This past Thanksgiving was definitely the most adventurous Thanksgivings I’ve ever had. Instead of the usual food fest, my boyfriend’s Dad and his girlfriend came into town from Alaska and we ventured off to the beautiful Rio Dulce and Livingston. It was incredible. Lush landscapes with a hint of the Caribbean surrounded us while traveling down Rio Dulce. When I think of Guatemala, volcanoes, mountain tops, and the Mayan culture all come to my mind, but during Thanksgiving I was exposed to a completely new side. Guatemala’s diverse terrain and cultures is what makes this country incredibly unique and extremely underrated. I kept forgetting where I was! If you have an opportunity to explore this part of the country, I highly recommend it!
Unfortunately, upon arriving back to the Guatemala that I am more familiar with I decided to go to the ER because I was having trouble with my asthma. What I thought would be an hour or two checkup turned into a three night hospital stay. After checking my vitals, they immediately hooked me up to an IV and prepped the nebulizer (yup, that’s what it’s called…sounds like some gadget to fight aliens) for a breathing treatment. After that, they carted me off in a wheel chair to take an x-ray of my lungs. I thought getting carted around in a wheel chair was a little dramatic for my taste, but I figured it’s standard procedure in the ER. Afterwards, I was taken aback when I saw a man with a leather coat, jeans and dress shoes with a stethoscope around his neck come into my room and introduce himself as the doctor covering for the usual PC doc. He ordered a tomografía (I didn’t know what that was until I was wheel chaired into a room with a CT scanner in it). Really!? A CT scan? Is that necessary. Again, I was shocked at the testing that I had to go through and thought it was an exaggeration. Seeing how I spent two years working in the health care industry, I assumed that this was the hospital’s way of running up the bill since they knew Peace Corps would pay for everything. Later on, I learned that CT Scans have become a lot cheaper to run and is the standard way of checking for sinus infections. After the tests, the doctor told me that there was no way I could go home and I had to spend at least one or two nights in the hospital. Whoa. I can’t even remember the last time I was admitted to the hospital. For those of you who know me well, I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to make a big deal out of things. I had been sick for about a month but felt a little better, I ran a half marathon two weeks ago and I guess I had just gotten used to breathing at about 50% capacity. After the doctor told me I had to be admitted, I definitely checked myself and realized that it is not only irresponsible but just plain stupid to push myself (I ran a half marathon two weeks ago!? What?) and ignore what my body is telling me.
Anyway, the hospital was quite nice. I had to share a room with another person which was a little awkward but after a day we started talking to each other and I met her family. She’s a 76 year old woman who lives in Esquintla (near the coast) and her husband has actually worked with PCVs in the past. The food was good (shocker!), I had a big flat screen tv to myself (watched episodes of reality tv shows that were the same ones running before I left for Peace Corps) and adjustable hot water showers. Despite these amenities, it was incredibly boring and the fact that I could only walk up and down a hallway for three days drove me mad. After a frustrating check out process, I left the hospital Wednesday without having to pay a dime (bill total $2,000 USD… pretty good deal!) and immediately treated myself to a McFlurry. I had to spend one incredibly cold night in Santa Lucia and then finally I was allowed to go back to site. Thank you to my wonderful Stateside and PC family as well as friends for the phone calls, messages, and distractions Feels good to be home!!
