ER: Arabian style

Last night, it was looking like it would be a mellow night last night. We were comfortably sprawled on the couches and chairs of our living room munching on snacks; Hana was reading, Colleen and I were playing Crazy Eight Countdown, and Jen was nursing a bit of a sore stomach. We figured we'd relax and have an early evening; get ourselves ready for our adventure.

Around 6, Jen started to be sick, and for the next 6 hours, got progressively weaker and violently sick until she had absolutely nothing left in her. At midnight, we decided we had to take her to hospital!

We called her travel insurance company, made sure they had the correct information, and got a bag packed for Jen with extra clothes, all her personal information, and other paraphernalia. Hana went down to get a cab, and Colleen and I got Jen out of bed and supported her as we walked down the hall of the hotel and into the stairwell. As we just started to head down the three flights of marble stairs, Jen collapsed. She couldn't move, was really pale and clammy, felt feverish and very dizzy, and so Colleen stayed with her and kept her calm and relaxed, while I ran down to tell Hana that we needed an ambulance.

It was a good thing that Jen wasn't in an emergency situation, because it took over 40 minutes for the ambulance to come. By this time, we were able to get her downstairs to the lobby and had situated her on a couch. She had been sick on the stairs, so we changed her clothes, covered her in a number of towels, and tried to keep her calm by cracking jokes. Jen, despite all that she was struggling with, was so amazing - strong and calm and she even laughed at our attempts at keeping things light.

Hana rode in the ambulance with Jen, and Colleen and I grabbed a taxi to follow along, because we didn't know which hospital we were going to. I have to say that the taxi driver was awful, especially given our circumstances, and demanded that we pay double the price to get to the hospital. We were not in a position to argue, since we weren't sure where the ambulance was headed, and I felt really taken advantage of. I was quite angry about it for awhile.

It was 1:14am by the time we arrived at the hospital and were taken into the emergency room. The hospital was totally empty. There were a few beds in the room that they brought Jen into. There were a few men in the waiting room. There were about a half dozen nurses and 1 doctor. And there were about 12 people cleaning the floors. A huge angry discussion broke out between the ambulance drivers, doctors and nurses. It was such an important discussion, that no one paid any attention to Jen as she lay on the gurney, so the three of us scrambled to find her extra blankets, and changed her out of her damp clothes and into some warmer things. We stayed by her side and tried to keep her calm and comfortable. All the while, we listened in confusion and tried to make out what the heck was going on. All we could understand was "protocol this" and "protocol that". For a good half hour, no one made any move to check on Jen, and finally the doctor came over and explained that she had been taken to the wrong hospital!! This was the trauma hospital - for car accidents and head injuries, etc - and so their was a debate about whether they needed to send Jen to the Royal Hospital across town, or whether they would treat her there.

The ambulance drivers came back to retrieve their gurney and Jen had to move on to the bed herself. To make it even worse, they tried to take the blankets away. I told them that she was very cold and that she needed to keep the blankets on. So they left empty handed.

A little while later, the doctor came back and explained that they would start an IV, give her some painkillers and take some blood so they could do some tests and then she would be transported by ambulance to the Royal Hospital. Jen was quite uncomfortable by this point; she was pale, feverish, and her stomach was in a lot of pain. Once she had the IV and the pain medication, she started to relax and got sleepy.

When it was time to leave, we helped her onto a wheelchair and wheeled her outside. (I have never seen a wheelchair like this one before - it had the cushions of a plastic waiting room chair on a wooden chair with wheels attached.) By this time, all of us were feeling really tired and our reaction time to stimulus was definitely a little on the slow. So we were completely flabbergasted when the nurse and ambulance driver asked Jen to get up and climb into the ambulance herself! Why they didn't take the gurney out of the ambulance is beyond me!? So there we were, propping her up as best we could and trying to maneuver her onto the ambulance, and there was Jen, holding her IV bag, trying to manage the blankets that were wrapped around her, and completely dizzy and feeble from being sick and the medication. And all the while, the nurse is in the back of the ambulance instructing Jen to "Move up. Move up." so she could be better higher up on the gurney!!

It was a long drive to the next hospital, and we arrived at 3:45am. Jen was wheeled in ER. Hana went off to handle her registration, I made sure that the new nurse had all of Jen's information about her condition, and Colleen took care of all of our packs and gear. This hospital was a little more active - about 12 beds in two rooms - and probably at half capacity. They wheeled Jen into Evaluation room #13. Once Hana came back, Jen was warming up, sleeping quite deeply, and had already gone through a full IV bag. She had more blood taken and was given more medication, and I went out to join Colleen in the Ladies Waiting Room. (The waiting rooms were separated for men and women.) Hana came and joined us and we decided that we'd take turns staying with Jen, as the two that went back to the hotel could take care of pushing out our car rental by a day and checking in for another night. I volunteered, and after the girls left, I sat on a chair by Jen's bed and tried to stay awake. Jen went through 2 more IV bags, her color had returned, she said that her stomach wasn't sore anymore. Around 5:45, the nurse told me that she had had a bad bout of gastroenteritis but was in good shape and was being discharged. YAY! Jen was ready to go. What a relief!!

Now came the fun part. Finding the taxi! After I checked her out and handed over the correct paperwork, I asked the nurse to call me a taxi. She said there were no taxis. I asked "What do you mean there are no taxis." She said there were none to call, as she didn't know the number. She asked a few other people if they knew a number, and no one knew of any. She said I could go outside and wait by the roundabout for a taxi to come, but that they didn't come very often. I was totally floored. I couldn't believe she wanted me to take Jen outside and stand at a street corner until a taxi came! I told Jen to stay on the bed and that I would go outside and see what I could find. I walked outside and saw a group of men sitting outside smoking. I asked them where to find a taxi. They said that there were none around, but if I walked about 1.5 km, I'd find a roundabout that might give me some luck.

I got them to point me in the direction, as I was going to start walking, and one of the guys (Mohammed) stood up, yawned, and said "I'll take you." I smiled and thanked him, but I told him we were staying far away, and he said "Yes, I know, I drove your sisters there this morning." I couldn't believe his generosity! He had taken Colleen and Hana home a few hours earlier, and he was offering to do the same for me and Jen. He was so sweet. I got Jen, wheeled her outside, piled us into the taxi, and we headed off. It was a good 35 min drive to our hotel, and when we arrived, I tried to thank him and give him some money for gas. He completely refused, saying that we were his "sisters" and that it was his responsibility to look after us. It was a really beautiful feeling to experience such generosity and kindness after such a long and tiring day.

Update: It's Thursday night, as I'm writing this. Jen is doing fine - she's weak and resting - but she's in great spirits. We all managed to get some sleep and feel much more refreshed and ready for our adventure tomorrow! Bye for now!
~Lala