El Bastardo

If you're thinking "does that say what I think it says?" then the answer is "Yes. That is the name of my roommate in the Clinic."

Maybe I should start at the beginning though. I wasn't sick. I mean, I was, but not the way I should have been. I had absolutely no stomach problems. No pain. No irregular evacuations. No big loss of appetite. No significant loss of energy. The only real problem I had was a fever. Kind of high. For 4 days. Which is extremely abnormal for me. I never run fevers. Ever. When I do, I stay home because they cripple me. But I never stay home because I never run fevers. So I was a bit confused. For 4 days I had run a fever of about 101 degrees and I couldn't take it anymore. So we set in motion a series of events that included going down to the local aerobics gym to get my doctor out of her class so that she could call the blood technician from the private clinic to get out of bed to come meet us at the clinic to do a blood test. Down here, a blood test is one of the first responses to a fever. So we did a blood draw and my whites, reds and platelets were all low. They were within range but at the very bottom of where they should be. Oh, and I was negative for Dengue. So, I was told to hydrate and come back in the morning to retest and see what happened. In the morning I was tested for Malaria which also came back negative. So I took another blood test (everything lower this time, and now slightly out of range but still no Dengue) and urine/stool samples (which showed I had parasites and amoeba). So, because everything had lowered but no clear diagnosis was in sight, they decided to admit me overnight for monitoring, hydration and to treat the party in my stomach. That first night in the clinic was interesting.

We found out that the night nurses do not check on you. We found out that you have to have someone stay overnight with you to advocate for you. A couple of times my IV drip was nearly dry and Kel had to literally search for a nurse and get them to come switch it. Each time they switched it, air bubbles entered my lines, at which point Kel had to convince them to come take the air out. We found out that there are apparently no legs for IV bags so when you need to use the restroom, someone has to come in with you to hold the bag up.

And I ran a fever again.

In the morning they drew blood again. My tests came back significantly lower, but still not to a level that they were overly concerned about. But it was confusing. I never had amoeba/parasite symptoms. I had a fever and lowered platelets but no Dengue. I was fighting something but it was difficult to tell what. So we continued to treat the friends who had taken up residence in my stomach but nothing else because nothing else had been identified.

And then, in the late morning, I met El Bastardo. At least that's what everyone on the street calls him. He's a Tigre which is the general term for gang-type people. He was admitted for some problem with his arm. Strangely they admitted him to my room. He was going to stay overnight. But we never got that far. Not long after he settled into the other bed at the far side of my room, all of my visitors left. And I fell asleep. Sometime later, I awoke to see him going through my jeans that were on the chair beside me at which point commenced a dialog in Spanish:

Me - Greetings?
Him - Oh, give me 10 pesos. I'm really hungry.
Me - What?!
Him - Give me 10 pesos!! I'm starving.
Me - I don't have any money.
Him - I'm STARVING!!
Me - I can't give you any money because I don't have any. So I'm not going to give you any money.
Him - Fine, give me your juice.
Me - I can't give you my juice. I need it.
Him - Give me your juice, I'm starving!
Me - NO. I need that juice. It's all for me.
Him - Fine, give me your cell phone. I need to call my friend.
Me - NO. I don't have any minutes so I'm not going to give you my phone.
Him - Give me your phone. I have to call my friend.
Me - NO! I have no minutes so I cannot give you my phone. Or my juice. Or any money.

Freaky. Here he is, yelling at me, IV bag in one hand, the other pointing at me, now that it no longer held my jeans. So, I stayed awake. And when my Dominican co-workers came back a bit later, I told them. And they told the Doctors and Nurses. And pretty soon I think everyone in Barahona knew. But he didn't know that they knew. So then, I thought they were going to move my room or kick him out. Nope. Turns out, they decided on a different route. On the way out, my boss confronted him on it, he got ticked, denied it, demanded to have the IV removed from his arm, and stormed out, never to be seen again. I guess his brother is a drug runner around here. Crazy.

So ok, back on point. I stayed the second night which was a lot smoother because we now knew the routine. I also got to watch some March Madness which was awesome considering it was the first basketball I'd seen this season. Kel stayed again. And in the morning my blood test showed everything back up into range so they let me go. I was so thankful!!

I mean, overall it was a fine experience. We learned a lot about the health care system here in Barahona. We learned that things seemed hygienic and sterile. I learned that it doesn't hurt too bad to get an IV. I saw some basketball and found out that there is free Wi-Fi at the hospital. Not too bad.

Thank you for your prayers. They were so desperately needed for although things went well, I could easily imagine a worse experience. Thank you for covering me in love and hope and prayer.

More later about normal life...

Love,
M&K