Kidney Stones! (not mine)

Wow, sounds like a lot has been going on this last week. Glad to hear Grandma´s surgery went well, and that Dad´s taking it easier at work. I hope it all works out and he can make it to summer without too much worry.

Alright, we´ve had a bit of a week ourselves. To start out, we stopped by this old black lady who speaks english on Tuesday just to see how she´s doing. Her name is Edith, and quite frankly she has no idea what´s going on around her. =P It was the first time I had met her, aaaand it was really funny. She was telling me how see met me when I was about 6 years old when I came to Costa Rica with my uncle who was a pastor...and that she use to babysit me...I just kinda nodded my head and was like "Really? Yeah I don´t remember!" ...Is that bad??? She´s so far out of it I just didn´t have the heart to tell her "NO! You´re worng!." =P

Nothing too eventful happened over the week, by things did start up Saturday around 2:30 a.m. Elder Logan woke me up saying "Elder, we need to go to the clinic, NOW." He was in major pain, like nothing I´ve ever seen before. I tried calling our district leader, but nobody answered. So I called Pres. Gálvez, told him what was happening and where we were going, and told him I´d call back when we´d reached the clinic. I gave Elder Logan a blessing before leaving the house, and we walked to a member´s place not to far from us. The brother-in-law had been woken up a few minutes before by some unknown reason, and he called us a taxi to the clinic. We got to the clinic about 3 a.m. A nurse examined Elder Logan in what I called a shady excuse for a medical clinic, and after some poking and guessing they gave him some shots and said it would be about an hour before the drugs would fully take effect and the pain would die down. They said it could either be apendisitis or a kidney stone, but they had no way to know for sure with what they had. I´ll be honest, the clinic here looked like an old war hospital like they had in in France during World War 2. Rundown, with some beds thrown in one room and very basic medical equipment. Very basic.

I called Pres. Gálvez again and explained what was going on and what the nurses said. I told him I´d call when the hour wait was over. I spent the next half hour praying until my mind finally shutdown again. At about 5 a.m. (2 hours later) we had about 20 minutes left before the "hour" wait would be up (riddle me that). I got to go in and talk with Elder Logan for a quick second. They had him hooked up to some plasma and the pain had passed. They nurses had decided he had a kidney stone, but we didn´t know how they came to the conclusion without any tests. =P

At 6 a.m. (3 hours later) the "hour" wait was up and Elder Logan was released. After calling Pres. Gálvez and letting him know Elder Logan was feeling better, we went straight to Iraydelis´ house (she´s now our breakfast cook), however around 8 a.m. the pain came back just as strong. We took a taxi to the house while Iraydelis and her daughter went to pick up the precriptions Elder Logan received at the clinic. We called Pres. Gálvez again, and he sent the APs out to bring us into San José. Elder Logan twisted and turned in bed groaning in pain while I tried calling our district leader again, of which no one could get ahold of, not even President. After talking with Pres. Gálvez we decided I was gonna go into San José with my companion, seeing how we didn´t have any real appointments set and it would just be easier that way. Iraydelis came by with the precriptions around 9:30 a.m. and the APs got to us around 10:30 a.m. We got to San José at noon and we went straight to the Clinica Biblica, the only real safe and CLEAN hospital in Costa Rica. Elder Logan stayed with Pres. Gálvez in the hospital waiting to see the doctors and I went to get some lunch with Elder Holt (one of the secretaries) and Elder Rojas (the new assistant, he´s from Santiago). At 1 p.m. we got back to the Clinica Biblica only to find President and Elder Logan STILL WAITING to see a doctor. At this point the pain had faded a bit to were he could bare with it. Finally Elder Logan and Pres. Gálvez went in to see the doctor, and I kind of chilled in the waiting room. Sleep didn´t really come at all, it was way too loud with TVs going, a ton of people waiting and talking, and a few dense americans yelling at the desk clerks because they couldn´t speak english.

At 4 p.m. Elder Logan got out from all the tests, received his drugs, and was told it was a kidney stone, but they weren´t sure if he still had it or if it had already passed. We were all a little lost on that one. President took us to his house afterwards, were the Hermana Gálvez had made us guatemalan soup for us. After eating President took us to the mission home were we tried to sleep a little before the APs and the secretaries came home. That night as we were getting ready for bed the pain came back again. Elder Logan passed the night on the downstairs couch twisting and turning in pain. The poor guy didn´t get a wink of sleep. Sunday morning he was still in major pain. I stayed in the house with him while everyone else went to church. Elder Logan finally got some sleep right before everyone got home from church. We started making a big lunch for everyone (mashed potatoes, breaded chicken, corn, etc.) and then everyone left to work again while we stayed locked up in the house. We tried to keep ourselves entertained but there´s really nothing in the mission home to do that with. Around 8:15 p.m. we went to the office were the secretaries and the APs were taking the weekly numbers. Elder Logan wasn´t feeling any pain anymore and was really glad to to leave the house and walk around.

We left this morning for Siquirres. It´s been a long couple of days, but my companion´s still alive. That´s all that really matters. =P

Alright, I think I´ve taken enough time out of everyone´s lives with this letter. =P I love you all and I want you to know that I´m doing fine, even if I am a little tired. Have a great week and I can´t wait to hear from you next Monday!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie