5 Days in the Hospital and A Saturday Smile

5 days in the Hospital and a A Saturday Smile

The sun and fresh air, the simple things that we experience everyday yet completely forget to appreciate. Today, I never thought I saw such a beautiful rainy day. The way the damp air smelled, and cool breeze felt across my face, I found a new appreciation for something I never thought twice about. So after you read this, look out the window and take a deep breathe, because if we don’t we might miss out on the amazing things right in front of us.

HOW THINGS WENT DOWN:

After returning from my new site ( I will have to back track and write a blog when I get the chance) on Sunday, I was exhausted, but nothing out of the ordinary. I spent the majority of my host visit sleeping because they were very worried about my health.  I went over to Jarons host house to compare stories about our new sites. My mom will be very pleased to know it was as though she was in the talking to me about how I need to care for my health and myself. Jaron told me that he had been frustrated with me for a month, that I clearly have been sick and I need to be more forceful about it and encouraged me to be more direct to PC about how I was really feeling.

That night, I listened to my body and Jarons advice, I texted PCMO (peace corp doctors) told them that my second dose of anti-botics had no effect and that I was still not sleeping from coughing through the night. They made a doctors appointment for Monday morning.

I went to the doctors, and before I knew it I was being admitted to the hospital. The whole thing happened really quickly. I didn’t realize how sick I was. Hearing, “You will be in the hospital for 1-4 days” definitely was a shock!

HOW DID I NOT KNOW I WAS THAT SICK?

This whole peace corp thing is not my element. I am not as tough as the others. I’m not used to being outdoors or sweating or being dirty. I knew that I was feeling sick, but I was the only one not feeling well, so I just needed to suck it up. When I made my doctors appointment my teachers didn’t even think I was sick. I tried to offset my sickness with my attitude. I didn’t want to complain, adapting is tough and maybe it was just tougher for me. So now I learned my lesson. I know that when you read this, it might not make sense. And when I look back at how sick I was, I can’t believe I was able to ignore it for so long. I just wanted so badly to adapt and fit into this new element.

HOSPITAL STAY

They didn’t have a bed for me until around 3pm on Monday, they admitted me around noon.  The room was painted baby blue, with a darker blue strip wrapped around the room. It had a single bed, a cot like bench and three chairs. Hospitals don’t include toilet paper, Kleenex, nor soap. You have to bring everything with you. Typical of hospitals, the bed was quite uncomfortable, but never in my life have I felt such an awful pillow. On the plus side, the sheets were pretty! The room also had a small TV and Air CON. They had some cable channels, but the cable was mostly a grey speckle screen. Hospitals are not the same as in America, and you have to have someone stay with you to get you your medicine and run the labs back and forth. Its called a Kasama, and luckily for me I had the best one a girl could possibly ask for, Jaron. It would be hard to write about my hospital experience and not make the whole thing about him, he saved me in so many ways. Just know that for any of you who were worried about me, I have someone here who really truly cares about my well being, and takes very good care of me.

I’VE SEEN BETTER DAYS

Being in the hospital was a scary experience. It made me sad, thinking back to everything my dad had just been through. It made me miss home in ways that you can’t imagine. I wanted the comfort of letting everyone know that I was okay. I hate stressing people out, and I couldn’t even communicate what exactly what was wrong with me because no one knew. I also just wanted to know what the heck was wrong with me! It was definitely the lowest I have felt since being here, because I felt helpless. I wasn’t feeling any better, and staying one day was turning into several. I was on so many medications and I didn’t exactly understand what they were for. Nurses come in every two hours to check your vitals, and to give me more medicines. Day 4 was the turn around day for me!! My lungs felt better!! They also confirmed that it was pneumonia. Knowing what I was sick with made me feel more comfortable about being in the hospital.

FOOD AND FRIENDS

I am in awe of how kind my new friends have come to be of value in my life. I even made friends with the nurses. I told one of them my favorite show was Glee and she offered to bring me a copy of the season!!!  The hospital food was horrible, way way way worse than anything in America. Jaron and I split the meals. He is over 6 feet tall, sleeping on a cot like bench for a 5ft tall person for 3 days with some gross vegetarian food to nibble from. He didn’t ever leave to go get food, but luckily we had reinforcements!!

