Monday, October 8, 2007 Attack of the Litre!!

Monday, October 8, 2007 Attack of the Litre!!

I woke up around 6:30 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. My face felt uncomfortable and my eyes felt really weird. I got out of bed to check how I looked in the mirror and my stomach sang when I saw myself. My entire face was bright red, bumpy and swollen and my eyes were practically swollen shut. I looked like a bright red tomato with Troll eyes:

I immediately recognized the rash-type redness and itches as a poison ivy type reaction, because goodness knows I’ve had enough experience with all that! I got on the internet to look up if they had poison ivy in Chile but all I found on Chile’s Google when I typed in Hiedra Venenosa (Poison Ivy) was stuff about the Batman character!! At that point I figured they didn’t have poison ivy in Chile or at least called it something else but I also realized that I needed to do something about my face and fast.

Around 7 I woke up Olga and as soon as she saw my face I realized how bad it was. Later she told me that I really scared her! She jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and immediately told me she was talking me to the hospital. She called her husband to let him know and it was really funny to hear her talking to him about my face. “Sus ojos muy hinchados, toda la cara roja. Es horrible pobrecita!!” (“Her eyes are really swollen and her entire face is red. It’s horrible poor little thing!”)

I put on the huge sunglasses that Olga had given me (because my broke and she insisted that I wear hers. One of many gifts!) and pulled my hair in front of my face as well as I could and we took the ridiculously full metro to the hospital. Amazingly we got there right after 8:00 am, when normal (cheap) hours start and the place was practically empty. Olga gave them the little information they asked for and when they realized I was North American they didn’t ask much. We waited about 5 minutes until they called my name. A really sweet nurse brought me to my own room and took my vitals. She chuckled when I took off my glasses and told me not to worry and that they would take care if it! A few minutes later a really good looking young (no older than 26) doctor walked in. He asked me where I’d been and if it hurt etc. Olga did most of the talking for me and when he offered to speak in English I told him not to worry about it so Olga could understand. He didn’t seem to know exactly what caused the reaction, only that it was an allergic reaction and told me that with a shot of cortisone and some antihistamines it should be better within a few days. Before he left he smiled, told me my Spanish was really good and that he hopes I have a great time in Chile.

He left and came back with what I realized was his attending and the older doctor gave his approval. He also gave me a “don’t worry, you’ll be fine, but you do look kind of funny” smile. Then another nurse came in and gave me the cortisone shot. She asked me what had happened and when I explained that it was some type of allergic reaction and that I’d got it while camping, she immediately proclaimed, “Well that is Litre!!” Olga laughed and said she’d been trying to remember the name of that plant and the two of them started chatting away about other Litre experiences they’d had! Luckily the nurse knew what it was and I felt much better having a more solid diagnosis. She told me it would go away in about 4 or 5 days and that with the shot and the anti histamines I’d be fine. She injected the cortisone really slowly, over about one minute and by the time she finished my eyes were already less swollen. She left and I immediately felt really sleepy. We had to wait about 20 minutes because they wanted to see how I reacted to the cortisone and I slept the whole time. Doctor McDreamy came back, said I already looked better, gave us the prescription and sent us on our way.

Olga paid the bill which only ended up being about $50 ($46 for the hospital visit and $6 for the shot!). On the way back to the metro we stopped by the pharmacy and picked up the antihistamine prescription. I was exhausted and didn’t want anyone to see me and was glad to get back to the apartment. I had breakfast and felt better but Olga didn’t want me to go to class. I needed to go since I had tests coming up, so I headed back out around 10:45. I tried hiding my face as best as I could, but when I got to campus I ran into Christian and in typical Chilean fashion, he didn’t hide his shock. He kind of laughed and was glad to know I had gone to the hospital but didn’t do much to make me feel better! I went to Doctrina Social class and my two gringo friends Mike and Christine told me not to worry about it and that it really wasn’t that bad (despite the fact that their faces said otherwise!). I had the same reaction with my other gringo friends but the Chileans in my class were more honest. It was an interesting observation.

After my education class I was exhausted and didn’t want to face another class, so I decided to skip my Bible class. I sent my professor an email letting him know about the Litre and I asked him for an extension on the essay that is due Wednesday since I have the Education test AND another essay due the same day. Olga wasn’t home but I studied and worked on my paper.

Despite the fact that I had so much work to do and my face still looked like a tomato, left around 6 pm to go to Courtney’s house for once (if you don’t remember, that is what they call their evening meal. Its usually smaller, more like our lunch). Today is her birthday and I’d promised her I’d have once with her and a few other friends then go see the new Chilean movie Radio Corazon. I was looking much better and my eyes weren’t nearly as swollen and I used the “I’ve had a rough day, I need to have fun” to justify not being a good student. Once was a ton of fun and I finally got to meet Courtney’s amazing little brother. They are hilarious and her family is incredibly loving. I didn’t want to leave! Afterwards her dad drove us to the metro and we headed to the movie theater. A few more friends met up with us and everyone really enjoyed the movie. It was in Chilean Spanish and the entire time I kept thinking how amazing it was how well I could understand. I definitely wouldn’t have understood anything 3 months ago! I definitely didn’t get it all but lucking I sat next to Victor, the Chilean/American in our program and he explained stuffed that I’d missed. After the movie I took a bus home, took another anti-histamine and crashed.