Advertisement
Published: November 28th 2009
Edit Blog Post
George in observation
The sign with the cartoon monkey on George´s left states ¨Blanda Hipograsa.¨ We boarded our bus at the Costa Rican border at about 3 pm on Monday, October 26. We were lucky to get seats as many people had to stand for the 3 hour plus ride to Liberia, although we were not lucky enough to sit together. I was already worn out by the time we got on the bus. The bus was air-conditioned, and my clothes were damp and smelly from rain, sweat, and futile handwashing attempts. I began to feel a chill, which got worse with every minute. Halfway through the ride I was pretty certain this chill wasn´t going away after I left the bus. I knew I was coming down with something. I rested my head on the seat in front of me, trying to ride it out. Two hours in, and my bowels started feeling weird. I need to get off the bus as soon as possible.
It was raining slightly when we arrived in Liberia. I found Eva and let her make arrangements for the taxi and room. We took a very nice room in the Hotel Casa Vieja. We measured my fever at 101.5 F. My bowels went crazy. I took a shower and
settled for the night, while Eva got supper by herself. Just before Eva went to bed we measured my temperature again at 102 F, up half a degree from a few hours ago.
I tend to be optimistic about my fevers - they normally don´t last through the night. But I had no luck this time around. I woke around three, as dehydrated as I had ever been in my life. I felt like I had been running through a desert. I took some water, hoping it would stay in me, and hopped in the shower. Still, I was optimistic when I measured my temperature, but no, it was stuck at 102 F. We both woke around 8 the next morning. My temperature was still 102 F. I was very weak, and walking was tough. I found it strange that I didn´t have a headache. I always associate headaches with heavy fevers. We consulted our travel book for diagnoses. Malaria? Dengue fever? It was time to bring in some pros. We took a taxi to the hospital.
It turns out I was extremely lucky to get sick in Costa Rica, and in Liberia in particular. The care I
received at the Dr Enrique Baltodano Briceno Hospital was quite good. Moreover if I had been a local it would have been free. My main complaint is that they restricted access to family and friends (in my case Eva). We arrived at the hospital around 9:30. Walking from the taxi to the ER almost knocked me off my feet. I was sent to an office for admittance but Eva was made to wait outside. I was pretty annoyed at this. My Spanish is bad enough when I´m feeling top notch. They made me fill out the admittance paper work and visit the doctor without her. My doctor was not so competent in English. Fortunately I only had two main symptoms, and he knew all the right nouns. He suspected dengue fever as did we. Not good news, as that stuff could stick around for weeks. I was sent from his office with instructions for the blood work maestro.
I saw my doctor again after the blood tests were back. Good news - no dengue fever. Instead I had an intestinal infection, something I got from the food or water. I figured I would be discharged, but the doctor decided
The culprit?
Our hypothesis for how and why only George got sick may be due to his intake of this can of Pepsi purchased prior to the boarding of the bus to Liberia. The can may have been sitting in contaminated water - which George proceeded to pop open and drink without wiping the top. After the bus ride is when George fell ill. to admit me ´in case things got worse´. That frightened me a bit as I never imagined I would be getting worse. And so by 11:30, two hours after arriving at the hospital I had seen my doctor twice, had some blood work done, and was admitted to the ER.
At this point Eva did not know I was being admitted. I convinced my doctor to go find her outside and brief her on the situation. We would be separated for another 15 minutes or so. I was given a bed in the ER and met a nice ER nurse. He was the best English speaker I met at the hospital, except that he phrased each statement as a question.
¨Will you take antibotics?¨ Will I? What does the doctor think? How am I supposed to know?
¨Um, Yes¨
¨Will you roll over and take an injection in the back?¨
I didn´t know what to say. Was this place like a restaurant? Do you get what you order? What if I ordered something wrong? He proceeded to roll me himself, and I clued in that he wasn´t asking me anything. Also, he didn´t exactly mean
´back´.
Eva joined me, and I was wheeled up to an observation ward with a few other patients. I was given an IV line, and hooked up to an EKG machine. My ER nurse explained that they wanted to collect any materials I discharged, and showed me two metal jugs with narrow openings. I was worried about this. When the time came, Eva fetched one of the ward nurses. Well they weren´t interested in my materials. I was disconnected from the EKG machine, and shown the toilet. Later I learned to disconnect the EKG machine, wheel the IV line over to the toilet, and reconnect the EKG by myself. Even later I learned the ´pattern´ to the EKG - you can´t just connect any node on the machine to any sticky pad on your chest and expect it to function properly.
By the afternoon I was feeling a bit better, enough to feel miffed about being sick. I thought I had been pretty careful. Eva had a theory. Before boarding the bus at the border I bought and consumed a Pepsi can. Of course to drink it I had to push the metal tab on top of the
Hotel Casa Vieja
Our room is the window on the left. can into the drink itself. The outer surface of the tab had definitely been exposed to untreated water. Was the water really that dangerous? We´ll never definitively know.
Eva had to leave after the afternoon visiting hours were over. I rested for a few hours. At supper time I was given the best looking hospital food I had ever seen. I had chicken and rice, with a fruit on the side. The food was really fresh, way better than the hospital food in Newfoundland where they make it four months in advance and freeze it. Now a healthy person would have found it a bit bland, but given my condition I wasn´t missing the jalepenos.
Eva returned at five for the visitation hour. She was pleased that I was clearly doing better. At six the security guard came to kick her and the other family members out. He was very friendly and smilely, but he carried a big stick. I was left for the night with my fellow patients - the first night I had spent in a hospital since I was born. Across the room from me was a lady and to the right of her was
a man. They both seemed to be in their fifties, and both seemed to be suffering from influenza, and they would occasionally wear respirators. They were doing ok and nodded to me from time to time. Later that night they wheeled in this kid in his teens. He was really having trouble breathing, and he would cry out from time to time. They wheeled him out after an hour and I have no idea how he was after.
I woke the next morning to find a hand colored sign on my bed. The sign had my name on it, and a cartoon monkey on the side. Above the sign were the words Blanda Hipograsa. This phrase defied Eva´s Spanish and our electronic translator. We later learned it means soft hypofat. A description of the patient? Perhaps, but we think it indicated his dietary restrictions. The sign was probably insignificant, but it stood out as the only truly weird or foreign thing that happened during my stay.
Later that morning Eva returned, and I was discharged into her care. Time for some R&R, rest and recuperation in Liberia. Liberia is a small, tranquil town, very modern and clean. It had several high end clothing stores, a Cinnabon, and even some surf shops as it is a popular transit point for people headed to the Pacific coast. Except that everyone was latino, it could have been any similar sized town in Florida or California. It even had network TV stations from Florida. We spent a couple of relaxed days there, but a subpar dinner in an Italian restaurant helped convince us to move. We boarded a bus for Playa Tamarindo on the morning of October 30th.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.139s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0589s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Arturo
non-member comment
glad to hear you are OK
Hey George and Eva, Happy Thanksgiving. I spent it with Eric, Aaron, Dave and Jenn at Jenn's family's house. Was much fun. I am glad to hear you did not get Malaria or Dengue. Be careful with that water! I am now writing my thesis and hope to gratudate some time in February or March. Happy travels. Arturo