Monday morning we met with the Gastroenterologist who changed my medicine to a stronger one, Nexium. At least it's only one now. And she ordered a CAT scan of my abdomen and pelvis. Thankfully we were able to get the test scheduled for today. However, we weren't exactly planning on being stuck in Montevideo (MV) for 2 days.
Trying to make as few trips to MV as possible we had a meeting with other BWM missionaries here in Uruguay Monday afternoon. Earlier that day Scott noticed a small oil puddle and was checking the van before we left for home and that's as far as we got. The oil was spurting out through the alternator which was completely broken, as in bearing out of their casings, snapped springs and a half dozen other problems. By the time the part was out of the van all the parts stores were closed for the night. No Advanced Auto Parts stores here, unfortunately. On Tuesday he headed out on foot, bus and taxi several times throughout the day and finally had everything back together close to 6pm.
Since I had to be back at the British Hospital at 7:30 in the morning for labs to be drawn so I could have breakfast before a 4 hour fast for the CAT scan, we decided to stay the night again in MV. It was really hard to be away from the kids for so long especially since it was only supposed to be one day. Thankfully friends here helped and the kids did well without us. I guess it's practice for our trip to Israel in a couple weeks. Lord willing!!!
Anyways, the test went well. Because I have two different medicine allergies and asthma I had to get there 30 minutes early for an IV injection of a steroid and antihistamine to help avoid a reaction to the contrast dye they inject by IV. I also had to drink a half liter of the contrast with a 1/2 liter of water, plus another cup when we arrived. UGH! Thankfully the test was only 20 minutes! But I am definitely wondering if I would set off alarms in airports. Does anyone know if I'm radioactive now?
If anyone is interested is seeing the hospital you can visit this link http://www.hospitalbritanico.org.uy/ just click on the link at upper right for the English version and you can then use the virtual tour link to see photos. I will grant that this is the most modern hospital here with the most modern equipment and the highest quality of care (BUT they don't use gloves for blood draws?IV's, etc. either. Where is OSHA when we need them?). This is in great part why we are driving back and forth to MV.
We had to stick around for a while longer to wait for the test results to be finished, so we wouldn't have to make a another trip to MV....tomrrow! From what we could understand, and if we translated correctly, there is nothing wrong with all the organs they checked. So I guess now we start exploring cardiac issues or we discover that I'm just atypical for the type of hernia pain I have.
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