1.14.22 // Shots in Mexico

Shots in Mexico...
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You're imagining a healthy pour of tequila, or maybe some smoky mezcal at a bar with no walls, swing seats, and loud music, the voices of merriment carrying. Maybe, you're buying rounds for new friends you've struck up a conversation with about travels, excitedly sharing trail tails only to pause for the three-step tequila shot. The lime, tangy on your tongue, the salt bitter but welcomed as the clear liquid heats the back of your throat.
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You're certainly not thinking of a Mexican "doctor's office" and a vial of antibiotics promptly being shot in your rear.
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In a twist of fate instead of a twist of lime, rather than the open-air swing bar, I'm on the ground floor of a three-story Mexican home, equipped with a "guard dog" chihuahua out front barking at golf carts that drive past.
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The house has a small section sequestered off with room dividers and a baby-blue plastic doctor's table.
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But, on the other side of the partition is a family living their life, children running about, and a grandmother sitting at a dining room table.
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The doctor shows up in jeans, a graphic tee, and a pair of flip-flops. However, he carries an intense medical bag that seems legitimate enough. I stumble through telling him my ailments, pain in the high abdomen near my belly button but a little to the right, no fever, no other symptoms... I stumble through trying to understand his diagnosis but shrug and trust him.
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The cure? A course of antibiotics, some digestive meds, and a lovely shot in my butt to kickstart my mending.
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It wasn't an expected or welcomed visit to the doctor, but it is a story to add to my comical trips to the doctor, like the time I had to go to a Croatian (Yugoslavian-era) hospital.
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So maybe this wasn't the type of shot I expected and I won't be partaking in any of the other kind the rest of my trip (thanks to antibiotics), but it is one hell of an experience and a reminder that going to the doctor in foreign countries, while it seems intimidating, is truly doable. Because at the core, regardless of country or languages spoken, we are all human, and sometimes we get sick and our bodies do weird things.