You may think the most dangerous things to watch out for in Colombia would be drug related. Maybe a run in with a gang or the cartel, perhaps in the form of a brutal kidnapping. Especially in Medellin, which was once rated the most dangerous city in the WORLD. (True story). You may be afraid of a jaguar coming at you from the depths of the jungles, as there are even road crossing signs with jaguar warnings on them. Perhaps it would be the crazy drivers on winding roads. There is of course always the dangers of pick-pockets and such. No wonder our mothers were both so worried about us traveling to this crazy country. However, Rhett and I found the most dangerous thing of all. The elusive Colombian PEANUT!!!
8:20 pm Saturday, February 6th. Senora Rojas gave me toffee ice cream. There were 2 bowls of it on the table, one for me, one for Rhett. Rhett was using the restroom, so I started on mine.
I tried to ask in Spanish if there were nuts in it. I don't know if she didn't understand me, or if she didn't think it did have nuts, because she just looked at me and kind of shook her head, then made an eating gesture while saying "es gusta, gusta." So I ate a bite slowly, but it only tasted like toffee (sweet and delicious). So I had another bite. I was on my 3rd bite when Rhett came out to join me and I was starting to feel uncomfortable and itchy. Rhett got worried, I stopped eating and Rhett quickly ate all of my ice cream so we wouldn't offend Señora Rojas. I went right back to the room and took 2 benadryl. I was still itchy, so I took 2 more. About 10 mins later I tried to puke it up, but I think my stomach had already emptied. So I laid down and I waited.
As per usual, the stomach cramps started. I told Rhett if they lasted more than an hour to take me in. Rhett gave me a Priesthood blessing, which was a comfort. We waited 10 or 15 more minutes and it got really bad. Rhett went to get Señora Rojas, and tell her we needed to go to the hospital because I was having bad allergies. She asked if we needed to go to the drug store. Rhett said no, the hospital. She asked if we could wait until Sandra got home, but Rhett said no, and she started to panic. She was pacing, and pulled out a card with the taxi company number on it, but it took her awhile since she was panicking. Rhett stayed very calm. I stayed doubled over on the bed. Well when the taxi was called Rhett and I scrambled to get our passports, my wallet, my epi pen, and my medications together. We also had to get me dressed again.
We headed out and towards the gate where the taxi was supposed to wait for us. On our way down, the taxi passed us going toward our building. The gate workers had let him in! I didn't know what to do at that point, because I didn't think I could make it back to the building. Right at that moment another car was passing, and the driver rolled down the window and asked what was wrong. Señora Rojas explained what was going on, and it turns out the guy spoke English! He got out and told us to get in his car. He then sped us to the Clinica las Americas while asking us all sorts of questions so he could help check us in when we got there.
His name was Ricardo, his wife was Natalia. They rolled down the windows and yelled at other drivers to please let us pass, which they did. He said if I have a passport and a health insurance card, I would be given attention. Luckily I had brought my insurance card. Had I been more alert, I probably would've been terrified of his driving. As it was, I wasn't even wearing a seat belt. The roads in Colombia are crazy twisted. And I was grateful for Ricardo's speed and agility on the road as well as Natalia's loud voice out the window. We got there around 9:20pm and he got out with us while Natalia went to park. I sat down, Rhett stayed close, and Ricardo did all of our paperwork for us. What an amazing man.
They put me at the top of the triage list and I was taken back almost immediately. Only one Dr. spoke English, and she was available to see me right then. It was a miracle.
Rhett and I went back to exam room 1 where the doctor, Carolina, asked me what was going on. I gave her my symptoms and medication list, she read the pill bottle, I told her I had taken some advil, etc. The doc told us to be extra careful here because peanut allergies are so rare, they just put peanuts in everything here in Colombia without thinking about it. They probably wouldn't understand a peanut allergy (Señoras Rojas didn't, she acted confused at an allergia de maní). Which means they probably don't understand the dangers of peanut oils, or cross contamination. Because my symptoms were starting to lighten she diagnosed my allergy as "mild," but said she'd give me some medication and keep me an hour or 2 for observation. All my vital signs were well within normal limits (my O2 SATs were 99), and my lungs sounded clear. She moved me to a clinic bed and said they'd start some medication.
It took a few minutes of waiting then my nurse, Margarita, came in with some medications. She started an IV and hung a bag of solumedrol (a steroid), gave me a shot of epinephrine in my arm that burned like the sun, and gave Rhett some paperwork. While he was filling it out the first dose of benadryl wore off and I started to get redder and redder, then I started wheezing. Loudly. Rhett grabbed the doctor who came in and listened to me and saw my hives. My O2 sats at that point had dropped to 96 (still not horrible, but it was a 3% drop). Shortly thereafter Margarita came in with a nebulizer treatment. It helped a lot.
I was talking to Rhett as he was trying to fill out the paperwork, and a nice lady who was there for the person in the room over kept peeking in at me. Then she stuck her head in and in Spanish told me to stop talking so the breathing treatment could work.
