Ronny Express

Tuesday August 15 2006

After a sleepless night, I was dimly aware that I had not eaten anything but a Clif Bar since lunch the day before. Rob was getting hungry too. I went and found a nurse and told her that Rob was hungry; she said I should go to a restaurant and buy him some food (there’s no toilet paper in this hospital—of course there’s not going to be a cafeteria). A really nice nutritionist named Lilieth (spelling?) sat down with me and explained everything slowly so that I could understand. She said that Rob was not really diabetic; high blood sugar can be caused by extreme stress, such as dehydration. She said he should avoid eating sugary, fatty things, especially while we were still trying to get his blood sugar normalized. Then she went with me to a restaurant where we got a salad for Rob (he’d told me he was hungry for raw vegetables). She told me that I needed to eat something and keep my strength up, both Rob and me couldn’t be sick at the same time. While we were walking back to the hospital, I told her that yesterday was my birthday. She stopped in the middle of the road to hug and kiss me and wish me feliz cumpliaños.

By 3pm, Rob’s blood sugar was staying around 101 and he did not have a fever anymore. They released us, giving us a prescription for an antibiotic (I wasn’t really sure why, other than his IV arm had become inflamed) and telling us that we needed to go to Altagracia to have his blood sugar retested tomorrow.

I wasn’t really sure how to get home. The bus would cost a couple of dollars and would take about 3 hours, or we could hire a taxi for about $25 and be home in an hour and a half. We ended up walking down to the dock and found a taxi driver with a van labeled “Ronny Express.” Our decision was made. We took the Ronny Express back to Mérida. Ronny was a nice guy; a kid probably younger than us, and we listed to an 80’s mix tape all the way back.