Sala de tratamiento

Last Friday I finally managed to fight my way through the bureaucratic form-filling and stamping and document producing and got my very own Medical card, complete with deeply unflattering photo on the front. To test the system I saw my new GP, a dour Catalan lady one of whose names is Cantallops (I nicknamed her the Melon - cantaloupe - gettit? but my Spanish friend Patri says it is a combination of Catalan words for singing and wolf, so the Singing Wolf. Either nickname suits her well.) I went with a mild left mid-back pain, which can have very many causes according to the interweb. I came out with a prescription for anti-inflammatory soluble powder. Apart from briefly prodding the area, I had no tests or questions about my medical history, so I did feel somewhat short-changed, especially as I was used to my UK GP always checking BP and looking for new tests to send me for - in fact, he'd check the computer records, gleefully rub his hands together and say "what tests can I order for you today?".
Today was the return visit a week later to see if the medication helped (it did a little, or maybe just the passage of time did the trick). The Melon was not in but her clinic was being run by a very serious but earnest young male doctor one of whose names was Merino - so, nickname The Sheep. The Spanish do tend to have a lot of names - the form-filling is always complicated by my only having one forename and one surname: no-one can quite believe it.
The Sheep gave me a much more thorough examination, asked after my medical history (that made him frown somewhat) and took my BP, which was 169/110. That didn't surprise me, as it's been crazily high since the SAH, but it sure put a rocket under his bum, as we were racing off to a treatment room in no time. Here I was given an ACE inhibitor and a sedative under the tongue and then retested - down a little to 164/92, so I escaped the threat of an injection and/or a stay in hospital. Back home now with a prescription for calcium channel blockers.
Mixed feelings - it has been nice to ignore health issues since I moved here, and this pic is a reminder of familiar scenes in the UK - but maybe I ought to take some control and do something about it this year.