mexican adventure: Paradise Lost

I guess all good things have to come to an end. That first night in Mazunte Hootie woke up with some really bad chest pains. He had been having pains for the last couple of days, but it was never to this extent. He seriously thought he may be having a heart attack. So, we rushed out to find a cab at 2 in the morning! The lady at the inn told us that there was a guy named Senor Miguel. He lived next to the basketball court in town and drove a camioneta. We walked over to his house and started yelling his name from the street. There were crazy dogs that wouldn't stop barking and I thought that we may be bitten. Finally Senor Miguel awoke. He said he would take us to the emergency room. The emergency room was located in Pochutla. So, it was about an hour away. When we got there, there were people lined up outside the door sleeping, just waiting to get in. Hootie got in right away because the cab driver pounded on the door and told them that he was possibly having a heart attack. As we were walking in the door, they were hauling the bloody sheets off of Hootie's soon-to-be bed. There was blood all over the floor and the circumstances were not the best. There was one nurse that night, that we liked to call the lollipop nurse. She was eating a sucker in the emergency room while waiting on Hootie. He was given nitro and some pain medicine right away so he started feeling a bit better. Then the doctor, the only one the entire time we were there that spoke English, asked us if we would like to spend the night or if we wanted to go home. He recommended that we spend the night and that a specialist could diagnose what was going on with Hootie in the morning. So, we spent the night and Hootie got hooked up to an IV. They moved us to a different room with four other patients. We stayed the whole night and the whole next day and still had not heard what was going on with Hootie. The nurses kept giving medicine. They had no clue what type and there really was no sympathy. Finally the doctor from the night before was back on shift. He was going to be there for 24 hours. He told us that when the specialist arrived the next day that he would get things figured out. And hopefully, we could get out of there. We told them that we needed to catch a plane, just so we could get out. Finally the specialist arrived. He told the English speaking doctor that we could go home with a list of medications for high blood pressure and pain, but Hootie would need to see a doc as soon as we returned. We were jumping with joy to find out that we could leave. Well, I was, Hootie wasn't doing too much jumping. But, not before paying the bill. Hootie could not get unhooked from the IV until I paid the bill. I walked to the bank at the hospital just dreading to hear how much it was going to cost. I ended up getting the bill and it was only $130! That's for two nights and two days in the hospital! Much cheaper than the USA! But, I would take the medical care in the USA over Mexico any day! I never want to be in a Mexican hospital again!

As soon as we were released we jumped in a cab and headed back the hour to Mazunte to gather our bags at the inn. Then we took the same cab to Puerto Escondido, which was about 1.5 hours away, to get to the nearest airport. We bought the first ticket out to Mexico City. It seems like Mexico City didn't want us to leave. This was our third time in Mexico City throughout this trip. We spent the night in Mexico City and then flew out the next day to Portland.

Once we arrived in Portland, we had a good night's rest and headed to urgent care in the morning. From there we got sent to the emergency room. Here is where we found out that Hootie had a condition called pleurisy. Pleurisy is when the pluera, the lining between the ribs and lungs, gets inflamed. Hootie did have a chest cold a couple of weeks before these symptoms when we were in Guadalajara. Which makdes sense because, supposedly, pleurisy is oftentimes started from a viral infection and symptoms don't show up until a couple of weeks later. Pleurisy can cause severe chest pain when you breathe and can make you feel that you are having a heart attack. But, there is nothing they can really do for pleurisy, you just have to wait for it to run it's course and take some medicine for the pain.

We are thankful that we made it back safely. It taught us a lot about life and all we have to be thankful for. We are sad that we had to leave paradise behind. But, we will be back soon!