Boy what a crappy week… but more about Nancy later.

First let me tell you about the beasts of the Casita de la Coffee.
Two came to Costa Rica with ear infections. What is it about floppy eared dogs with long hair that they just always seem to have a stupid yeast infection in their ears? We buy Otomax, dog-ear-yeast-infection-treater by the six pack. Oliver and Sofi are always being treated. So for them to travel with ear problems is just the norm. But Sofi also picked up a bacterial infection on one foot.

Sedona and Derby are street dogs – mutts. Sedona has tiny little flop-over ears with short hair and Derby has standup ears. Sedona has never had a skin problem – until now. She takes meds so she doesn’t have the urge to eat Sofi and she has an underactive thyroid for which she takes pills.

So our first medical-professional visit was to the Vet. Dr. Sharon. Or as it is in Costa Rica Dra. Sharon, because she is a Doctora…

Dra. Sharon prescribed the junk on the right hand side of the picture:

• Imaverol: I have to bathe Sedona 2x a week for five treatments. The stuff has to dry on Sedona. She has a super thick coat and with the high humidity it has taken her three hours to dry.
• Griseofulvina 250.  She also gets a pill every twelve hours for 15 days- an antibiotic
• Bayril is the pill to treat Sofi’s bacterial infection. 1/2 pill once a day for 7 days.
• Crema Calox is a topical ointment twice a day until healed.

The beast-treatment is underway.

Now to the Woman.

What a crappy week.

Really crappy.

Nancy has been to the equivalent of the emergency room here twice in two days. About 3:00 on Monday she started feeling flu-ey. Achy, fever, stomach problems. Neither of us thought much about it and figured 24 hours of sleep would fix her up.  But we mis-calculated what 24 hours of fluid loss does to your system.

She got dehydrated.

I had heard good things about what the pharmacies can do in Costa Rica, many have well-trained medical professionals who will diagnose and prescribe solutions. However, one look at Nancy snoozing on the couch in the waiting area and they sent her to the emergency room.

This was scary. Imagine walking into an emergency room with a translation book in hand ready to try to describe the flu.

Now imagine walking into an emergency room suffering from a terrible medical condition.

That’s scary. Not that being dehydrated is NOT terrible, but it wasn’t imminently life-threatening. Imagine my relief when the “Habla engles?” was met with “Yes.”

We were taken immediately to the exam room where we met Dr. Candy… yup… Dra. Candy Midence Noguera. Who spoke very good english. And she was charming… yup… Dr. Candy was sweet. She asked a bunch of questions and diagnosed the dehydration in about 15 minutes. Nancy got a bag of IV Ringers, a bag of antibiotic, and a bottle of stomach medicine from Dra. Candy. She prescribed

• Cipro antibiotic pills
• Buscpania to calm her stomach
• Enterogermina to restore the bacteria to her digestive tract
• And sent us to the lab for a complete blood work up.

Today Nancy woke up not much better. We didn’t see progress.

I put in a call to Dra. Candy and within 15 minutes she was on the phone setting up an appointment for 90 minutes later. She also sent us back to the lab for one more test.

Dra. Candy looked at Nancy and said she was still dehydrated and started two more bags of fluids. She got the results from the lab as we waited and recognized that Cipro wasn’t the “first line” of treatment for the critters fouling up Nancy’s system.  She needed a different antibiotic and we got it.

She also recommended an electrolyte drink called New Shape…  drink “poquito” (a little bit) all day long… for seven days.

The cost in round numbers for all this is: 158,000… Colones. About $316.00 US. Not cheap, no sir, but imagine what the bill would have been in the U.S.?

We see progress. But the really crappy part is the prognosis for 7-10 days recovery. These nasty little critters are stubborn. That’s a pretty depressing thought and the ride home was quiet.

Which, BTW, The $11,500 effin’ car entered the picture again. Some kind of belt squeal yelped when I gave it a little extra goose going up a hill. And when parked in front of the pharmacy the stupid transmission lock acted up and I thought we were stranded. Luckily for me, Nancy didn’t loose any brain cells from dehydration. While I was rocking the car trying to unlock the transmission/keylock, she inverted the key… bingo!

Tomorrow, I contact the used car guy – again – to see about getting the belt replaced. And I thought all keys were bi-poler or ambidextrous, whatever, will have to check that out.

REALLY crappy week I’m telling ya… REALLY…