Later Wednesday evening I got very, very sick. I threw up several times and had terrible, constant, intensive cramps. After 3 hours I asked to go to hospital. Randy contacted our manager who called a taxi and recommended a good hospital.
When we arrived I was put on a gurney, got some blood drawn, and left along for at least an hour. I was rocking non-stop, trying to alleviate the pain. I lost all sense of pride and kept calling out for someone to please help me. Eventually a couple of guys came to move my gurney into a room with some equipment so I thought I would be examined soon. But no, I was ignored for another hour. I guess they got tired of me crying out for help but it didn't work; I yelled louder. I was way past any embarrassment, I just wanted to stop hurting.
Eventually I was wheeled out of that room, wheeled outside, and onto an ambulance. Nobody would talk to me. I kept yelling Randy's name as I was wheeled away to let him know I was being taken, but he couldn't hear me.
The ambulance drove to an older part of the hospital and I was wheeled out and stuck in a small waiting room with 5 others in chairs and a gurney. And ignored again. I kept begging for help. An aide told me what I thought was a waiting room was actually the Covid ward. I couldn't get anyone to examine me or give me something for pain.
It was impossible for me to lie still. I could only stand the pain by rocking non-stop. When I couldn't stand that anymore, I would lower the side of my gurney, ease myself out, and hobble to the desk area. The nurses were not happy about this; I was expected to stay in bed. I kept asking for help and they kept telling me that help would eventually occur. They said I would get an x-ray but they were adamant that of course it could not happen until tomorrow. Who ever heard of doing an x-ray at night? Me, that's who.
After several trips I realized they weren't going to do anything. But I still could not lie down for long so I would get off that gurney and slowly hobble to the bathroom, still trying for some relief. The nurses didn't like that either because, as they pointed out, I had Covid but not every patient in this wing did. OK, but I was only going to the Covid bathroom. It wasn't my fault that the bathroom for Covid patients was Right across the hall from the bathroom for non-Covid patients. Not a very good system.
During one of my bathroom trips I saw Randy sitting just outside the nurses station. I went out to hug him, so happy he had found me. He was happy to find me too, but unhappy because he had tested positive also. Now we were both stuck.
A doctor came over and told us that we couldn't leave the hospital until we were taken to a Covid hotel. He explained that it would not cost anything but we would need to stay there until we tested negative. We explained our current hotel reservation was up and we were scheduled to move to another hotel today, so we had to get our luggage. The doctor kept repeating that we couldn't leave but eventually he did listen to us. He said he would tear up Randy's test results to allow him to return to hotel, pack up our luggage, and bring it back to hospital. After the doctor left I tried to get Randy to leave Italy but of course he wouldn't. Instead he left the hospital at 3 am and, because he couldn't get a taxi, walked all the way back to our hotel! Of course we didn't know where we were so thank God his phone had enough battery for the GPS to direct him there. This part of Rome is graffiti-filled and rough looking; I can only assume angels were helping this American walking in the dark with his GPS phone to get there safely. He packed both of our suitcases, filled our largest backpack, and got the hotel manager to call him another taxi.
Meanwhile I was not getting any treatment, but they finally got tired of listening to me and gave me an IV of pain meds. I think was really a sleep aid; the pain didn't go away but I fell asleep a bit in spite of it. Fine, I would take any relief at this point. It was a horrible, horrible night. In the morning a doctor who spoke some English came and examined me. The room was still full of patients and I had to pull my shirt up for the exam but at that point I didn't care. She poked my abdomen and said she couldn't feel anything wrong. And that the blood work taken when I arrived didn't show anything. It was evident that she meant there was nothing wrong with me. Hours later I was wheeled into another room for an x-ray. A guy was already in the room, in a covid breathing helmet. I was way past caring so I followed instructions to remove my bra and slip my shorts down for the x-ray. The technician had me hold the x-ray plate against my left side and he took 2 x-rays from my right side. The he took me back to covid room.
I am not sure there was a charge for any of this but I can not rejoice over that since it was all useless. I spent hours and hours of being in terrible pain and ignored, and the few things that were done were pointless. When the x-ray and the blood work did not show anything specific, I really think they did not know what to do. They seemed to think I was just fine, except, of course, for Covid, which required isolating me and ignoring me and taking me places I did not want to go.
Shortly afterwards Randy came back with all of our luggage. He sat with me and we waited. Someone brought breakfast for everyone in the room but I couldn't eat because I was still rocking with pain. We spent hours waiting for something to happen. Lunch was brought and I still couldn't eat.
Then a guy came in, called out the names of 6 of us, and told us to follow him. We all got into an ambulance and took a 30-40 ride. He dropped us off at an old Sheridan hotel where we were checked in and told we could not leave our room. Meals would be delivered outside our doors. They would not test us for at least 7 days.
The guy at the front desk spoke reasonable English and explained everything quickly about meals and laundry changes and such but I was crying so hard that Randy had to listen for both of us. If I hadn't gone to the hospital we wouldn't be in this mess.
The room was actually a hotel room which was better than I expected, although not very large. It had a couple of twin beds shoved together, a desk, a small small refrigerator, and a tiny closet. No ventilation in the bathroom and the sink stopper doesn't work. The shower/bathtub is hard to use and the TV doesn't work.
If you're Italian this is all free like the hospital doctor told us, but for us it's 175 euros a day.
Now I'm praying that whatever I have does not kill me or cause irreparable damage by being left untreated for a week.
Dinner was delivered but I couldn't eat it.
I called the front desk to ask for the pain medicine that I was promised to the hospital. After two attempts to transfer me to the hotel's doctor, she answered and agreed to send something up. There was a knock on the door and somebody handed over a blister pack with four big pills in it and no instructions. So I called back the desk, got transferred to the doctor again, who said these were the same medicine they gave me in the IV at the hospital and I should take one today and three tomorrow. I don't trust anything here anymore so I took half of one.
Randy and I sent texts messages to our friends, asking for prayer for my health and for our situation. Then Randy held me and prayed for my health, and I went to bed knowing that everything would be alright.
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