My host family, Sir Seth, Sol, Grace and Vince all came to visit. They brought yogurts, grapes, bread and peanut butter!!!! Sir Seth came almost every day, and checked the room making sure everything was clean and that the nurses knew to take good care of me.

Hanna, Amari, Sara, Nelphie, Kelcey, Denise, Andrew, Sean and Leanna came to visit me!! Even the other host families came to keep me company. Denise, Sean, and Andrew came with funny and amusing foods, such as hazelnut blueberry Pringles!! Haha!! The flavors of food here and very interesting! Andrew brought his SmartBro and I was able to make a quick status update, and also see that some of you had emailed me…so THANK YOU!!! It really made a difference.  They also brought JELLY!!! So finally Jaron and I were happy! Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhiches!!!

One day we were so hungry!! For breakfast they had given a small piece of cheese on a slice of bread. We got so excited!! Jaron asked the nurses station for more cheese, and they brought back toasted bread. TOASTED BREAD!!! So we ate our cheese on the toasted bread, and then we laughed for an hour about how happy we were.

The next few days are a blur of medicines, checking vitals, lack of comfort and amazing conversations that helped time pass. They started pumping me with steroids to help my immune system and lungs. It was so painful! The nurses tried to be gentle, but it was tough. I have a new respect for my dad, and what a good sport he was. IV’s are just awful.

CHECK OUT

Finally Saturday came, they pulled out the IV and I wanted to literally jump for joy. I think it was the biggest I have smiled in my whole life, well my whole life in the Philippines. Then Jaron went down to billing to take care of the bill!! Thank goodness Peace Corp pays for it!!! I was discharged at 9:30 am, but we didn’t get out of there until 1pm. There were complications and eventually our teachers had to come help us figure out how to get my take home medicines. I am now on 13 medications still…but I have a check up next Friday and hopefully I will be off of everything!!

HIGHLIGHTS

Besides feeling better and appreciating fresh air in a new way, something truly beautiful came out of my stay.

WHY AM I HERE??

Today, I appreciate my health in a whole new way. I never want to go to the hospital again, but I am really happy that all the medications and doctors helped. I had a lot to think about, am I putting my health at risk by being here?? Every nurse wanted to know why I was in the Peace Corp, and  what the Peace Corp does. They asked about my fears, if I missed my family? How i was adapting? Every hard question a person needed to be asked, I was asked with pure intentions from strangers. And every time someone asked I had a better answer. The hospital healed in way a way that I didn’t expect it to, it helped refine my purpose for being here. It made me realize that I need to be here. That these challenges I am facing, they are going to make me exactly the person I want to be, the truest form of myself.

THE GOOD PART-

 I’m not really sure how appropriate it is to announce a new relationship via a blog, but it seems that I can’t really be honest with this blog and not mention the best part about my hospital stay. Jaron has been mentioned in several of my blogs, he is a member of my cluster and quickly became my best friend here.  I have never experienced two people connecting so quickly, its quite indescribable. I heard before that if you can go on a road trip with someone you can make it. Well, Jaron and I spent 72 straight hours in a small room with no fresh air, or entertainment but our conversations. People who know me, know how I am a social butterfly and rarely hang out with people for numerous days in a row. I’m still not sick of him. The only gross part is he has seen me at my absolute worst (ie, carrying my mucus, cough, sweat, stink, etc) and still looked at me like I wasn’t the blob of sickness I felt. New relationships (1 week old) do not usually entail such extreme conditions, I can’t describe to you how gross I looked or felt (ps there are pictures to come) and for someone to put up with all that, and not even make a big deal about it was the best part of my whole experience. I feel really valued for who I am. And I think I’m learning to value my interior in new ways, because here in the Philippines, you can’t value how you look. Its all about what you do, and why you do it.  So to all my friends and family, I have an amazing boyfriend, and his name is Jaron. And I wish you could meet him and see how completely amazing he is. And the hospital stay wasn’t all bad, because I had great company. I’m actually healthy, and happy. And I don’t think things can get much better than that. So there is my big news.  

Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and kind wishes. I really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading,

Lysette

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