Last night after we got back from our final family dinner... was awful!!! Matt said he wasn't feeling good... told me that his whole stomach was in extreme pain. I asked how bad and he told me that if we were home he'd ask me to take him to the ER. I know some of you don't know my husband well... so let me explain. He doesn't like to go to the Dr. and he is not one to just take medicine to see if it makes him feel better... so me getting him tums and pepto were a no go... It was about 10:30pm or so and I decided I was going to call my mom (who is a RN) - she was a bit worried but Matt being Matt refused to let her come to the room to check on him. She said he shouldn't drink or eat anything thru out the night... After a night of hell for my husband who was up dry heaving (this will come up again later in this post - pun not intended), moaning in pain, and unable to sleep (he tried every position imaginable!) morning finally came. I called mom again and she came over (I didn't ask permission this time... I was really worried!) she came in and asked Matt where he was hurting and he said that most of the pain was coming from just below the center of his rib cage. She said she was going to go back to her to get some dramamine... in the mean time I was getting Makenzie ready for the day and was packing while Matt laid in bed. Then mom called, told me that she really thinks Matt needs to see the resort Dr. and that the Dr. would be in touch shortly. I told Matt and he agreed... HE AGREED! Now I was getting really worried.
A few minutes later the Dr. called the room and I explained what was going on and he said he would come to see Matt. A few minutes later the Dr. and his nurse came in and talked with Matt, he pushed in his tummy in lots of different spots and Matt kept wincing in pain. My sweet husband was hurting so bad!!! Matt explained to the Dr (who is Mexican mind you) that he had been dry heaving and the Dr. said ""dry hips" what is this "dry hips"" ... oh no... Matt then had to explain that nothing would come up with he would vomit. Dr. said he had never heard of "dry hips". Dr. then tells us that Matt needs to go to the ER... oh shit. All I could picture in my head was an ambulance (shout out to my paramedics!) screaming to the resort, I imagined a gurney, and commotion. NOPE. The Dr. told us it would be faster for him to take us in his car.
So we walked down to Dr's SUV and got in... Now remember when I've talked about the pulmanias - you know the little golf cart taxis that drive soooo hectic and fast all over town... well they didn't hold a candle to Matt's Dr's driving... oh no not even a match (get it... not a candle, not a match) The guy drove like a bat out of hell... and then I was SUPER worried... why would the Dr. drive like this if he wasn't worried too!!!
When we got to the hospital we were immediately put into a room (which was nothing but a curtained off area) and was told that they would be taking Matt's blood and giving him an ultrasound. So when the guy came to draw blood and couldn't speak a lick of English I was a little concerned... but we were in a hospital so everything would be ok and safe... right? So the blood draw guy brings over a little tray filled with vials to collect blood and cotton balls - he tourniquets Matt's arm sticks a needle in... all with out gloves mind you... and out pours Matt's blood... I mean really pouring out... there was nothing to catch it. They didn't have those vial things that stop the blood in between vials.. nope that's what a good ol' fashioned un-gloved forefinger is for... it seemed like blood was everywhere. oh my god. Blood had dripped off the his arms and down the bed and onto the floor, all over the blood draw guy's hands and it was also all over Matt's shirt. When they finally had taken enough blood to run tests with they simply stuck in the iv... which was filled with an oddly bright yellow liquid... saline? who knows it could have been cat pee for all we know. The blood guy wiped his hands on some cotton ball and called it good. Do you feel woozy or is it just me?While we waited for the ultrasound we could hear the two Americans in the next curtained off area... one was telling the other that he had been diagnosed with some sort of parasite and the other guy had been diagnosed with appendicitis. They both stated that they think that the Drs here just tell you something... just to be able to diagnose you. OH MY GOD! OK now I am freaking out! I tell Matt unless it's life threatening we are NOT letting these people operate. We will get on our plane that is leaving in a few short hours and fly our asses across the border to the land of western medicine; where they understand blood born pathogens!
Soon we were being taken to a room about the size of my master closet where the ultrasound was... it also happened to be some sort of passage way between one portion of the hospital and the ER... because people were coming thru our room at a pretty steady rate. lovely. The Ultrasound tech comes in, squeezes some goop on Matt's stomach and starts waving a wand looking at his organs, as he is doing so, he is telling us each organ and that it looks perfectly normal. Thank God... no appendicitis and no bad gallbladder wheww.... He does tell us Matt's intestines look swollen as does his liver but no worries he tells us... it's from too much drinking hardy har har har. He tells us that the Dr. will see us soon and will tell us what needs to happen from here. We head back to the curtained room just in time to see the blood draw guy "changing the sheets on the bed" which apparently in Mexico means... putting another sheet over the blood stained one. I am going to passout. Seriously! this is how to clean up a bloody sheet? simply hide it! Yup that's the answer! While we are waiting for the Dr. to come talk to us I call the resort... we are supposed to leave the resort for the airport in 40 minutes. I am freaking out that we are going to miss our plane! I hadn't even finished packing!!! Mom tells us not to worry that if we need to get another flight tomorrow we can (mom and dad were staying another week!) but in the mean time until they hear from us they will pack our things for us...
We wait another 15-20 minutes before the Dr. comes back (I was watching the clock more then I do when I am at work!). The Dr. tells us that he thinks something Matt has eaten has not set well with his system... He tells us it could be cheese. The cheese in Mazatlan is all goat cheese. Between the bacteria in whatever he ate and the beer was causing the problems. He gives Matt like 4 prescriptions and tells us his nurse is on her way to pick us up to take us back to the resort! While we are waiting for her, I pay the bill out of pocket... I decided I did not want to mess with insurance until I got back to the states and the land of ENGLISH! The bill... $8200 pesos... $820 American. Good thing good ol' Visa and I are buddies.
After our nurse drops us off at the resort we rush to the room and make sure everything is in order (Makenzie was well taken care of by my folks while we were gone) to get on the plane and head home... We exchange our pesos for American, pay the happy hour bills from the week and get on the shuttle to go to the airport!
There were no problems at the Mazatlan airport and made it to LA in a couple hours... Matt was still hurting pretty bad and was taking some pretty heavy duty pain killers. We had to go thru customs which if you have had to do... sucks! It takes forever... especially when you do your paperwork in red ink... apparently they don't like that and make you get out of line to fill out all the proper forms in a blue or black ink pen and get back in line.... oh and you really should have the signature that matches the head of household name.... which means we had to again get out of line and do the paperwork again....all the while entertaining a 15 month old bored baby girl... where the hell is my blood pressure medicine?
We had a few hour lay over in LA... as did Greg's family and Jeff's... so we grabbed some Burger King... Matt opted to avoid food at all costs. and wait. We said our goodbyes to my brothers and their beautiful families and boarded our plane to Medford. All three of us slept most of the way... We finally arrived in Medford at about midnight... 12 hours after leaving our resort. We got a cab (which was took about 20 minutes) to take us across the street to our hotel... tomorrow... tomorrow we get to go home! HOME!!!
I was getting a little freaked out reading this! Glad he's OK!
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