Stomach bug in Leon

[Echard]

Hello, I’ll be in Leon tomorrow and need to know what’s the best way to get a stomach bug treated. I’m an American btw. Thanks!

 

[ivar]

I don’t know Leon, there is a private hospital in Santiago HM Hospitals… and I see they have one in Leon:

Hospital HM San Francisco · 2.8★(473) · General hospital

C. Marqueses de San Isidro, 11, 24004 León, Spain

maps.app.goo.gl

Maybe go to the emergency room (Urgencias), and ask for some help.

 

[SabsP]

Hello, I’ll be in Leon tomorrow and need to know what’s the best way to get a stomach bug treated. I’m an American btw. Thanks!

Sorry to hear. Hope it improves and that you are able to have a private room for some comfort.
My first advise would be a pharmacy. Highly educated staff. They can provide you some medication or can send you to a clinic.
Then it will be best to go to a private clinic seeing they are better equipped dealing with the paperwork/ payments for non EU citizens.

 

[henrythedog]

Well, you’re going to have to make a decision here.

If you want a definitive diagnosis, and you suspect it’s more than a transient digestive issue it’s likely to require a sample which will have to be cultured, reported on and prescribed. A centro de salud or any of the private hospitals will sort that. Expect four days.

Assuming you’re still walking thus far and you’ve just got the sh*ts, go to a farmacia - the bigger the better. There are lots in Leon. The trained staff there will give suitable advice which may include ‘go to a doctor’. Expect five minutes.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Ask your hospitalero or host where the nearest Centro de Salud is. They have an "Urgencias" department that can help you. If you prefer a private hospital, Nuestra Senora de la Regla is right around the corner from the cathedral, and is highly regarded.

 

[J Willhaus]

If you are an American and not an EU citizen, a private hospital can bill you. A public one can't. Some people have reported they were sent away from the public Centro de Salud.

 

[dick bird]

The tourist office will have a list of English speaking doctors.

 

[alexwalker]

If you are an American and not an EU citizen, a private hospital can bill you. A public one can't. Some people have reported they were sent away from the public Centro de Salud.

One of the few blessings of being a citizen of the EU: Health care is public and cheap and similar to at home. However, I always go with a travel insurance.

 

[Echard]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I found a Farmacia and they got some fast acting meds and I seem to on the mend. Fingers crossed.

 

[SabsP]

Good news!

 

[Robo]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I found a Farmacia and they got some fast acting meds and I seem to on the mend. Fingers crossed.

Great News. Buen Camino.

 

[Former member 118323]

Happy days, I have a similar response when I forget to take my morphine & pregabaline … for me it can be a blessing (apart from the withdrawals & my wife texting me that I’m still an idiot)

 

[t2andreo]

In my view and experience, and IMHO, short of physical death while on Camino, the worst thing that can befall a pilgrim is a GI disease. You handled it fast and effectively, with humor and flexibility.

I always recommend that pilgrims include, basic OTC medication like Loperamide, 2 mg, to treat the traveler's stomach ailment. There are other, stronger medications to slow intestinal motility, but loperamide is the "go-to" over the counter first medication for diarrhea.

Incidentally, and apropos of nothing, I just found out what the opposite end of the contra-diarrhea spectrum is. My wife has been very ill since April 2023. But she is now improving a lot these past weeks. She had her ileostomy pouch removed in May, and her remaining intestines were reconnected. However, getting her GI system to play nice has been a journey in frustration.

Her gastroenterologist just prescribed a 10% tincture of opium to try to control intestinal motility. Yikes! Back in the day, this was commercially called Laudanum.

Most pharmacies around where we live, will not even fill such a prescription - so dangerous is this medication. Evidently, it is used mostly for folks on chemotherapy who have nasty side effects.

I am still waiting on one specialty pharmacy to get back to me on being able to obtain this medication. The doctor told me it is the equivalent of 'super glue' for her GI tract. He guarantees it will stop my wife's diarrhea.

Fingers crossed.

Tom