits such as super long wait times, I could see how there may be downsides to universal healthcare as well. But I would have to do further research into these negatives and potentially experience them myself before forming an opinion.

Overall though, through this unique experience of health struggles while abroad I got to experience a different country's healthcare system and it helped me develop a lot of resiliency and self-reliance as I had to advocate for my own health progression. While I struggled for several weeks, each and everyday I did my best to still go to class, meet new friends and travel around Europe so that I could still take advantage of my European summer.