Home and Healthy

Thank you for all of your good wishes; they worked! My flight home yesterday was uneventful, and I am now home in Denver. I am feeling healthy; the antibiotics seemed to do the trick.

Back stateside, I had to find a doctor just for a check up after I returned yesterday and realized that being without insurance in the U.S. is really scary. First I tried to go to a walk in clinic for people who have minimal or no insurance. It was full so I was shunted to the emergency room where I was told that the MINIMUM cost would be $500 to see a doctor. The room was dirty, people were sitting on the floor, and the wait was hours long. I left. Thanks to my resourceful sister, Kirk, and the Internet, I found a private clinic with an opening. It was good but not cheap, and had I been sick and needed more tests, the initial round of tests alone would cost $490.

The fact that insurance is tied to one's work - and I have worked many full-time, professional jobs that lack benefits - is really unfortunate. In addition the mega HMOs take a bunch of that money meant for healthcare for themselves. Between that and crazy malpractice insurance thanks to our equally crazy judicial system, healthcare and insurance costs are unaffordable for the middle class. Why do we stand for this?

Ok, end rant. On a positive note, next week Kirk and I are going to a strawbale building workshop in Southern Colorado. I have been informally studying strawbale building for years and participated in some 1-day workshops, so I am excited to spend 4 full days stacking bales, pouring earthen floors, putting up natural plaster, and . . .

On the job front I have an interview for a part-time position on Monday at D.U. and some other interesting possibilities.

Health Update

Sorry for using the blog for "unfun" reasons like health, but I know people are concerned, so I wanted to post here to let you know what is happening.

I have had to go back to the ER, but this time I chose a private clinic. The doctor seemed good and he diagnosed me with E. coli infection. He started me on IV antibiotics because I couldn't tolerate anything in my stomach. I will go back the next two evenings to get IV antibiotics and anti-nausea medication. The last IV I will time so that the anti-nausea meds overlap with my flight back to America on Thursday.

The American duty officer and Consulate in Izmir, and my friends at the embassy are in the loop, and they have been very supportive. My coworker and dear friend Feryal has spent this week being my personal doctor, ER driver, and interpreter, as has my friend, Okan.

The last few days have been pretty hard for me. I feel ok right now and am just hoping that it will continue. If you could send me some good energy or prayers or whatever you do, I could use them now.

A Rather Expensive Hotel

The view from my window is beautiful. The ocean breeze cools the room each morning; all meals are delivered to me in bed, specially designed by a nutritionist with my needs in mind, and someone else does the cleaning. It is really all I could ask for except that people regularly come and stick me with needles and ask me the most personal questions about my bodily functions.

Unfortunately I got rather ill midway through my Turkey tour and had to fly back to Izmir. After some visits to the emergency room, I was admitted to Dokuz Eylul Hospital where I have been for the last two days. It seems that the amoebas that I had ingested somewhere in my travels had started winning the battle in my body. I couldn’t keep hydrated, and finally my stomach started rejecting everything, even water. I had quite a scare when I realized that within a matter of hours of uncontrollable vomiting, I had gone from simply feeling ill to the point where I was having problems focusing my eyes and staying conscious.

Luckily my friends Okan and Feryal rallied and got me to a good hospital quickly. My friends and family back home, who, I am convinced, have a future (or past) in espionage, managed to figure out what hospital I was in and contacted everyone involved, from my best friends here to my ex-boss to the consulate in Izmir (who visited me the next day in the hospital and let me use the official phone to call home. Thanks consulate!).

I am happy to say that I am feeling much better now and am looking forward to being home on Thursday. Perhaps this was a wake-up call from the Universe,”Stop worrying about the minutiae and be thankful for the important things!” Message received – no more reminders necessary.