house of the sick update

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updates...

Milagro is doing great. Karen still hasn´t given birth, but should like any minute. My mother in law, Vilma, was admitted to the hospital yesterday. Lenin and I spent most of the afternoon there and Iris, Lenin´s sister, spent all night. I am headed there to relieve her so she can go home and shower and come back. I expect to be at the hospital in Somoto all day until Lenin gets off work and then we will head home... at like 8pmish. So, yes, it´s gallstones. Apparently though, in Nicaragua, they only remove the stones, not the entire gallbladder? That is what I understood.... but perhaps I misunderstood? At any rate, we hope they operate today.

By the way, the hospital is free. There is a sign saying that it is free and it´s illegal for anyone to charge you. Although, you do have to bring your own sheets and water and toilet paper and you pay for any extra pills and-or shots.


For those in the know....

Milagro is doing much better, is eating soup and drinking lots of liquids and is talking a bit. Skinny as all get out, but doing better.

Karen should be giving birth this week. She went to the health center this morning... sure will know more when we get home and find out what´s what.

My mother in law, Vilma, is here and Juanita and I have been taking her to doctors and laboratories and ultrasounds. We are currently waiting for lab results and for the doctor´s appointment. The ultrasound tech thinks it may be hepatitis. I am reading on wikipedia and it could very well be some form of hepatitis. Guess we´ll know more when the blood tests get back. I specifically asked the technician if the ¨rock¨he was talking about in her abdomen was a tumor, and he said no, that it´s calcium deposits.

By the way, the ultrasound cost 10 bucks. No idea what they cost in the States. However, the lab tests (pee, feces, blood, and blood) cost 30 bucks. Again, cheaper than in the States. Oh, and as long as we are comparing prices... to get a cavity filled here in Somoto, as Lenin has done 4 times in the last few weeks, it´s 10 dollars per filling.

And I am doing all of this in Spanish, of course.

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Comments

[Mom]

I am so glad.....
According to our last phone convo, sounds like Vilma's final diagnosis is gall stones, right? Please let her know that your Dad and I are both doing fine without ours. We've both had our gall bladders removed. Hmmm, Molly, remembered after talking with you that Dad's was removed the summer that you and Arielle spent in Memphis. No wonder you didn't recall it! Mine was removed DIRECTLY before your graduation from Bryn Mawr. Weird, kinda, how DEEPLY you've been thrust into the depths of your 'new family's' medical crises, huh? Hope you're holding up OK,...holding everyone else up!! I hope that this gives you and your new mother-in-law, Vilma, some good times to get to know each other better.........closer, anyway, huh? I'd have to chat w/Jeri or Dr. J, but feel pretty sure in saying that gall stone surgery is probably easier to cure than would be any Hepatitis. The comparison in medical care prices,....well, a good price list from up Here might help your communities understand a little more about how it is that we're not millionaires! Love You. Keep doing what you're doing; you do it well! Love you, Mom

[Mom]

so, Molly,
So, I really am hoping that these medical emergencies will serve as excusable reasons for your Peace Corps papers to be delayed. I know that you were stressing about Managua paperwork even BEFORE all of this trauma. Thinking about you and thanking you for being you, love, Mom