Hope you missed me! I am back in the USA and am scratching my head and grabbing some blankets. A genuine cold snap has gripped Arizona and the temps are in the 30's and 40's overnight and the highs barely make it out of the 50's. The sun is still shining though and the fireplace is up and running and I actually kicked the heat on in the apartment. Bright sunshine and crisp fall air, nothing better after a week in paradise... and it was a week in paradise. Found two new restaurants to add in to "the mix" of places to eat, shot a phenomenal round of golf at Tierra del Sol (75) and did it barefoot by the way. Which brings me to the only downer about the trip...
Tierra Del Sol is one of two golf courses on the island and is a beautiful track on the western end of the island by the California lighthouse and beyond the high rise hotel area. The course was in gorgeous shape so I wore flip flops instead of golf shoes to negotiate the cart paths and rocks around the tee boxes...(that was the plan all along because I didn't even bring golf shoes with me). So I would kick off the flip flops, hit my shot and so on around the course. On the back nine the top of my left foot began to itch in a way I am all too familiar and I thought to myself that I may have walked through some poison ivy or poison whatever they have in Aruba, but I didn't see any rash or blisters forming so I didn't scratch it or bother it. It continued to be a minor nuisance that night and I saw two pimple like sores forming on the top of my foot. When I awoke the next day they had become pus filled pimples so I guessed that a spider might have gotten me and I popped them and covered them with a band aid. Throughout that day my foot began to swell and didn't stop. We were downtown shopping and I noticed two more "bites" between my toes and they were swelling as well. Then my calf muscle started to tighten up and I began to worry...
On the way back on the bus, I decided to stop at the Hospitaal (Dutch spelling), just to make sure that whatever bit me wasn't sending poison from my foot up my leg and into my heart to paralyze or kill me...(I wasn't too worried, eh?). Bob and Jenny came along to keep me company. I limped into the hospital and told them what I wanted and they said I needed to go to the emergency room so I followed a security guard and we ended up in the parking lot again (what? didn't they believe me?) but it was a back way to the emergency room and I checked in at the cashier and the swelling in my wallet was immediately reduced, but my foot was still huge. We waited about a half hour and the triage nurse came and put a wet bandage on my foot (gauze soaked in the sink) and sent me back to wait for the doctor. Two hours later I was taken inside and the doctor came in, cleaned the four wounds and found two additional bites which he lanced with needles (FUN!). He couldn't determine what bit me (possibly a millipede) but he assured me I wasn't dying a slow death by venom poisoning. The nurse cleaned me up some more, reapplied the wet bandage and told me to soak my foot in the ocean (it was best cure of all). So $300.00 dollars later...(160.00 just to get in the waiting room, 90.00 for the wet bandage and the doctor visit, and then 50.00 bucks for the antibiotics at the pharmacy) I limped out of the hospitaal.
The funniest thing about the story was that Bob had mentioned that day that he wondered what the inside of the hospitaal looked like. I"m glad that I could oblige him the tour we got. If he ever wants to visit a funeral home or morgue, I don't want to know about it. But all that aside, the foot is fine and I am fine and glad to be back...
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