Of all the things to take my mind off the wasp sting

First of all: moms, everything and everyone is okay, so no freaking out, please.

Yesterday at breakfast, Rob announced that he was going to ride his bike around the island—a 7 or 8 hour endeavor. To amuse myself while he was away, I went for a run. When I got to my 5K turnaround point, I just kept going. I got to the fork in the road at Santa Cruz, and just kept going too. I turned right and headed up in the direction of Balgüe. It was so cool; I’ve never ever been on this road before. Balgüe is almost exactly across the volcano from us, so you are looking at the mountain from the other side. The view was amazingly beautiful. Maderas was on my right, and Concepción and the lake were on my left. I couldn’t take my eyes off the volcano, since I’d never seen it from this angle before. I reached the school in Balgüe, probably about 9K from here, and although I felt great, but I knew I should head back. If only I’d thought to bring money with me, I could have stopped at a pulperia for something to drink, but alas. I still felt great until about 3K to go—it was then that I became painfully aware of how hot and thirsty I was and how much my legs ached. But still, no major troubles. I made it back to the Hacienda where I had cool water waiting. All in all it was a great run: I explored previously uncharted territory, no dogs chased me, and only 2 guys said “Adíossssss, amorrrrrrr” (and both of them were more polite than smarmy).

Before I knew it, Rob was riding in back home. He was covered in grime and his voice was hoarse, but he seemed okay. He showered and I made him some Gatorade while he was resting. After an hour or so, he had drank only 2 sips, and he told me he felt “weird” and also “cold.” This was not a good sign, as it was probably 90 degrees in our room and I was sweltering. His electrolytes must be off, so I knew I had to get him re-hydrated and balanced. Back when I was sick in August, the German doctor gave me Coca-Cola, because of its sugar and salt content. I know the stuff is poison, but I swear it brought me back to life. When Rob agreed to try a Coke, I knew he must be bad (he swore off the stuff when he was like, 15). But the Coca-Cola didn’t help, and the puking began. He was miserable, and I was desperate. I found some suero packets (rehydration salts) leftover from our sickness in August. The stuff tastes horrible, and he was having a really hard time choking it down. But both of us knew we could not let this get bad enough that he needed an IV at the hospital. So milliliter by milliliter, he slurped the suero. At dinnertime it didn’t even occur to me to go up to the kitchen, but after a while, Esther (bless her heart) came to the room to ask me if she could bring me something. Eating was the last thing I wanted to do, but I finally decided that if we did end up at the hospital, it might be a long time before I would have food again. Plus I’d run almost 18K that day. So I had a little bit of rice and beans and kept coaxing Rob to drink his suero.

It must have helped, because he stopped puking and we both fell asleep. About 4 this morning, he woke up thirsty, and I crept up to the kitchen to fix a cold glass of water with a little lemon and sugar in it (another trick the German doctor taught me). Sandino was in there making bread and offered his condolences to Rob. They have this great little device, sort of like a garlic press, to squeeze the juice out of the lemons (the lemons here are really small, like globe grapes). I took the drink back to Rob and he drank it down and kept it down. We fell back asleep, and when we woke up at breakfast time, he said that he felt better and was hungry. Hallelujah. Gracias a Diosa. He had some bananas and orange juice. He is tired now but is on his way back to normal. At the moment, he is munching on jalepeño tortilla chips (of all things) and drinking more lemon water. My feeling is that if he is hungry for jalepeño chips, the danger must have passed. Plus, we tested his blood sugar in the midst of this, and it was normal. I am just so thankful that he was able to choke down enough of that suero to avoid a trip to the hospital. Because honestly, I’m not sure how we would have gotten there. I need to make sure we always have some of that suero, as foul as it is, on hand. The thing about Rob is that I have always felt comfortable in his ability to know his own limitations. He usually has this keen sense to know when enough is enough, and to stop pushing himself before he’s gone too far. But I guess in the tropics sometimes the system sometimes breaks down. I hope he thinks twice before trying to ride around the island again. Actually, I hope he does not do that again, but I know better.

At any rate, Rob’s crisis was enough to make me completely disregard my wasp sting. Only now have I noticed how much of a mess my arm is, but in the scheme of things, it seems inconsequential. Some ice and benedryl, and I’ll be okay. Plus, Rob and I noticed that the Indigo Girls released a new album this fall, so we used our iTunes gift certificate from Michelle and Mark to buy it. So today we’re just going to rest, recover, and listen to some mellow music. Sorry for the long post, and thanks for reading.