Five hours on a bus

Wednesday August 16 2006

We had our first experience on the bus this morning when we rode to Altagracia. The whole bus system was surprisingly easy to figure out. Once we got there, it turned out that the woman who does the blood sugar test was in Moyogalpa and they told us we should go there. I had a brief bout of freaking out. I knew this would mean about 5 or 6 hours round trip on a bus, and I was already beginning to feel crummy.

We made it to Moyogalpa to have Rob’s sugar tested and it was 105. The doctor told us that was normal, especially since Rob had eaten a few bites for breakfast. He said that that the high blood sugar level of the other night does not necessarily mean that Rob is diabetic, but we need to be careful because he has a family history of diabetes. He said that Rob would avoid diabetes as long as he does not eat a lot of sweets or fat and instead eats mainly vegetables, fruits and grains. Right, right. Rob is a skinny-as-a-rail, super active, 100% vegetarian. I think we’ve got that covered. The doctor said that just to make sure, we should come back to Moyogalpa to get Rob’s blood sugar retested every 15 days. We will do that of course, but ugggggh, I wish Moyogalpa was closer.

We took the bus home and by the end of the ride I was doubled over, just praying to make it back without puking. I hadn’t felt like eating all day, and my stomach had the strange rumblings of pre-Vortex (Vortex, as in, you’re so sick the toilet never stops flushing).

By dinnertime, I was feeling hungry and hoping that my previous ishy-ness was due to the bumpy busride. I had little bit of pasta, a few bites of yucca, and a small piece of bread with honey. Everything seemed fine until about 9pm—then the puking began!