When people are considering Panama as a place to live, a very common question is about the quality and availability of health care. Maybe my story will be helpful. We have been very pleased with the care that we have experienced here. But, when I had a detached retina in my eye that required an urgent, specialized surgery, could I get the help that I needed?

Spoiler alert. I am now two weeks postop, and doing very well. The previous couple posts explain the plans and care leading up to the surgery.

There is a new, modern looking surgery center just a few blocks away from Mae Lewis hospital. We showed up as instructed at 7am. After a short wait, I was taken to a changing room and then another nurse showed me to my bed. Everything seemed very routine and correct, from my experience as the nurse in similar settings in the USA. I eventually got my IV placed by Abbie, and he made me feel much more relaxed by spending some time and chatting about various things. He said the surgery center was mainly used for aesthetic surgeries, eye surgeries, tests needing sedation, and other one day procedures. When I was there though, I didn’t see anyone else and felt like I was the only one there.

Eventually I was wheeled into a very modern and typical looking operating room. Would I forget everything as the anesthetist said? Not hardly. ha! I was very aware of the local anesthesia, which thankfully only hurt for a moment. I definitely felt sedated and relaxed the rest of the time though, and I didn’t have a good sense of how long they worked on me or what they were doing. The only other parts that hurt were when he placed the scleral buckle, and when he removed the device that held my eye open. They must have let the sedation wear off at the end so I felt quite normal as they wheeled me into the recovery area. I was given my clothes to put on, and taken in a wheelchair to the back door where my husband was waiting in the car to take me home, with pillows to rest my head on because now began the head down recovery time.

My husband and friend told me later that the doctor came and talked with them, said he was pleased with how everything went, and gave them careful instructions for my care at home, stressing how important it was to stay head down so the gas bubble would go up against the retina and hold it in place.

Wow, it was done! After all the stress and worry I was really happy to have this part behind me.

Coming up next – recovery and slowly starting to function again. Today I even made my own breakfast!