Please Kill Me

Me and my big yap. In the middle of the night, I had a second fever, and the cup of coffee, the soup, and most of the fluids I had consumed, flushed down the toilet. I spent the whole night purging... sigh ... By the Cap Health nurses' description I'm not to what I would think of as sever diarrhea, so try and grit it out a little. Hopefully I can fight this off and build some immunity to what ever little bug is tickling my tummy. Maria Cecilia had a little gurlling the previous night but she wasn't sick... so damn it why can't I build up a tolerance to this little bug.


After spending the day between the bed and the baño, I finally relent, off to the clinic we go. Between the purging and the 9 days of dehydration, I was in pretty rough shape. With Maria Cecilia's help, I get checked in, the doc looks at me and send me to a treatment room. Immediately they hook me up to a Saline IV and start getting me hydrated. The take some blood, and add some antibiotics to the mix. They wanted a stool sample, but after the IV antibiotics, the boiling in my guts had stopped again. A bottle of pedialite, a couple bottles of gatorade, and I was ready to be discharged. The Doc gave me a scrip for the preferred local cure (primperan), a specimen cup so they could get a stool sample, and a bill for 80 bucks which included the meds.... hell that's only 20 bucks per hour... can't complain about that.

The doctor, Maria Cecilia chuckled about my desire to "build immunity", they also chuckled and said the gringos G.I. tract is tooo clean to handle these little latin bugs. We all agreed it was probably the Majestic Sausage.

I couldn't imagine that speed of service back home. The staff was courteous, efficient and friendly. I'm now less scared of the hospitals in third world countries then I am back home. For the most part I was in good spirits, and not nearly as bad off as the poor little girl crying in the curtain next to me. Maria Cecilia was invaluable in getting me through the process quickly.

We get back to her flat, and wouldn't you know it I finally have to use the restroom, 4 hours in the hospital waiting for a stool sample and no ... get to the flat and tadaaaaaaa. Since I'm leaving the country anyway we just disposed of the sample and container.

Hopefully I can sleep through the night...