QueenPuya

What's that sound?  The gentle rain running off the Puya leaves?  No, alas, it is an IV bag dripping above my head, refilling my poor body with liquid.  During what must have been one of the worst 24 hour periods in my life, I got very sick, had to go to the hospital, had to sleep in the hospital and got quite a bit better.  Yesterday started out quite well, as I got to walk around this quaint little town engulfed within Bogota that had lots of cute cafes and shops while Adriana took Maria Alejandra to the doctor.  Afterwards I went over to Mauricio's house, my Colombian friend who is going to accompany me in the field.  It was so great to see him and his wife, Diana.  They are very lovely people.  His families house was just gorgeous, full of paintings done by his mother, who has quite a way with color.  We had a lovely spaghetti lunch and Mauricio and I planned out our rigorous collecting schedule, which would have had us leaving for two paramos at 5am this morning.  We walked around the neighborhood buying essentials, when I stepped into a pothole and twisted my ankle (an ankle weakened years ago in a volleyball accident and later in a theatre accident).  It hurt tremendously for a second and I almost blacked out (as I did both other times I hurt it, with much drama).  But instead I started to throw up, of course in front a very fancy crepe restaurant.  I'm sure the cute street dog following us had a fieldday with that!  We made it back to Mauricio's parents house and I holed up in the bathroom vomiting for 4 hours.  Once I saw blood and couldn't really lift my head off the ground, I conceded that it was time to go to the hospital.  How very American that my initial thought was a fear of what it would cost!  At the hospital I was triaged to level II and so had to wait for 30 minutes or so in a wheelchair.  I don't really recall much of that time, but Mauricio was wonderful and got me all checked in.  Upfront we had to pay the equivalent of 200$ US, which was kind of weird.  I guess they used to be able to kick you out if you couldn't pay.  I was taken in, examined by a very pretty young doctor and then hallucinated that I was in Brazil for a long time and couldnt' understand why I was able to understand the language.  They jabbed the incredibly painful but vital IV into me and after about 15 minutes I felt much better.  As I improved, I went from bored to nervous to tired, but no more sickness.  Hours passed and at midnight my bloodtests came back and yup, I was fighting something, but they wanted to keep me overnight for observation.  It was very frustrating, because they kept telling me oh, only one more hour, but it never was.  Mauricio and Juan Felipe went home, after keeping vigle and making me quite happy.  Never have I felt so vulnerable and seeing friendly faces saved my life.  I was moved to a bed and somehow slept, despite all the screaming babies and people coming and going.  I truly hope I don' t have to spend too much time in hospitals.  In the morning, my friends returned and my new blood test came back better, so they sent me home with a prescription for broad-spectrum antibiotics.  I guess I just had a stomach infection.  Now I'm on mandatory two day bedrest, and boy do I need it.  I'm going to be online and on Skype (jabailyr) a lot out of boredom, so if you want to lavish me with well-wishes, I wouldn't mind.  I am indebt to the lovely people here and I will improve.  Hard to say what this means for the fieldwork, which was supposed to start today.  I think it will be a go in few days.  In the meantime, back to napping for me.....  and I soldier on.