Surgery on a Shoestring

So I was having surgery in Cuenca. Now, I had the unpleasant task of calling my parents to tell them that I was having emergency surgery in Ecuador- great- although I'm sure it was more difficult to get the call than to make it!! Luckily my phone works internationally so I was able to call my mom. "Hey mom, I'm ok but could you page Dad and tell him to find a Spanish speaking general surgeon? I have to get my appendix out in Ecuador, I will call him back when the doctor gets here." Once the surgeon arrived, he was able to speak with someone at St. Agnes which was a big relief to me and I'm sure somewhat comforting for my parents.

I went into surgery that night around 7, amazingly, the surgery was done
laproscopically so I only have 2 tiny scars and my recovery was VERY quick. The surgery went well and barring the fact that I am resistant to Novocaine so when I came out of the anesthesia I could feel everything. I got to spend about an hour in recovery whimpering in extremely limited Spanish as I was ignored because the nurses probably thought I was just coming out of the anesthesia poorly. So by the time I got back upstairs to Linnea I gave her quite a scare because I came into the room sobbing in pain and exasperation. She literally checked my scars to make sure they didn't take more than expected. Linnea was able to convince the nurse that I was in pain- go figure- and I got some lovely Morphine which made the night quite pleasant.

Unfortunately, after the first night, they were not as liberal with the drugs- I only got Tylenol and antibiotics for the rest of my stay. The next two days at the hospital were uneventful, I got only nasty soup and jello and Linnea got empanadas...for every meal- it was the only thing the cafeteria had. After I got released from the hospital we had to stay in Cuenca for a few more days so that I could have a post-op appointment before continuing on. Those days were very laid back as well but I felt better everyday and I was at 100% within a week.

After my post-op we got back on a bus and headed for Guayaquil.