David and Alan’s Visit

Our long awaited couple of days at Varadero

We were so happy to see Alan and David who arrived February 5th for two weeks. After settling them in our apartment, we went up the hill to Montserrat, a look-out point and former Catalonian chapel and had dinner at a government-run restaurant. We rushed back for a concert by the Chamber Choir which was fabulous as usual, even though a couple of singers were missing due to seasonal flu. The next two or three days I went ahead with my studies while Emma showed Alan and David around Matanzas and the seminary. David and Emma spent a lot of time playing with Daniela and Elias, David constantly wanting to go over to “that girl’s” house.

David gets kissed by his sister in the hospital, five days later.

Wednesday Evening we went looking for a girls’ choir rehearsal, found the school of the arts, but the rehearsal was not happening so we went out for dinner at the fancy hotel and started to get anxious about David’s fatigue and slightly warm skin. A short time later his fever grew and we knew that we had to make some serious decisions, and to organize a trip to the Pediatric Children’s Hospital in Havana. The administrator for the Seminary, Farfan, called a driver and we headed off into the night (leaving Emma and Alan at the Seminary). Sometime after midnight David and I arrived to the International Ward in the Hospital. I had taken the precaution of connecting with a pediatric oncologist before David’s trip, even though everybody thought that he was well enough to travel, we knew that this might well happen; and any fever requires a visit to the hospital. When we arrived they were expecting us, took a blood test to discover that there was high sedimentation in his blood, an indicator of a pretty serious infection. We were then told that he had to be admitted, even though his other blood counts were acceptable. See http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/esr/tab/test

After the hospital stay, we visited Doctora Raquel to say thank you.
Here we are with her son and grand-daughter.

The medical attention was very good throughout. They accessed his port, gave him antibiotics, and I had to crush half an adult tylenol, put it in a syringe, mix it with water, and give it to him. At about 3:30 or 4 a.m., after a finger poke, blood from his arm, and the port access, we were shown to our room. On the way I almost fainted and had to be revived by the nurse who had accessed David’s port. David sweated through the day, and overcame his infection within 24 hours, but they were not willing to consider letting him leave earlier than the following Monday because the sediment in his blood had been so high. So we settled into our routine. The resources are much scarcer in Cuba, so we had running water only half the day, no hot water (they brought a bucket of hot water every morning for bathing), no cutlery (we shared one spoon), the pillows were old and stained, and the beds also were old. They don’t check blood pressure and I checked his temp. whenever requested. For us the worst part of the scarcity meant that David’s line into his port was a little short and he pulled it out in the middle of the second night (he turned over in his sleep and the rickety IV stand fell over). Luckily I had the sense to clip the line as his blood started to spill onto the floor in the room. I went hunting for the nurse (no call bell), and he got a new line.

David enjoying rice pudding at the Presbyterian church,
after our hospital stay. He loved the rice pudding at the hospital.

On the plus side, the food was home-made and David really liked it (“It’s better than in Canada”). The lack of technology meant that we were also able to sleep well during the night, because we were mostly uninterrupted. Moraima from the Seminary visited us almost every day, and brought us coffee, cola (essential for me to stay awake, and a secret hospital treat for David) and ice cream. When I got sleepy from reading to him all day he suggested that I have another coke. We were also visited by our friend Leonel and his mother Lourdes as well as the dean of the Anglican cathedral, and various other people who helped us get cash, crayons, or whatever from Alan in Matanzas. Thanks to Lourdes we had plates, forks, and cups, as well as cheese and crackers. This was a lifesaver, since the adult meals were 26 pesos (= $27 CDN) a day, and was too much food, so I ended up eating David’s leftovers, which worked out well. David was in isolation because of his susceptibilities. On Monday we received the bad news that David had to stay longer because his neutrophils (immune system indicator) were so low they were unreadable; but they were able to take his line out and we settled in for more reading, cuddling, drawing, practising numbers and letters and having adventures on the High Seas with pirates and explorers. Alan and Emma came on Monday so I was able to leave the hospital for the first time and went to get ice cream, pizza, bread, pop, and other supplies. Finally, on Wednesday after receiving a white cell booster called leucocin, his counts were good enough that we could go home. David called it “home,” but not “home” home, like Canada. The Seminary.

Emma at the sea with her Dad.

Though the conditions were nowhere near those in Canada in terms of resources, the protocol that we followed and the care we received was similar to what would have been done in Canada and our doctor at home was more than happy with what they had done. Indeed, she had been in frequent touch with us throughout by cell phone texts and emails. We are extremely grateful to the doctors and nurses, especially Doctora Raquel. We returned to the Seminary where everyone was relieved to see David (and me), though they were respectfully careful not to get too close. We spent Friday and Saturday at the beach in Varadero, staying at the lovely guest house of the Presbyterian Church where we met Canadian friends, Lee Cormie and Janet Conway. David gloried in the beach! (An understatement). He didn’t want to leave the beach to go “home,” by which he meant the beach house, not “home” home, which was, by this time the seminary, and not “home” home home, in Toronto.

It was a most unusual family visit, but in the end David and I had lots of time together as did Alan and Emma, but that’s another story.