Ecuador~ The Back Story

Ok, so I bet you’ve been wondering when Janet and Patti are going to post another entry to their blog.  Are they dead?  Are they tired of blogging? Are they having so much fun they have forgotten about their friends?  Well it’s none of the above, here’s the back story…

We had a great time in the Galapagos!  The sun, the water, the animals… but you’re going to have to wait for our next blog post to see the pictures and hear more of the details.  (No whining now, some things are worth waiting for…)  After the Galapagos Islands our next stop was the city of Cuenca which is located in the Ecuadorian Andes at a mere 8,350’ elevation.  From the moment we got here we really liked the city.  People have been friendly everywhere but they seem even more friendly here.  There’s also a nice mix of expats and locals which means there are some amenities we enjoy (such as good coffee and a slightly varied cuisine) while at the same time the old town doesn’t feel like a tourist attraction.  The weather, well it could be worse…  It’s burrr cold at night but during the day (if it’s not raining) it’s warm enough to go without a sweater.  Forget shorts or t-shirts, they will remain at the bottom of our suitcases for the duration. 

The seasons are reversed here in South America (as are a lot of other things but that’s another story) so we’re just coming into winter.  What this means is two long months of cold and rainy weather.  Not our favorite weather!  We’d been looking for a good place to spend the winter (besides Maui…) and it didn’t take us long to decide this was it!  We could find a furnish apartment, study Spanish again and get involved in some volunteer work.  Great!

In Cuenca some expat sends out a daily email called Gringo Tree.  It contains 5 – 7 event notices, services, people looking for apartments, etc.  We put a notice on Gringo Tree and the response was amazing!  Within two days we found a fully furnished one bedroom apartment with a nice office, living room, big kitchen and roof deck situated on a quiet street (major accomplishment) with a huge flower garden that our landlady tends.  And the rent… drum roll please... including all utilities and WIFI is a whopping $575/month. Score!

Next we set out to find a Spanish school close to where we live.  After talking with four different schools we found the perfect place.  No outside garden cubby’s like in Antigua but the school is located in a restored building in old town with lots of BIG windows which means it will be warm inside.  The school seems quite legit (unlike a few of the others...) and all the teachers have a master degree in teaching Spanish as a second language. Our Spanish has gone downhill (as in subterranean) since we left Antigua.  We know muchas palabras but still can’t put them together in any way that remotely sounds intelligent.  Ah, but poco a poco we will remember what we knew and learn more – we hope.

All was good until Mercury went into retrograde or something like that…  Patti started to notice that the skin on her right arm was very sensitive almost like a burn.  We couldn’t see anything but it kept bothering her for several days. On Sunday after she went hiking with our new friends (I on the other hand was home nursing a sprained ankle..) she came home with bumps on her right arm.  She thought she might have rubbed up against nettles or poison ivy but it didn’t itch.  That night was the first of several rough nights.  The rash on Patti’s arm spread from her finger tips up her arm almost to her shoulder. The rash was accompanied by an intense shooting pain from a point in her spine down her arm and to her hand and fingers.  Ok, this is not nettles or poison ivy; it’s time to get help.  We went to a naturopath that morning and Patti was diagnosed with shingles.  It’s a form of the herpes virus (the zoster virus) and it is related to chicken pox.  I guess everyone or at least those of us who have had chicken pox carries the virus in our bodies and when we get ‘older’ (as in around 60) it can reemerge.  The doctor told Patti it would get worse the next day and we left with an Rx for herpes meds and pain pills.  

We were glad to know what was happening but couldn’t imagine the pain getting worse but it did. The pain in her back and hand were unbearable that night and the pain pills barely touched the pain.  Around 6AM she took a Percocet which significantly reduced the pain and she fell off to sleep for a few hours of much needed rest.

Knowing we couldn’t face another night like that (and we only had two Percocet left) we went to the hospital.  The first challenge was our limited Spanish.  We have the words necessary to get something to eat, find a place to live and buy the things that we need but our vocabulary did not include describing levels of pain, progression of symptoms or medical history (which Gracias Dios they didn’t ask…). Fortunately, there was someone who spoke better English than we spoke Spanish so we were able to communicate albeit poorly.  Patti was hooked up to an IV and given pain drugs.  After several hours when the drugs clearly weren’t working they gave her more pain meds.  Again hours pass and she is getting worse, the doctor returns and I finally am able to communicate that Percocet works to relieve the pain.  I show him one of our last remaining pills and the list of trade names for Percocet that we had written down before heading to the hospital.  At this point he tells us that only anesthesiologist can write an Rx for narcotics in Ecuador and if we come back at 7pm he will ask the anesthesiologist to write the Rx.  He leaves the ER and Patti takes a Percocet, 20 minutes later the pain has subsided. She’s not her old self but she’s no longer writhing in pain.  Needless to say we returned at 7pm to get the Percocet.

That night we both slept and the next day was a little better.  Each day brings a new pain as the virus moves through her body.  Sometimes she feels ok (which means not in pain) and sometimes she’s not so lucky. The pain from her back down her arm is better but now the pain has moved into her head and neck.  We were told the virus should run its course in 7 – 10 days but that the pain may linger for months…or maybe forever.  We’re taking every day slowly and just dealing with what comes.  We are glad to be in our new apartment where I can make healthy meals and Patti can sleep in bed or on the couch or sit on the roof deck when she’s feeling better.

We were supposed to start our Spanish class a couple of days ago but that was out of the question.  I went to the school and rescheduled my classes for the next week and canceled Patti’s until further notice.  All to say, this is why we have been remiss posting to our blog.

Patti wants me to tell everyone “No one should ever have to suffer like  this. Get the shingles vaccination now – even if you’re not 60 and have to pay for it.”