So, in America when you need to go to the doctor for your cough, you get in your car and drive to your general practitioner. When you’re on an island in Greece and you have a cough it’s a little more complicated.

We lived in a smaller town. No ATM. The nearest grocery store was a mile walk away.

I had this horrendous cough. (Praise for the past tense!!) I tried to go to the doctors at camp, but I couldn’t quite catch them when it was even remotely tame. One time in the eight minutes of me standing there they had a broken leg, a panic attack, and some other emergency requiring an ambulance. Eventually, my wonderful team leader forced me to go to the hospital. That sounds kind of harsh, but they don’t really have other medical care on Lesvos.

So, Annalea and I get word that someone could possibly drop us off at the hospital between camp shift changes. So, here is a timeline of our adventure to the hospital:

3:45 – Walk outside to get a ride to the hospital

4:30 – Begin to get concerned we’ve been forgotten about

5:15 – Accept that we’ve been forgotten about

5:20 – Go back inside to develop new strategy

5:22 – Another team walks in from their shift

5:30 – Borrow euro from three different people to acquire enough money to taxi to the hospital (remember no ATMs)

5:45 – Walk fifteen minutes to neighboring town coffee shop so they can call you a taxi to an accurate address

6:00 – Order hot chocolate because it’s getting chilly

6:10 – Taxi arrives, and barista gives advice on a shorter wait at the hospital

6:35 – Finally arrive to hospital

6:40 – Puts name on emergency room wait list

7:20 – Sees friends from camp visiting friends in the hospital

7:45 – Friends leave hospital

8:45 – Gets called back

8:50 – Explains to doctor it’s just a cough

8:52 – Doctor tells the 349,029,042 tests that she feels are necessary to run.

8:53 – Annalea is ejected from room

8:55 – Receives first IV

9:15 – Blood Drawn

9:17 – Gets random clips attached to appendages for heartrate/beat test thing

9:20 – Thinks “this is ridiculous”

9:30 – Pees in cup

10:00 – Get X-ray of lungs

10:20 – Throws up in radiology department because of severe coughing

10:25 – Pushed in wheelchair back to emergency room

10:30 – Receives breathing treatment

10:35 – Annalea is allowed back in room

10:40 – Annalea tells me childhood injury stories

10:45 – Receives second IV

10:50 – Gets ejected from emergency room & carries own IV to outside waiting room

11:00 – IV complete

11:02 – Given prescription / actual X-ray / a smile

11:15 – Gets in taxi to return home.

11:35 – Arrive home

So basically, I ended up just needing some antibiotics for my respiratory system and now I’m at 100% again!! Honestly the worst part of it all was having to miss our last couple of days at camp. I didn’t really leave our home and I didn’t really get to see my team much. It was a really apparent reminder of my physical limitations. I like to think I can do anything, and I hate to sit still. These couple of days I had to rest, especially with the whole contentment switch approaching quickly. Luckily, I have this really awesome group of humans (on my team and the other two living with us this month) that loved on me and prayed for me and watched Netflix with me and fed me – sometimes against my will. (Hey Erica thanks for letting me drink all your tea!!) Cheers to learning to be served & for getting to go to our last shift at camp!!

Xoxo,

Alexis

 P.S. I’m 2,077 away from being fully funded and three-ish weeks to get there! 11% to go people!!