…continued from “A Body at Rest Part 1”
“Emilia. Hermana Emilia,” whispered Ivan’s voice. “Vamos.”
In my sleepy daze, I could see our host Ivan standing outside of my bug net. He was ready to go somewhere. Keep in mind, my brain is pretty fried at the end of a day from constantly translating Spanish to English and vice versa. When you wake me up from a dead sleep, I’m pretty much useless when it comes to translating.
This was the force that acted on my resting body.
It didn’t take me long to realize we were going somewhere. I was looking real cute- my hair was tossed all over the place, I was wearing the same dirty clothes I had played soccer in, my leg was still warm from the Icy Hot/Vicks Vapor Rub mixture they put on it but my body was cold and clammy from the post-sweating chills. You know, when you’re skin is gritty from the dried on sweat… Again, real cute.
By this time, it was 9:15 pm. I could hear my teammates downstairs eating dinner. More fish soup- everyone’s favorite. I attempted to holler down at them that I was going somewhere…it sounded like Loreto, a town I had been to twice before but it was a good half hour away.
Steven had come up the steps to give me the Ace Bandage to wrap up my leg. He could tell something was off.
“Emily, where are you going?”
“Not quite sure. Loreto?”
“Do you want someone to go with you?”
“Up to you…probably wouldn’t be a bad idea…”
So, Steven jumped into the taxi waiting for us. I started to think aloud in my sleepiness.
“Steven, did you tell the rest of the team we were going somewhere?”
“No.”
“Do you have any ID on you?”
“No.”
“Me neither. Money?”
“Nope.”
“Well, we’ll just do whatever Ivan says.”
After a 20 minute taxi ride, we pulled into a driveway. Steven and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. It looked like a typical Ecuadorian house, with cinder blocks and planks of wood. Where were we?
I was awake enough now to hear Ivan tell the cab to come back in a half hour. We were at the doctors. Yep. We entered a man’s house and were asked us to sit down on some plastic chairs. He must have been well off because he had a desktop computer and a printer. Advertisement posters lined the walls all except one. Along one wall was a large wooden hutch that housed many rusty glass containers. Great…
A short, weathered Ecuadorian man pulled up a chair and propped my leg up on a wooden bench. After asking a few questions, he went to the hutch and selected a jar, opened it and put the contents on a cotton ball. The liquid substance didn’t have a scent but he spread it all over my leg.
He then proceeded to give the most painful deep tissue massage, ever. The funny part was, he barely touched my quad and the part that probably needed massaging. Ivan just told me to breath deeply, in and out. Yeah…but, we weren’t done.
The doctor man asked for the Ace Bandage. He asked if I had any pants (I was wearing athletic shorts). Umm…currently all I have are the clothes on my back I thought. He was being thoughtful because he didn’t want all the oily goober he rubbed on my leg to get everywhere. So what’s the next best thing?
Magazine paper! Clearly, why didn’t I think of that?!? Steven and I exchanged glances as this man took a piece of magazine paper, put it around my leg (not the part that hurt, mind you), then wrapped the Ace Bandage around it. We didn’t have the little clasp that holds it together, so what’s the next best thing?
Masking tape! Clearly, the best option! So, with my magazine/Ace Bandage/masking tape mixture, I got up to attempt to walk. Still painful. I told Ivan I just needed to rest it for the night and then take it easy tomorrow. I would begin to stretch it out and would be fine with some time.
My leg after the "doctors" visit.
As we waited for the cab to come back, the doctor man checked out Steven’s wounds (he fell off a waterfall last week…you can check out his blog for more details on that). And then the thing that made everything all better: puppies.
No joke. A whole litter of puppies came running out from the kitchen. A little black lab had enough courage to venture over to the beat up gringos. He let us pick him up and pet him.
Really, I think ice cream and a puppy is all you need to feel better.
The taxi returned and I hobbled back in. I looked back to see Ivan pay the doctor for his services. Guess how much this doctor’s visit was? 2 bucks. That’s right. 2 bucks.
Feeling oh so much better now that I was massaged and “bandaged,” we headed for home. Upon arrival, we realized we never actually ate dinner. Steven and I raided the chocolate bread from the store and gobbed on some recently purchased Nutella. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
After our smorgasbord, it was back to resting. There were no other forces acting on this resting body until the alarm in the morning.
As I type this, it’s been 24 hours since the initial twing and I’m pleased to report I’m doing much better. The team requested a day off from working and it was much needed all around. I’ve been using my TRX to stretch every hour and I think I’ll be back to 100% soon enough. I still have some tingling and burning if I’m on my feet too long, so I’m going to take it easy the next few days.
All in all, it was quite the experience. I think it might be God’s way of telling me (and my team) we need more rest. Probably the Ecuadorians as well…
