Colombian Hospitality

By now, most of my close friends know what happened to me last Sunday in the Bogota airport. If I have yet to inform you, sorry, but here's your chance to find out.

I left my host family's house for the airport at around 4am last Sunday to catch my flight first to Bogota and then onto Cartagena for the Microcredit Summit. My first flight was fine, but I just remember being extremely tired and kind of antsy about going to Colombia on my own. As I was about to board the airplane, while on the tarmac, something must have happened to me because the next thing I remember was being carried by medical personnel from the airplane onto an ambulance. From there, I was taken to the airport hospital (where they gave me oxygen and helped clean out my mouth which was filled with blood). However, they thought I had had a "convulsion" or a seizure, so they decided to send me on to their private clinic, Marly, in Bogota. So, I got into another ambulance, this time rather unnecessarily, and went onto the next clinic. I was given several medical tests including a TAC (also known in English as a CAT scan, though it took me a few minutes to realize this). All the results were positive, but the doctor, who had to sign a form allowing me to fly again, wanted to keep me over night so I could have more tests in the morning. Unfortunately, this would mean I would miss the first day of the Microcredit Summit, but I nonetheless consented.

I spent the night, and then in the morning had an MRI and an EEG. It took the damn neurologist six hours to review my results before neither confirming nor denying that I have epilepsy. He gave me a prescription for Valcote and sent me on my way. I was pretty freaked out, but luckily I was able to talk to my parents and the airline, Avianca Aerovias, kept someone with me the entire duration of my hospital stay which was very comforting (though no one spoke English which was a big wake up call).

I got into Cartagena monday night around 11pm and was able to actively participate all day Tuesday and Wednesday, thankfully. However, the cause of my seizure is still uknown, and I probably won't know until I come back to the U.S. and get tested again, which will be quite awhile.

I just can't get over how nice the doctors and nurses were though! On top of my stellar serivce of medical care, the Avianca represetative was so helpful. One of the four that I met even wrote me an e-mail today making sure I was all right. I was very impressed by my level of care, and even though I wasn't expecting a stint in a Colombian hospital, it was a good reality check and definitely helped improve my Spanish. I can only hope that the medicine works and that this problem was just a one time occurrence.