The fun began on Friday as we visited the retired nurse who lives on property for Julia's butt injection. The nurse noticed we bought the wrong needles (too small) so we had to borrow her car to find the nearest farmacia. Venturing out to the small village of San Cayetano, I got to drive a beat up Mitsubishi sedan down the bumpy 11 km dirt road, 2 kms down the main hwy, and then explored the rough village streets. It was a blast to be driving for the first time in 6 months and tried my best to fit in. On our way back home, Julia noticed some local ladies aggressively waving for us to stop. There was no debate, we immediately stopped and loaded them up into the back seat. Six total people piled in; 3 women, 2 kids, and 1 infant. About halfway down the road they got out and we enjoyed the feeling of picking up Nicaraguan hitchhikers. The new needles worked good, although the retired nurse once poked Julia in the bum before realizing that she had forgotten to put the medicine in it.
Saturday morning was the beginning of the following 6 day pattern: Leave the house at 7:15 AM, Osman or Angie drive us to the hospital, a nurse aggressively cleans the wound, Julia squeezes my hand while enduring a great amount of pain, I start feeling a little nauseous, Julia is given a shot of an antibiotic, we buy medicine and gauze from the farmacia across the street, breakfast plates and banana drinks are purchased from the restaurant next door, we get back home and contemplate on some what-ifs, then Julia rests. It was good to get into a pattern and know what to expect. Julia knew the pain was coming yet she welcomed it hoping that it was the key to a speedy recovery. She is tougher than I realized and imagine I would have told them to just put me under and cut my lower leg off because I fear pain.
Meds helped the swelling go down, still not pretty (picture from Saturday -1 week ago)
Sunday was a bit of a turning point for a few reasons. We met a different doctor who spoke decent english and she prescribed a more aggressive treatment. Instead of penicillin shots in the rear, Julia was given a temporary IV port in the hand and given stronger antibiotics (Ceftriaxone). Plus she got some gel (Sufrexal) to put on the wound after each cleaning which took us 3 towns and 5 different farmacias to find. It was good to be able to speak directly to the doctor and get answers to some questions. These changes made us feel more confident in the treatment she was receiving here and thought less about heading into the big city of Managua in search of a specialist.
I don't want to give you too much of the gory details, but will try to give you an idea of the infection healing arc. The wound grew to a large black & blue bump and was firm all around. The IV meds immediately began to kill the infection and it shrunk back to skin level although the color remained a dark purple with white spots. It was now a circle filled with dead tissue and this is what the nurses attacked each day, cleaning out as much as possible using sharp utensils and some gauze. The wound turned into a hole that had some depth to it and freaked us out a little. The doctor assured us that the infection was only in the skin and did not spread to the muscle as Julia had feared. At this point we felt good that she appeared to be on the mend but knew a decent sized scar was pretty much unavoidable and just prayed it wouldn't be a huge divot. Currently it is filling in nicely and the color is much better with little to no lingering pain.
Thursday (yesterday), we had hopefully our last hospital visit. They took out the IV port, switched Julia to an oral antibiotic, and told us to only come back if it got worse. We also realized yesterday that the pharmacy on Tuesday had given us an intramuscular antibiotic and the 2 shots she got on Wednesday were given intravenously. Not sure if that is bad. Now she just needs to take a couple pills and clean it twice a day for about a week. It was a good feeling to be able to sleep in today.
Now that the important stuff has been covered, there are just a few quick side notes I would like to add:
-- Kaiden came in to the hospital with us on Saturday and Sunday because he had 2 bug bites that also didn't look normal. They gave him some medicine and the bumps seem to be healing nicely.
-- Taking multiple trips down the 11 km dirt road with Osman made us realize that he knows 90% of the people we passed by. Nearly every person gets a whistle, honk, or shout no matter if they are riding a horse or ox drawn carriage or just standing on the side of the road. Many of the resort workers live on this road plus a lot of people they do business with. From the family they rent cars from, to the house where they buy propane, the mechanic who fixes his bike, or the lady who makes bread. This is their community and it gives me that small midwestern town feel with one main street where everybody knows everybody.
-- During one trip to the hospital, we saw a large group of pre-med gringos from all over the U.S. They were dressed in scrubs and were doing observations at multiple Nicaraguan medical centers. We met the leader who just happened to be from NE Portland. We told her about the care we had received and showed a few pictures.
-- Without a saw, I used a machete to cut a 2x4 in order to add support to the dresser.
The timing of the medical issue couldn't have been better. It was a slow 2 week period with Angie and Osman around to drive and translate. We can't thank them enough for all they did for us. With Julia on the mend, we will now turn our attention back to the house projects that need to be completed. The Smetana parents arrive next Saturday and we look forward to the distraction.
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