What's written below is a chronology of my past three days. I promised to write about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this trip. This is bad and ugly. But it's part of my experience, so in the name of full disclosure, here is the blog post as of this moment.
It's Monday. The ride from Granada to Leon was a nightmare. Crowded van with 13 people including the drivers, air conditioning minimal so there was a lot of carbon dioxide being exhaled, I swear I smelled a faint odor of exhaust, the two hour trip was actually four because we didn't go directly to Leon. There was pickup of passengers at two locations, then a detour to the Managua airport to drop off one person, then a stop for gas, then winding through neighborhoods before getting back on the highway. With the exception of six peanut butter crackers, I did not eat from breakfast at 8:30AM until 3:30. Had a headache on arrival. I figured it was from hunger.
Then the really bad stuff started. I asked for a fruit salad. They gave me an entire dinner plate of beautiful fruit. I ate about 2/3 because it was light and the headache had turned vicious. Got to my room and could barely make it to the bed the head pain was so bad. Collapsed on the bed. Awoke 2 hours later starving. Figured I needed protein. Had a chicken panini and fries. Still figuring a hunger headache. By 8:30 I was practically on my knees in pain.
Went to the front desk. They called a pharmacy which delivered 2 pain pills to the door, free. 400 milligrams each of acetominaphen. Took one and saved the other for later. Back to bed, sitting up because putting my head down was too painful. Awoke at midnight, took the other pill, back to sitting up, always wearing the eye mask because light made it worse. Awoke at 7AM, made it to breakfast at 7:40. Asked for more pills. This time they gave me two and said to take them both. Cereal and toast with jam.
9AM Saturday and I'm back in bed, still propped up. I can't think, can't focus attention, I'm not visibly shaking but my insides feel like a vibrating guitar string. Feeling weak, can't trust leaving the hotel, or even my room. Noon I ask for a grilled cheese sandwich and get two so I eat both because I'm starving again.
Back to the darkened room and propped up. 3PM I forget having eaten the sandwiches and order something else but my memory does not remember what it is. The desk clerk gives me one more 400 mg tablet. Back to bed. If I could see myself from the front I probably look like a sitting corpse because I don't move for hours in that position.
Now I figure that I must be having the first migraine of my life because it feels just like an old friend Phyllis used to describe hers. In a dark room for days, throwing up every time she sat up. Thankfully vomit is not part of my crisis.
6PM to the small restaurant, which they call a cafeteria, even though it has tables and a full bar.I know I have to eat because I can't keep getting weaker. I order a small piece of grilled chicken (protein) and a small dish of fruit, which the server thinks is a highly strange meal. The night clerk comes over and gives me a different foil-wrapped tablet which he says is particularly for headaches. He says to take it after I eat. I ask for dinner in the room because I can't trust my balance much longer.
Food comes, I eat four bites of chicken, alternating with a piece of fruit each time. On the tablet foil written in Spanish I can make out the word for "prescription." Oh, well. What could be worse than what I've got? Take the new tablet at 6:45 and wait for relief. By 8:45 I figure it's as good as it's going to get. 10PM I approach the desk again. The clerk doesn't wait for a request. She reaches in the drawer and hands me two more tablets,of acetominaphen - 500 mg each this time.
Awake at midnight. Take the second tablet. Still propped up.
Awake around 4AM. Is it my imagination or has the pain diminished to about a three inch strip running from the crown of my head to the base of my skull? Nothing to be done. Pills are gone.
8:15 I drag out of bed and put on the same dress I've been wearing since Saturday night. Cereal and toast with butter and jam. I think about what I've consumed in the last seven days and two things occur to me: On Saturday my breakfast was the daily Continental type - canned juice - sugar, tea, and a huge croissant that I used jam on as I'd been eating for four days. Then no food until the afternoon until the fruit plate - fructose and water. And there was that piece of cheesecake with cherry topping in Granada - more sugar. I hadn't had a drop of wine since the night before leaving. That was a choice because I wanted no impairment of my mind while here. But maybe my blood sugar was off kilter because I had consumed more sugar in six days than I would at home in six weeks
The second thing that occurs to me is that because of all the fruit, which is mostly water, I may have overdosed my kidneys. The strange thing about kidneys is that in order to flush them of fluid you need to take in more fluid to get them going. Maybe all the fruit water which I got rid of often, had depleted my potassium level. That happened to me about 20 years ago and it was not pretty.
There is a medical laboratory across from the hotel and I ask if I can walk in with no prescription for blood tests. Of course, why not?
Bless these people. But I'm so out of focus that I eat breakfast and then go there for a blood test, especially sugar and potassium levels. And of course they tell me to come back six hours later because I had eaten.
So here I am, writing this at 1PM, counting the minutes until three o'clock, drinking water constantly to fill my stomach. All I want is an answer so I can stop taking pain pills and take or do whatever will make the pain stop.
This is the first time in three days that I have been able to look at the computer. My brain has been too addled to even try. I have not been out of the hotel in three days, have seen nothing of this beautiful city before going to my mission assignment in 48 hours. Maybe tomorrow. Eternally optimistic.
