Episode 35 - An Unexpected Adventure

Ever wondered how a seemingly innocent meal could turn your dream vacation into a medical nightmare? Join Rita and me as we recount our wild ride through Eastern Europe that left us grappling with mysterious, severe pains striking at the worst possible moments. From the first alarming symptoms in Krakow to a dramatic ambulance ride in Riga, our journey became an unexpected test of endurance and adaptability. You'll hear all about our encounters with healthcare professionals in a foreign land and the surprising efficiency of Latvia's emergency response system.

Experience the highs and lows of our trip, where every city brought new beauty and unforeseen challenges. As we navigated unknown territories and healthcare systems, Rita's unwavering support and the swift actions of local medics were crucial. Tune in for a candid and gripping tale that will make you question what you would do in a similar situation. Whether you see us as bold adventurers or think we might be a bit nuts, this episode promises to keep you riveted from start to finish.

Transcript

Jim Santos: 0:18

Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. Jim and Rita, I'm your host, jim Santos, and in this podcast series, you can follow along as my wife Rita and I work out our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Are we bold, forward-thinking pioneers or just plain nuts? Let's find out together, shall we? Hello everybody, and welcome back to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm Jim Santos, along with my lovely wife Rita, and we need to apologize for the gap there. It's been about a month since we posted an episode, but there have been some very good reasons for the pause. The good news is, we may have answered the question posed in the introduction Are we bold adventurers or just nuts? The bad news is, we may just be nuts. You see, we were having a wonderful time on our trip through Eastern Europe. We both felt great. We were seeing some beautiful places, speaking of which I promise I will eventually get pictures uploaded to the website. Anyway, one morning, while we were waiting for our Flixbus to take us from Krakow to Warsaw, I suddenly broke out in a sweat all over and felt a tightening around my solar plexus. I managed to board the bus and after an uncomfortable and sweaty hour or two, the pain gradually faded and the sweating stopped. When we stopped at the halfway point for a leg stretching break, I felt okay and then was fine for the rest of the trip and in Warsaw. I assumed it was just something I had for breakfast that day. Now, warsaw was wonderful.

Jim Santos: 1:56

Vilnius in Lithuania was a pleasant surprise and I was perfectly fine until our second day in Riga, latvia. I had a big meal of local sausages and a couple of beers, but was feeling nothing but full when I went to bed. I woke up at 3 am, though once again sweating and with that pain around my solar plexus radiating outward to the sides. I vomited a few times and I'm sorry if that's too graphic, but it didn't seem to help. Finally, about 7 am, the pain faded and I was able to get some sleep. We took it easy that day, but I felt all right.

Jim Santos: 2:32

At this point I was starting to think maybe I had an ulcer and I decided to eat carefully for a while. Then, on Sunday, september the 8th, with only three nights left, in Riga, I had a light meal of fish soup and a Caesar salad with bacon and one small beer. As we left the restaurant, I felt the beginnings of that now-familiar tightening around my diaphragm faint, but definitely there Still thinking ulcer. We walked around for a while and then, when we got back to our Airbnb, I drank a lot of water and a little milk and after a while the feeling faded and I thought I was past the danger point. However, I was wrong Once more.

Jim Santos: 3:03

At the magic hour of 3 am, I was awake and in severe pain. This time nothing seemed to be helping and the pain was going nowhere. At 9 am I was still in pain and shortly thereafter I asked Rita to check with our host and see if she could recommend a doctor. Our host informed us that, in Riga, all we had to do was dial 112, and they would send out an ambulance with an EMT and a medical professional to examine me and recommend treatment. Rita did so and, fortunately, was able to get an English-speaking operator. Sure enough, less than 20 minutes later they were at our door. After the exam, the med tech said that she thought there was a serious internal issue and that, while she could give me painkillers, her recommendation was that I let them take me to the hospital for more extensive testing.

Jim Santos: 3:50

Although I felt bad that we were supposed to leave in two days and this would disrupt our plans, I had to agree that I needed some serious medical help. Rita helped me dress and throw some things in a backpack and I was able to walk slowly to the elevator and get into the ambulance more or less unaided. Rita was a little upset at this point because they told her she could not come with me nor meet me there. She would have to wait for me to call In the ambulance. They asked if I wanted to sit up or lie down. I chose to lie down, which turned out to be the wrong choice. As we bumped along the now not-so-charming cobblestone streets, I was bounced about and lurching from side to side, which made the pain that much greater with every jolt. Lurching from side to side, which made the pain that much greater with every jolt. Finally, we arrived and I slowly worked my way out of the ambulance and onto a typical rolling hospital bed. They wheeled me inside into a receiving area where I gave them my passport to copy and answer the typical admitting questions age, birth date, address, phone number, emergency contact and so on.

Jim Santos: 4:47

Next stop was kind of a triage area where they drew blood for the lab, inserted an IV adapter but no IV yet and started monitoring blood pressure, heart rate and so on. Meanwhile I was still in pain but they didn't want to do anything until the blood work came back. A doctor stopped by to talk to me a bit later and said the blood indicated the problem was mostly my pancreas. This surprised me a little bit. I mean, have you ever felt a pain and thought, ow, my pancreas? Anyway, he told me they'd be taking me down for an ultrasound to check it out. I asked once again about something for the pain, but they still wanted more data.

