Cahuita and hospital!

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Over the next few days we didnt get any better, we got worse! We managed to go to the serpentarium with over 40species of snakes there and to the Ranario, lots of frogs and the butterfly house which was pretty cool, lots of greenhouses with live butterflies. But the rest of the time we stayed in the room. Finally we decided we had to move to Cahuita, on the other side of the country. We took the 6am bus to San Jose, then a midday connection to Cahuita, we arrived in the arvo. We found a hotel called Surf Side Cabanas for $20 a night, private bathroom and a kitchen. This side of the country as a much higher rate of spoken english, the caribean accent again. We both still felt ill and next morning we went to the medical clinic, they were full for the day so they sent us to a bigger clinic 20 mins away on the bus called Hone Creek. We were at the clinic from 9.30 until about 3.30pm. we had to wait for the nurses to see us, then refer us to the doctor. We had a nice Doctor who told us he thinks we have dengue after listening to our symptoms. He referred us to have urine and blood tests there at the clinic, so we had to wait to get blood taken (we managed to hit their luch break time!) so dario had to suffer the wait, finally they did it for us and then we had to wait an hour for the results, so we went and ate lunch nearby, but we didnt really have an apetite. Finally the doctor called us in again and said that yes it is Dengue Fever! He gave us instructions and told us we had to come back the next day to check our platelet levels. dengue fever reduces the platelets and this can become dangerous when they are at below 50,000. But in costa rica there is a policy, if you are under 100,000 you are admitted to hospital for observation until they are back up again. We then had a debarkle paying the fees. We didnt have enough cash on us and didnt have a cc on us either. Dario had to take a taxi back to the hotel, and a taxi back to the clinic and then we had to wait for a receptionist to pay her coz the tellers had closed at 2 for the day and it was now 3! Finally we paid and went and took the bus back to the hotel and collapsed. Next morning we arrived back at the clinic at 9am. The first 2 people to get blood taken for the day. It was pretty quiet, it was saturday. The doctor (different) got our results and said I had to go to hospital straight away as my platelet count was at 93000.
The ambulance driver who picked us up had no regard for us, it was weird! we sat i the back of the ambulance, he was swerving all over the place and even stopped to pick up a mate off the side of the road. It was an hour long ride and pretty uncomfortable, especially since we were both sick!! Once at the hospital, we had to wait for an emergency doctor, get a referral for the lab to get another blood test, wait half an hour for the results, take those to emergency and wait for another doctor. Doctor examined me, then sent me with all my paperwork to admissions, wait there for half an hour, then wait an extra 15 mins until a bed was ready. Then a male nurse took us upstairs. The Ward had 8 beds, only 5 (inc me) were filled. There was a television... in the nurses station which was right next to me so i could watch it. We had to be under close observation which included fluid intake and output, so everyone had to pee into a big metal jug everytime which had measurements on it, then tell the nurse, rinse it out and put it back for the next person. We also had to tell them how much we drank each day. They provided tap water, so Dario bought me water and juices to help the recovery process. The foos was pretty ordinary. I hadnt eaten lunch when we arrived, i was put in my bed at 2pm and starving! at 3 they brought round snacks and I asked for more food, it never came. Finally Dinner was at 6, rice, soup and a horrible nutty drink. Every few hours the nurses would come and take temperatures and blood pressure. I also had a thing in my hand incase they needed to put a drip in. At 5am we were woken by the big lights coming on, and a guy was there to take blood for the daily platelet level check. At 6am we are woken again for our observations, and at 7am, breakfast is served. Typically a piece of fruit, tea or coffee and a lame sandwich.
Lunch and dinner were always the same, rice, maybe some meat, and some bland soup. I ended up asking Dario to buy me lots of fruit and I ate a lot of that instead. I was in there for 5 days, my platelets kept dropping until the 4th day when they went back up over 100,000!! then the morning of the 5th day they were over 150,000 again. The doctor said i could leave. So I called Dario (he had bought a cheap phone and a simcard for his phone also so we could call each other). He came and security wouldnt let him up! After 10 mins of people trying to call at both ends and it not working, I was ready to go down so I just met him in the lobby. We were put straight into the office for payment, and we had to use all 3 of our credit cards to pay the final total, it was a huge number of colones, over 1.5million! but it was ok. Finally we were rid of the hospital! Dario had also been having blood tests every day until his levels were over 150,000. He was very brave seeing he has a phobia of needles and I couldnt go down and support him. Dario looked after everything while i was in hospital. We had been scheduled to fly to cuba on the 14th Feb but I was in hospital until the 16th so he called the airline, the insurance and organised things like my fruit, juices, toiletries and a telephone which took 2 days as noone in the damn city had a sim card to sell! its all done very slowly here. Apparently it took an hour just to get a receipt.
On the monday, I forgot to mention (the 14th-valentines day) Dario was very sweet and brought me a rose, the nursing staff thought it was so sweet! We bought some chocolates for the nurses when we left. There were 3 shifts of 3 nurses in each every day, usually the same people.
We left the hospital and walked to the hotel, i really wanted to walk, it was only 10 mins away but i felt pretty tired afterwards. We had to move rooms to a double when we arrived, but after that we had a bit of time on the computer and a nap before heading out for food. Dario had found a favourite place to eat, a buffet style restaurant around the corner, it also had a heladeria (ice creamery) attached. We have eaten there for all our meals in Puerto Limon. That night, since I had been craving pizza the whole time in hopsital, we went to pizza hut and had takeaway back in the room. The room has aircon and cable tv, so we chilled out and went to sleep. Next morning, very relaxed day, we slept in and had brunch then watched tv, organised our flights to cuba and filled out insurance forms. Late lunch and then more tv and then a late dinner before going to sleep.

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Photos

Mariposas
Butterfly house