At this point I noticed that my feet hung off the bed, because I'm so much taller than the average Colombian. Haha. Rhett finished the paperwork and went out to update the others. They were all so relieved to hear I was doing okay. Ricardo and Natalia said they would stay until Sandra got there, and she was on her way. Then Rhett came back to my bedside. After awhile Margarita came in and hung 10mg of IV benadryl. That's when I started to get loopy, and my fingers and hands stopped cooperating with me. I was pretty trembly from the meds. Rhett taught me the Spanish word for loopy: Chiflado. I guess I was singing songs (about being chiflado) and flapping my arms around aimlessly.
It was really uncomfortable because the epinephrine, the steroid, and the nebulizer together gave me an energy boost, raising my heart rate, blood pressure, etc. But all I wanted to do was rest. The benadryl was putting me to sleep. Then I started picking at my dressing on the IV cuz the tape was itching me. It was awful. And Rhett had the nerve to laugh at me and tell me to stop because I was being like the patients of mine that bug me when they pick off their dressings. I rebutted that I don't put that nasty itchy tape on my patients, I do good dressings.
Then my butt started to hurt cuz the gurney bed wasn't very soft. So I had to wiggle around a lot. Apparently I tried to grab at Rhett's face. I think I was probably trying to stroke it nicely or bring him in for a kiss, buy he rejected me every time. He says I was just being annoying and laughing at him. I was just so uncomfortable but I knew I needed to stay still and get my meds in me. I just felt like I had no control over my arms and fingers. The good news is that my hives were going away and I had stopped wheezing. The next med was IV zantac. (Ranitidine). For my stomach. After that they gave me like half a bag of saline (which was wonderful, I was so dehydrated.)
That last half hour or so was the most uncomfortable. The saline bag was cold, so my whole left arm was freezing. There were no iv pumps, Margarita just titrated the drips with the clamps, which was interesting to me. I was also still pretty fidgety. Then it was finally time to go. Margerita came and unhooked my IV. It wasn't like American IVs, where they lay nicely against the skin, it was an older version of an IV, and I felt it bruise my hand coming out. Oh well. I told her "muchas gracias." She was very sweet, but also no nonsense. My favorite kind of nurse.
We left and went to the pay counter. This is when I really started to pray hard. It took them a very long time to pull all my information together, I kept falling asleep in the chair there. I thought it was going to get expensive, then we got the bill. I was shocked. 198,000 (198 mil) pesos. They asked Rhett how many payments he wanted to make on it, he just said one. They explained that they printed off my assessment, documentation, and receipts so we could go back to Chicago and get reimbursed by our insurance company. Ha! A copay for an ER visit is $250 on our insurance. 198 mil pesos is roughly $60. We're not getting reimbursed, and we don't even care. So its official, we went to Colombia and I got cheap drugs. What else do you do in Colombia?
As we left the facility Señora Rojas just kept holding on to my arm and making clucking type sounds as if she just felt so bad for me. Sandra had arrived and she took us all home. We got back around midnight and I went straight to bed. I woke up once with another stomach ache, took some more benadryl per the Dr orders, and went back to sleep. The next morning I actually felt better than I had the first 2 days there. Probably because I was finally hydrated properly. We drank as much as we could, but it never seemed to be adequate. The next morning Señora Rojas seemed shocked that I could even eat, let alone go out after looking so terrible the night before. I think she thought it was a miracle. The benadryl helped a lot with my sleep, too, so that was good.
The next day we brought flowers for señoras Rojas and Ricardo y Natalia. We also wrote both families nice thank you notes in horrible and broken Spanish. I think they understood the meaning :)
List of miracles:
I packed my pill bottle (so my meds could be identified if need be)
I bought 2 brand new boxes of benadryl the night before leaving and replaced all my expired benadryl.
Ricardo driving by at that exact moment.
Ricardo speaking English.
Ricardo knowing what clinic to take us Americans to.
Ricardo not crashing on the way to the clinic.
Ricardo doing all of our paperwork to check us in.
Ricardo and Natalia being willing to drop whatever they were doing to take us to the clinic and make sure I was ok.
Ricardo knew about peanut allergies and how serious they were (he had to explain them to his wife and señora Rojas - not sure if it made the señora panic more though. At least she understood the severity of the situation.)
A doctor who spoke English.
The doctor who spoke English being available right then to see me.
Rhett being able to translate.
Me knowing the medical field and what was going on.
Modern, clean medicine practices in Colombia (the largest country for surgical tourism in the world-- prolly cuz it's so cheap).
Being triaged to the front of the line.
An amazing husband who did my paperwork and stayed by my side the whole time.
A kind nurse, even though we could only communicate with single words. (Me saying gracias for everything, her telling me when to take a breath cuz she was about to poke me "respirator... Si si si" *poke*)
An extremely affordable bill.
Sandra driving us home.
The kindness of the Colombian people.
Getting good sleep and rehydrated.
You were truly blessed.
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