Who visits the Emergency Room on their Honeymoon?

We headed back to Min's to change and head out to start our new life together. The car was packed and we  headed to Detroit.  We were ecstatic!  We were so happy, so in love, we were high on life and so ready to start this journey together. We made it to Detroit and into our room shortly before four in the morning.  We had a seven o'clock flight and we were exhausted. We had talked non-stop all the way to the hotel about the evening. We really had two very different views of the night as we were running in two separate circles all night long.

We slept for a couple of hours and headed to the airport.  We were on our way to a romantic honeymoon.  Chappy had made all the plans, so every thing was a surprise for me.  We were in Aruba before noon and so tired from the long week that we ended up taking a nap on the beach, but not before Chappy called home.

He had promised Min that he would call to let her know we  had made it safely.  They talked about the night before and every thing that happened from the minute the music started in the church to the hours after we left the reception. I headed to the beach, to give them their privacy.  I sensed I was not going to be a part of this conversation and was an intruder sitting there listening to his side of the conversation.  

Chappy came out later to see where I had taken off.  He shared some of the conversation and said that Sissy was very upset that I "made" such a spectacle of the moment that she and Wes had come up to us on the dance floor.  Sissy just knew that every one was watching and knew the reason Chappy did not dance with her and she was embarrassed. Min had suggested he have a conversation with  me to end this feud and make peace by apologizing to Sissy.

I couldn't even leave the country and escape this woman.  I acknowledged what Chappy was saying and I ignored his suggestion.  He knew how I felt about Wes and to imply that I was wrong, was out of line.  I was not the one drunk that night. I was not the one who was playing touchy feely.  I was not guilty, I was protecting myself as no one else was paying attention. Chappy dropped it as he could tell that I was getting upset and we were on our honeymoon.


We spent the day on the beach, relaxing and catching up on sleep.  Late in the afternoon, before we headed to dinner, Chappy called Min again to find out the score of the MSU vs CMU football game.  Central Michigan had won and Chappy and Min were thrilled.  They talked for close to a hour about what we had done that afternoon and the game.

We headed over to the hotels lined up along the beach.  We had dinner and headed out to explore what there was to do.  We entered the hotel located next to ours and there was a casino.  Chappy wanted to gamble.  We weren't big gamblers, but we agreed to our usual twenty dollars per person and when we were done, we were done.  

I had  never played Black Jack so we sat down to a table.  We were the only two at this table and the dealer took his time explaining the game to me.  I was up, but I was so nervous. I just can't stand the thought of losing money.

Chappy left me alone and headed to a table where the minimum was a little larger than two dollars.  I just could not find the fun that others had in this sport.  I headed out to find my husband and found him sitting at a table buried in a game of black jack.

I was watching over his shoulder, counting the chips that were stacked in front of him.  For over thirty minutes I watched him play, he was up, he was down, he was up, he was down. I felt that same feeling in my stomach.  We didn't have money to throw away.  I couldn't stand there and watch so as soon as he doubled his money, my hand reached over his shoulder and swiped those chips off the table and said, "You're done, let's go."

He couldn't believe that he saw this large claw reach over his shoulder and snatch his winnings.  He was just shocked that I would do that, but that is the difference between a gambler and a non gambler.  One knows when to stop, the other keeps rolling the dice  until they have nothing left.

Our rental car

I woke up the next morning with a terrible back ache and pain.  I knew it all too well.  I had a urinary tract infection.  I was miserable.  I couldn't go the rest of the week with this pain.  I had to find a medical facility.  I didn't know what to do. I had these so often and I knew what the symptoms were, but I was allergic to the one medication that all doctor's prescribe immediately, penicillin.  English was not the first language of the island and I feared there would be a language barrier that could result in more complications.

We had rented a "car" for a few days so that we could explore the island.  Chappy went out to the beach to read the newspaper, he just thought I had back pain and would get better, by the time he came back in, he knew I had more than back pain, so he loaded me up in our little car and found where the nearest hospital was.

The Natural Arch

The differences between a state side hospital and a third world nation hospital  are note worthy. They have an entrance with the Emergency sign hung over the door. It was not one that lite up, just a hand painted sign announcing you had arrived and it must be an emergency to enter this door, but beyond that, nothing was the same.

You entered this waiting area that was the size of a large walk in closet.  Off to the side was a bathroom.  There was no reception desk, just three stack able chairs.  Windows surrounded the room with vertical blinds.  No one was there to greet you.  We both looked at each other as we had no idea how to get help. The blinds were partially open and you could see people inside, so we knocked on the glass and they came to open the door.  Only partially though, as if there were a password needed to enter the room.  Every one had on blue uniforms, it looked as though the emergency room was being operated by the smurf family.

