Why do they call it a "Medical Vacation" Anyway??

Oxymorons -- interesting word, isn't it -- it rolls around the tongue and rattles around the brain. There are a lot of them out there:

good morning, jumbo shrimp, good government - just a few and now I have to add Medical Vacation to this list -- why? Here, let me tell you how these things go.

You have to have (or want to have) something done, but it's just too expensive in your country or your insurance doesn't cover it. You hear about medical vacations and the cost savings. You find out that the trip is tax deductible under certain circumstances (at least it is in the US).

You research and talk to the doctor's office. You reign in your fear and angst and make plane and hotel reservations and travel to a country you may have never been to. Not much fun yet, huh?

You arrive, find your hotel and settle in waiting for that first consultation. Then the work starts. There you are - hopefully not alone - in a foreign country, in pain, surrounded by people who don't speak your language. If you're not alone, your partner finds the pharmacia and hopes they speak English and that what they're giving you is okay. Foods are different, time zones mess with your circadian rhythms, you don't feel well enough to go explore this country you're in and in the back of your head is that little voice -- the one that keeps questioning your sanity for doing this in the first place.

You go to the doctor multiple times a day - cramming as much work as possible into a short time frame. You go back to your hotel with ice packs and anti-inflammatories. If it's dental you're pretty much eating oatmeal, yogurt, pudding, ice cream and soup - oh, yeah - I can just how much fun Doug is having.

See what I mean?? Can someone, anyone at all, please explain to me where the "vacation" part is in all of this.

This is our second go around with a medical vacation and we're facing a third. I think I'll just call it a medical trip, because in no way, shape or form is this anything close to fun.

But and here is the big thing - when you find the right doctor and things work out, in the end it's all worth it - because you've gotten what you needed at a price that doesn't bankrupt you.