More as it happens.
Marianne
It's Monday. The ride from Granada to Leon was a nightmare. Crowded van with 13 people including the drivers, air conditioning minimal so there was a lot of carbon dioxide being exhaled, I swear I smelled a faint odor of exhaust, the two hour trip was actually four because we didn't go directly to Leon. There was pickup of passengers at two locations, then a detour to the Managua airport to drop off one person, then a stop for gas, then winding through neighborhoods before getting back on the highway. With the exception of six peanut butter crackers, I did not eat from breakfast at 8:30AM until 3:30. Had a headache on arrival. I figured it was from hunger.
Then the really bad stuff started. I asked for a fruit salad. They gave me an entire dinner plate of beautiful fruit. I ate about 2/3 because it was light and the headache had turned vicious. Got to my room and could barely make it to the bed the head pain was so bad. Collapsed on the bed. Awoke 2 hours later starving. Figured I needed protein. Had a chicken panini and fries. Still figuring a hunger headache. By 8:30 I was practically on my knees in pain.
Went to the front desk. They called a pharmacy which delivered 2 pain pills to the door, free. 400 milligrams each of acetominaphen. Took one and saved the other for later. Back to bed, sitting up because putting my head down was too painful. Awoke at midnight, took the other pill, back to sitting up, always wearing the eye mask because light made it worse. Awoke at 7AM, made it to breakfast at 7:40. Asked for more pills. This time they gave me two and said to take them both. Cereal and toast with jam.
9AM Saturday and I'm back in bed, still propped up. I can't think, can't focus attention, I'm not visibly shaking but my insides feel like a vibrating guitar string. Feeling weak, can't trust leaving the hotel, or even my room. Noon I ask for a grilled cheese sandwich and get two so I eat both because I'm starving again.
Back to the darkened room and propped up. 3PM I forget having eaten the sandwiches and order something else but my memory does not remember what it is. The desk clerk gives me one more 400 mg tablet. Back to bed. If I could see myself from the front I probably look like a sitting corpse because I don't move for hours in that position.
Now I figure that I must be having the first migraine of my life because it feels just like an old friend Phyllis used to describe hers. In a dark room for days, throwing up every time she sat up. Thankfully vomit is not part of my crisis.
6PM to the small restaurant, which they call a cafeteria, even though it has tables and a full bar.I know I have to eat because I can't keep getting weaker. I order a small piece of grilled chicken (protein) and a small dish of fruit, which the server thinks is a highly strange meal. The night clerk comes over and gives me a different foil-wrapped tablet which he says is particularly for headaches. He says to take it after I eat. I ask for dinner in the room because I can't trust my balance much longer.
Food comes, I eat four bites of chicken, alternating with a piece of fruit each time. On the tablet foil written in Spanish I can make out the word for "prescription." Oh, well. What could be worse than what I've got? Take the new tablet at 6:45 and wait for relief. By 8:45 I figure it's as good as it's going to get. 10PM I approach the desk again. The clerk doesn't wait for a request. She reaches in the drawer and hands me two more tablets,of acetominaphen - 500 mg each this time.
Awake at midnight. Take the second tablet. Still propped up.
Awake around 4AM. Is it my imagination or has the pain diminished to about a three inch strip running from the crown of my head to the base of my skull? Nothing to be done. Pills are gone.
8:15 I drag out of bed and put on the same dress I've been wearing since Saturday night. Cereal and toast with butter and jam. I think about what I've consumed in the last seven days and two things occur to me: On Saturday my breakfast was the daily Continental type - canned juice - sugar, tea, and a huge croissant that I used jam on as I'd been eating for four days. Then no food until the afternoon until the fruit plate - fructose and water. And there was that piece of cheesecake with cherry topping in Granada - more sugar. I hadn't had a drop of wine since the night before leaving. That was a choice because I wanted no impairment of my mind while here. But maybe my blood sugar was off kilter because I had consumed more sugar in six days than I would at home in six weeks
The second thing that occurs to me is that because of all the fruit, which is mostly water, I may have overdosed my kidneys. The strange thing about kidneys is that in order to flush them of fluid you need to take in more fluid to get them going. Maybe all the fruit water which I got rid of often, had depleted my potassium level. That happened to me about 20 years ago and it was not pretty.
There is a medical laboratory across from the hotel and I ask if I can walk in with no prescription for blood tests. Of course, why not?
Bless these people. But I'm so out of focus that I eat breakfast and then go there for a blood test, especially sugar and potassium levels. And of course they tell me to come back six hours later because I had eaten.
So here I am, writing this at 1PM, counting the minutes until three o'clock, drinking water constantly to fill my stomach. All I want is an answer so I can stop taking pain pills and take or do whatever will make the pain stop.
This is the first time in three days that I have been able to look at the computer. My brain has been too addled to even try. I have not been out of the hotel in three days, have seen nothing of this beautiful city before going to my mission assignment in 48 hours. Maybe tomorrow. Eternally optimistic.
More as it happens.
Marianne
RSS Feed