The smurf asked me what was wrong. I told him I thought I had a urinary tract infection and he closed the door!  Did they not treat urinary tract infections? Was there another door to seek and find that treated urinary tract infections?  Did I not have the right password to enter the treatment room? Did they only treat urinary tract infections on Monday, so I'd have to return the next day? I was miserable and just needed some medication to ease the pain.

The door slowly opened, not all the way, just enough to hand me a cup. Nothing was said.  I peeped my head around the door, "Where do I pee? In the  parking lot?"  

A smurf voice peeped, "bathroom."  Where was this mysterious bathroom and the finger pointed to a corner.  Really?  There were no procedures in place to collect a urine sample.  No plastic bottle with a lid, just a Dixie cup and the public restroom. 

There I stood, a cup filled with a teaspoon of urine, with a burning sensation in my groin, waiting for a smurf to take my Dixie cup.  All I wanted was to curl up and die.  I have a high threshold for pain, but a urinary tract infection cripples me.  It is difficult to stand up as your back and groin hurt, you feel like you have to pee now, but nothing happens, you just feel miserable.

I knocked on the window again to get the smurfs attention.  Soon the door parted and a small hand reached out and took my sample. Nothing was on the cup to identify the sample as mine. The door closed again and there we stood on the outside looking in at the smurfs busily bustling about the large room.  No one else was in there for treatment.  It wasn't like they had a full house and were at their room capacity that they could not let  me enter, they just went about their business as we stood and watched through the glass window.

I looked at Chappy, "I sure am glad I'm not dying.  Wonder what they would need to admit me into this little room of smurfdom?" We both laughed, but I was not feeling like being upright.

Soon, the door opened, wide this time! I had passed the test to enter the kingdom of smurfs! I had almost began to wonder if I should have tinted my urine blue so they would know I was one of them, just from a different planet.

There were no rooms, no compartments separated by a curtain to allow for privacy, you were just in this large treatment room to be seen by any one that walked down the hallway to perhaps the King of Smurfs. No one wore white jackets.  You couldn't tell a janitor smurf from a nurse smurf from a doctor smurf, they all looked the same.

A woman smurf approached, she didn't take my temperature, check to see if my heart was racing from the fear the smurfs were going to poison me with penicillin. Would  I ever feel American turf under my feet again or would I be delivered State side, toes up and tagged. She asked me my symptoms and off she waddled.  Nothing was written down, no charting occurred.  I laid on the gurney in the fetal position and watched my husband play doctor.  I could not believe it, before my eyes, he was opening up all the drawers and cupboards playing with whatever he found inside.  I told him to "STOP!"  Didn't Min teach him that you did not act like this in the hospital.  You didn't open up cupboards and drawers acting like you were looking for a teaspoon of sugar to help the medicine go down! I'm dying and he is playing curious George, "Hey Boo, what do you think this is?"  "What's this?" "Look at this" I had a child with me!

Soon the smurf returned, a different smurf, this one must have been a doctor smurf as he handed me a slip of paper and pointed to the door leading in to the hospital  He told us that we could fill our prescription at the pharmacy located at the entrance of the hospital.

I was in a panic, no one had asked me about allergies. No one knew I was allergic to penicillin. I knew the name of the drugs the doctors  back home prescribed and the word scribbled on this pad did not resemble the medication I required to cure this pain.

I informed the smurf that I was allergic to penicillin and sulfa and I needed a script for certain medication.  He took the sheet of paper back and scurried out of the room.  Wait! Don't leave me! I need medication just not one that will kill me!

Soon the smurf returned with a new sheet, aah, that is more like it.  We headed toward the pharmacy.  I knew how much this medication cost back home and I had a co-payment of $25.00 on top of that.  Did we have cash? Did they take credit? How were we going to pay for a visit to the Emergency room? I knew they  would not accept our insurance card.  But no worries.  We approached the desk to check out of the emergency room. Our bill was $10.00!  TEN dollars for the emergency room.  I was still fearful of the costs for these two medications.

The pharmacy was just a walk up window.  I handed the smurf my paper document and within minutes she returned with the two smallest prescription bottles I had ever seen! No labels, no FDA warnings, just a plastic container that held ten little pills each with the name hand written on the label.  The bill presented as she handed me the cure.  Two prescriptions that back home would run me a minimum of $50.00 and the insurance company would be billed the balance.  Three dollars for both.  My entire trip to the emergency room and medication cost me $13.00!  You couldn't even park in the lot at Sparrow hospital for thirteen dollars to visit the emergency room.  As we left the facility, I was in shock how much health care costs back home when it was so simple here in this wonder land.