Update on the Laura

Okay, well, I wanted my next blog entry to be all about the awesome time I had with John last week. It was awesome, we went to the USA vs. CR game and it was great, we drove to La Palma and stopped along the way at the beaches along the Domincal highway. We were all over the Osa Peninsula and I think we both feel like we really know the peninsula, though of course there is always more to know. We spent a ton of time at the beach and a lot of time with my host family. They loved John and he was able to help my host mom with some adjustments that were a great relief for her after she had a little accident that left her with a really sore neck. It was great to watch her and how much she loved him, when she served him gallo pinto she would ask me "has he ever eaten this before? Does he like it?" It was so much fun to translate and also to watch as John learned new words and increased his ability to communicate as he already knew a little bit of Spanish. I think somehow people who speak less Spanish are able to endear themselves faster to a family because everyone fells such a sense of care for that person. You really are dependent on people when you don't speak the language and they know it and it's a beautiful exchange. So John left me on Monday morning really early. I was really sad to say goodbye and you can't imagine how much I miss him.

Okay, so now the update...

On Saturday night I think around 5 or 6 I was feeling pretty tired and decided that I needed to go and lay down for a while. As I was laying in my bed I felt what I thought was a spider bite on my left eyebrow. It really hurt and I slapped at my eyebrow to kill the bug and drug it toward my hair line near my temple. The bite was really bothering me so I decided to just get up and go and hang out with the family and John, though the bite was seriously annoying me.

The next day I woke up and my left eye was a little swollen, but not too bad, I just thought I was having an allergic reaction to said bite so I took a benadrly and called it good.

On Monday after saying goodbye to John I noticed that my eye was more swollen so I decided to call the Peace Corps medical office to see what they thought I should do. They thought what I thought, that it was an allergic reaction to the bite and that I should step up my benadryl intake (I had only taken one on Sunday). So I did. That night the eye had gotten worse and before bed I called the PC doctor to see if it was okay for me to go to the doctor the next day. She said that would be just fine and we decided that rather than traveling 8 hours to San Jose, it would be better to travel 1 hour to Jimenez (the nearest bigger town).

On Tuesday, I went to Jimenez and my confidence was not super inspired by the clinic. In fact, as I was standing in one of the lines I just couldn't keep the tears from falling from eyes. I was moved from line to line, eventually I got to see the doctor and he said that it was an allergic reaction to the bite and that it was infected so he prescribed me some antibiotics and some anti-allergy and some pain stuff and some other stuff... Anyway, I was happy to have some stuff to take, but on the other hand something was telling me that I was not having an allergic reaction, if I were the benedryl would have at least helped a little.

On Wednesday, I woke up and now the swelling was under my eye and to my nose and my eye was swollen shut. No bueno. I called the Peace Corps doctor and she gave me the go ahead to take the bus to San Jose. I had to take the 10:00 since there are only 2 busses and that's the last one. So I packed some dirty cloths (after my week with John everything was dirty) thinking I would be staying in a hotel and could go to a laundry mat or something and thank God I packed up my laptop and jumped on the bus. I was not a fun ride. I think the bus ride is the first time that I felt as bad as I looked (pics to come eventually, but probably not until I look normal). I arrived in San Jose around 6:30pm and went to the emergency room. The bus driver was super nice and stopped the bus early to let me off right in front of the hospital and wished me luck with my eye.

Once I was checked in and saw the doctor she looked right at me and said (all of this is in Spanish by the way) you have herpes zoster. I was like, no no no, not herpes, a bug bit me and she was like no way, this is herpes zoster, have you ever had the chicken pox and I said yes and she said, you have herpes zoster. After taking some samples of the sores and taking some blood it was official, I have shingles aka herpes zoster. The doctor said that she wanted admit me and I said okay and I've been in the hospital for the past few days and will be here for the next few.

Wow, who knew. The doctors and myself are quite perplexed as to how this happened. It's very rare in somebody my age and it's very rare in somebody who is healthy. This is my first hospital stay and I've got to say, I love this hospital. It is super nice, I have american TV which has been a real comfort, I have been able to watch all of my favorite shows and I have wifi and a warm shower, this place is great! I love Clinica Biblica!!!!

So, that's the update. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm making good progress, the swelling has gone down a lot and I'm starting to be able to open my eye without a lot of effort. I need to keep checking in with the eye doctor to make sure my vision is okay, but so far it looks good. Who know, shingles! Of all things. Well, I guess if you're going to have to go to the hospital, it may as well be a hospital in Costa Rica and you may as well do the whole thing is Spanish, it would be way to easy in english...