Apparently, somewhere in the adventures of Wall and Face, my friend Cara encountered a mosquito that decided to pass on the lovely Dengue virus to her. The fact that I didn't get it with how much time we spent together in areas with a high density of mosquitoes is a miracle.
Last Wednesday, Cara called me and asked how I was feeling. "Fine," I responded, a bit confused. "Why?"
"I have a fever and my back aches.... I was just seeing if you were sick, too..."
We had joked about getting Dengue with how many misquote bites we got while in Rio Celeste. The bites were so bad that each one had little blood spots, as you can see on my legs below.
She had a fever for a few days, but we thought it was just a flu. She was better on Saturday, but I noticed that she had these red bumps that looked more like a rash than bites. I had totally forgotten that a rash was a symptom of The Dengue...
Sunday, I called her to see how she was doing and she told me that she was at the hospital and that the pharmacy thought she had Dengue. (That was the pharmacy I work at, by the way). So, there she is waiting at the hospital. She had been there for three hours without being called back to the lab to get blood drawn. I asked her if she wanted me to come, but she said that she didn't... that it would be boring to wait there.
Something didn't feel right to me, though, so as soon as I got off the phone I called our Tica friend, Keilyn. She said that we needed to go down there and help her and asked me where she was. When I explained that she had been waiting, Kei immediately called her to explain that she needed to go find the lab and that they were never going to call her from where she was sitting.
That was the beginning of the week long epic hospital tour. I have heard that it is very difficult for immigrants in the US to work through bureaucratic systems or to navigate processes that they are not familiar with... where we think things are normal, but they don't know the rules of the game. I now understand in much more depth and have empathy for what that must feel like.
Luckily, Kei had the foresight to take me on a hospital tour while we were waiting. She wanted to make sure that if I ever had to come, I knew how it worked and where all the parts were. It's a good thing she did, because - let's just say... I now could probably draw an aerial view of the hospital and all of its departments.
Keilyn is so awesome. She had told her boyfriend's mom that we were there, who called a friend who worked at the hospital. I don't know if that every did anything, but that was the start of the process. When they called Cara back, Kei went with her to help translate. Even though Cara speaks Spanish and was proud of her skills thus far, when you don't feel well speaking and understanding important things can be super stressful.
The guard didn't want to let Kei back with Cara, but Kei would have none of that. She quietly and confidently had "words" with the guard, explaining that Cara had been waiting for 3 hours in the "Urgencias" because nobody told her where to go and that that wasn't ok and that she WAS going back there with her. He apologized and let her past. Go, Keilyn!
We finished the night, moving from department to department... waiting and walking.
Some observations I made of the hospital that night:
The bathroom in the "Urgencias" was dirtier than any other bathroom I had been in in this country. It didn't even have soap.
The alcohol dispenser outside the bathroom had no alcohol in it. When I told Kei, she laughed saying it had been empty for like 5 years.
Day 2:
I woke up to get ready for school on Monday morning and thought I should call to see how Cara was doing. She told me that she could not even open her eyes and that she couldn't see anything. She insisted that she could go to the hospital by herself, but this sounded imposable to me.
I called my HS director to tell her that I needed to accompany my friend to the hospital. She was not happy about this, saying things like - "Can't you go after class?" I explained that we had to be there by 7 to do the blood draw. Like Kei, I insisted that I needed to do this and told her that it is scary to be sick and alone in another country and that I needed to do this. So, I sent her some plans and off to the hospital I went.
It's a good thing I did, because Cara seemed to be doing pretty badly. When I arrived she was sitting on a bench with a bandana wrapped over her eyes and sunglasses over that. As soon as I sat down next to her, the woman next to her brought me up to speed that she had given her mint gum because she had almost fainted in the line. Our friend Mau's pregnant wife (who's baby shower we had gone to on Saturday) was sitting on Cara's other side... taking care of her. She had called Mau to see if it was Cara because she was too embarrassed to walk up to her and ask. The point is, the whole town was already mobilized... taking care of her more than the staff at the hospital was. A man in line had even saved her place in line so that she could go sit down. Everyone around kept asking me what was wrong with her (which I found funny because I'm pretty sure people in the US wouldn't ask someone that - personal information! haha).
I ended up leading her around to each station as if we were doing a trust walk and she was blindfolded. She was super weak and did not look very good.
Part of the odd process was that we had to go to "validation" before seeing the nurse and then the doctor. When I got to validation, nobody was there. The women in the office assured me that she would be there "ahorita," a word I will comment on more in a later post. I have a whole "Tico Time Timeline" I will post. As you can imagine, ahorita turned into 45 minutes. But, finally the lady arrived and ended up being super nice and helpful.
She told me Cara needed to be there (even though the previous woman I asked told me I could represent her so she didn't have to walk as far) so I went back to get her. The woman put her own Cedula number on Cara's papers so that the next woman would not send us back. Cara did not have her passport. The woman called the other department in "El Ebais" to explain that there would be two Gringas coming and what she had done and not to send us back. She even wrote the woman's name that we were to find next on a post-it for me since I asked at least 5 times to get clarity.
We waited more and then interacted with a gruff nurse who kept interrupting us to talk to random other people who would knock on the door or do other things.
We waited some more and then were blessed with a very nice doctor who told us he called us early because she looked so bad. Hahaha... all the people sitting on the benches would get up and make room when we walked up and then asked us what was wrong. Even a nursing woman moved over for us. Anyway, the doctor spoke English and even took time to talk to our friend, Vivi, on the phone to explain everything to her. That way, I didn't have to re-tell the whole story in Spanish later.
We grabbed a collectivo home and Vivi taught me how to make "Agua de Arroz" over the phone. Apparently, that is what you drink when you are sick in CR. It is basically just overcooked rice water. You drain out the rice and serve the water with Cinnamon and sugar.
Observations from day 2:
If you get an IV in the hospital it is perfectly normal to sit in the hallway of the waiting room with an IV bag attached to the wall above you with a nail. You may also take selfies while you wait like the man I saw was doing.
The hospital is probably the worst, most stressful, and most uncomfortable place to be when you are sick. Even merely walking from station to station is super difficult.
Day 3:
Vivi took off work to go with Cara. Process repeated. Cara's platelets down more. If they drop much further, she needs to be admitted.
I visited her at home to cheer her up.
Day 4:
Keilyn's boyfriend was the only one who could go to the hospital. He did so with such gentleness and caring. He even carried around her purse :]
Day 5:
It was my turn again. Thankfully, it was the last time. Cara could now walk around herself and although she was still weak, she was much better. He platelets were up enough that she didn't have to go back anymore and everyone at the hospital was so happy! The woman at validation was soooo happy and squeeled when we came in... saying how much better Cara looked and that she hoped she never saw us there again - that she hoped she saw us in town instead.
We were super relieved to be done with the hospital and super grateful to have had such a great team to work through this and guide us. We even had my parents on skype taking her case and giving her a remedy which helped her platelets go up drastically the next day. She no longer had eye pain and her energy improved a whole ton. It was amazing how much and fast the remedy helped.
So, the main lessons I got out of this experience:
I have a community in Quepos that looks out for one another and cares a whole lot.
Systems can be super hard to navigate and sometimes you have to be assertive to get what you need.
I know a lot of people in Quepos - every time I went to the hospital I saw at least 4 people I know. (I guess that means that one of my main goals - becoming a part of the community - has been realized). Sure is a funny way to measure that goal.
The good news is that Cara is doing well and fought off The Dengue. And this is the story that showed me that "el pueblo es una familia."
Amazing how so many came to help.
ReplyDeleteYou did a real mitzvah in helping Cara so much...!
Proud of you.