Jim Santos: 5:22

First Let me say something here about the hospital itself. The building was very old, but all of the diagnostic equipment I saw during my time there was modern and the staff with the exception of one nurse we'll get to later was very pleasant and caring. An orderly showed up a few minutes later with a chair to take me to the ultrasound. Now this turned out to be quite painful as the tech rubbed the sensor against everywhere that hurt, making it hurt more. Then she asked me to roll on my side and hold it, which kicked the pain up another notch. There were immediate results, however. She showed me my gallbladder, which was obviously full of stones, and said that my pancreas was also swollen. They sent me back to the triage area and the doctor stopped by to confirm that the main issue was my pancreas, that the inflammation markers in my blood were about 100 times higher than they should be. Still no pain meds, as he was ordering an x-ray and CT scan as well.

Jim Santos: 6:23

Now, by this point it was mid-afternoon and I'd been in pain for about 12 hours, but at least I was able to text Rita and keep her up to date. An x-ray, a CT scan and what seemed like an interminable wait. Later the doctor came in and told me they were admitting me to the hospital Soon. They were wheeling me down the hall in my bed and then, much to my surprise, out the front door and down the street into a different building. I have no idea what they would have done if it was raining or snowing, I guess just throw a blanket over me. They put me in a room with two beds the other thankfully empty at the time and hooked me up to an IV and, at long last, some pain medication.

Jim Santos: 7:00

At this point, all of the muscles in my midsection were sore from the bouncing and prodding, so much so that I couldn't take a deep breath without pain. At this point I had no idea if I was going to surgery soon for the gallbladder or what. A new doctor came in, introduced himself as the head of the gastro department. He told me there could be no surgery until the pancreas was taken care of. His main goal would be to get me to the point where I could return to the US for the gallbladder surgery. He was concerned about the pancreas, though, since the inflammation indicators were so high. The treatment would be lots of liquids, liquid food only, lots of water, saline IVs and antibiotics. He said it could take a week or two before I could leave.

Jim Santos: 7:42

Well, long story short, I spent nine nights in the hospital. The first few days were rough, with a few high fevers thrown in for entertainment value. I remember when I had one of about 105, I ran my hand across my face and thought, wow, all three of my faces are hot, and it seemed perfectly normal to me that I had three faces. All of the nurses were very nice, with the exception of one I thought of as Nurse Ratched. She was very rough, shoving the lancet for blood sugar test into my finger instead of just letting it pop in like everyone else, bruising up both of my hands trying to get blood samples before calling in another nurse and just generally showing no empathy at all.

Jim Santos: 8:20

Now, eventually, the numbers started coming down and I graduated from got-all-for-yogurts-and-liquids-to-basically-tasteless-semi-solid food and Rita and I made plans to head back to Knoxville, tennessee, to complete recovery and schedule the gallbladder surgery. One last thing about the hospital. When I was discharged, we got the bill being picked up by the ambulance, brought to the hospital, sonogram x-ray, two CT scans, nine nights in the hospital, all the food, medication, whatnot. It all came to a grand total of 2,627 euros just a little less than $3,000. I have to say that was a very pleasant surprise. Now, this is where our plan to sell our home and car came back to bite us. After a 25-hour travel day, we rented a car at the airport and drove to a hotel that has a small kitchen in the room that's currently our home. We went ahead and bought a car and, in the process of finding a home to buy, and meanwhile I had one minor relapse and spent a few hours in the ER, but they released me and told me to go back to the liquid diet until surgery. Surgery is scheduled to take place the day this podcast goes live, incidentally, so don't count on a new episode next week. I do look forward to the surgery, hopefully resolving the issue so I can get back to a more normal diet. Also, they're planning to do the surgery with a robot, which is kind of cool.

Jim Santos: 9:41

So where does all this leave us with the podcast and our travel plans? Well, as we can, rita and I will do some episodes catching you up on the places we stayed during our trip. As I said, we were having a great time and saw some wonderful things. By the way, where is Rita, you may ask? Well, while we were in the ER last week, she apparently picked up COVID from a couple that tested positive, a few cubicles down from us. So she's sitting this one out. Frankly, it has not been our best September. In addition to the catch-up episodes, we have some interviews we'll be doing once I've recovered from Robbie the Robot sucking out my gallbladder.

Jim Santos: 10:17

As for future travel plans, well, this has taught us that at our age, we really need to have a home base. Our plan to sell everything and stay on the road would have been great five years ago, but we have to face reality. We plan on taking the winter to set up our new house, recover and regroup. We hope that in early spring we can take a four to six week trip to the UK and Ireland, stopping in fewer places and staying longer to minimize the amount of effort it takes. After that, we'd like to try to take three to four trips a year, staying away no longer than maybe eight weeks at a time, and again with less ambitious itineraries. I think if there's any lesson from this that we'd like to impart to our listeners, it's this Don't wait too long to make your dream of travel a reality. There are always a million reasons to wait until next year, but remember, none of us know how many years we have or how many years of good health we can enjoy. If you want to travel and see the world, start making your plans today.

Jim Santos: 11:24

You've been listening to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'll be back with Rita in a new episode after I've recovered a bit from the surgery. Now, if you'd like to read more about where we've been, see some photos and video, check out our blog at jimsantosbooksc. I promise to start updating the site as soon as I'm able Now. Meanwhile, you can access my books, audiobooks and short stories at jimsantosnet, and there are links to those sites Instagram, youtube and so on in the show notes. We'd love to hear from our listeners as well, so if you have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover, or want to tell your own travel story, email us at jim at jimsantosbookscom. So until next time, remember we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.