Ireland: Final Chapter

One would think that with all this craziness going on I'd find the time to write. False.

It's finally time to complete the Ireland saga. Hooray! It's only been 14 months since it happened! 

After Hubs left the hospital and the rest of the family had headed home stateside, aside from the two of us plus my stepmom, we postponed our departure from the Emerald Isle for a few more days. We wanted to give Hubs at least one pleasant memory from this trip. On the way to the bus station I saw two rainbows!

(insert leprechaun joke here)

 

We packed up from the Rosebud Inn and headed closer to Shannon. We took a bus to Kinvara and stayed at and AirBnB. That place had sweet little puppers and cows. It was really nice and quiet, except for the cows. 

"Never touch a bull on the head."

The town in Kinvara was super cute. Our first day there we ate at Keogh's Pub & Restaurant. The last day we had some delicious pizza at Tide Full Inn. If I remember correctly, this restaurant was owned by a husband and wife pair. The husband was Italian and the wife Irish. They were having a heated debate or something, I believe in Italian, when we left. It actually added to the experience. 

Our full day we took an early bus to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were beautiful. It was a tourist place and was pretty crowded, but there was enough space to find a quiet spot to soak in the view and fresh air. I was so pleased we were able to go. Before we knew all the trip details, Hubs had asked to visit here. Now we were able to enjoy a beautiful part of a wonderful country together and fever-free! There were little merchants along the walk around the cliffs and a couple panhandling folksingers. 

Cliffs of Moher

The only downside to visiting the Cliffs was Hubs accidentally left his phone on the bus. We spent the evening changing passwords and log in settings. The bus company was very compliant and helpful which made the loss a little more palatable.

We went exploring around Kinvara and made our way to an actual Medieval castle. I tried to go in further, but it was closed for a private event. It was still really neat to be able to see and touch a structure that was about 1000 years old.

castle

Scaling the defense castle

Overall this trip was an experience. I mean that in a positive way! We were able to bond as a family and strengthen those relationships. Seeing my family love my husband and care for him still makes me teary eyed. Ireland was perfect in every way; the kind people, the culture, the weather held out, the planned parts of the trip went so smoothly. The only kink was us bringing our own figurative baggage (and by that I mean incubating a tick-borne disease). 

If you have a chance to go to Ireland- GO! Especially if you want to walk the Western Way. 

Thank you, Ireland, for showing us "cead mile failte" (a thousand welcomes)!

-Sarah

  

Ireland: Act Two

Welcome back to the dramatic portion of this Irish saga.

• Day 4 A & E

What should have been a lovely Thursday and our fourth hiking day quickly devolved into the start of a five day stay at the hospital. 

Last view of the beautiful Western Way

Hubs was so miserable and now complaining of abdominal pain. He finally caved and let us take him to the hospital. The tour company had private drivers take us to the trail head each day and then our luggage to the next bed and breakfast. That was a sweet little place called Moher House. (My family said the dinner the owner cooked for them was delicious.) Hubs and I rode ahead with the luggage around 9:30 AM, the BnB owner said that was ok, but Hubs was in such bad shape we asked the driver to take us to the nearest clinic. He called his own personal doctor first. She was busy so we went to the family clinic. The sweet man waited for us. The clinic doctor referred us to the county hospital’s A & E. A & E stands for accidents and emergencies; it’s their version of the ER. 

We arrived in the A & E waiting room at 11:15 AM. We then waited there for nearly  three and a half hours. Once we got a room in the A & E, Hubs was at first seen by the A & E doctor who took some initial blood work. An hour later a nurse hooked Hubs up to some fluids and paracetamol (Tylenol) to get his fever down. The room was maybe an 8’x10’ space with basically a dentist’s chair and a sink. The doctor returned and discussed the results of his test. Hubs’s kidneys were not functioning properly and his white blood cell count was extremely low indicating an infection. I sat on the floor for the next six or so hours. Then he was seen by a surgeon intern. Then he was seen by the surgery team who decided he was not a candidate for surgery. They referred Hubs to the medical team. The medical team came in another half out later and asked him the same questions as the A & E nurse, doctor, surgery intern, and surgery team. All this time Hubs never received more fluids or medicine for his fever.  

Hubs on his way for an X-Ray

It wasn’t until just before midnight they moved Hubs to a room in the main hospital. Thankfully he got a private room and not a gurney in the hallway. Hubs was given more fluids and paracetamol. I stayed the night with him in the hospital. He was starting to turn yellow from his liver not functioning correctly. He remained dehydrated despite drinking fluids all day and the IV. Seeing him like that was heart wrenching.

• Day 5 Hospital

Friday morning we are up and enjoying the view of the hospital roof littered with random debris and covered with squawking seagulls. The doctor, yet another one, came in. This would be Hubs’s case doctor. After tests, x-rays, scans, they decided Hubs’s “bloods were deranged” and even slightly worse from his initial tests. His white blood cell count was so low we had to wear masks in the room with him to keep him from contracting something new. 

named for County Mayo
(not the same Mayo Clinic as in the U.S.)

DD didn’t do the day 5 hike with the rest of the gang so she could be with us. Dr. Dad had been texting and calling the infectious disease doctor from the hospital where he worked. He was able to share the results with her and she concluded it was (what Dr. Dad had presumed days ago): ehrlichiosis. I’m sorry, what?! Dr. Dad had repeatedly asked Hubs if he had had any tick bites recently. About two weeks prior to the trip, Hubs had been in the woods and had multiple tick bites. When Dr. Dad first suggested it was a tick borne disease to the Irish doctors, they were unsure because Hubs had no rash. Apparently Ireland only knows about Lyme disease. (Lyme disease is not prevalent where we live.) Ehrlichiosis is very similar to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but minus the spots. All Hubs needed was an antibiotic called doxycycline. Praise the Lord we were in a developed, English-speaking nation with modern medicine. Hubs was put on a very low dose of antibiotics and was starting to make a slow recovery.

After hiking, my sweet family was going in shifts to visit Hubs so I could get a break from the hospital and check out the town of Westport. DD was Dr. Dad stayed the night with Hubs so I could leave and actually sleep in a bed and get a shower. He also wanted to talk to the doctor when he came in early the next morning. DD and I had rooms in a BnB called the Lurgan House down the road from the rest of the family. They had an apartment atop a little bar called McCarthy's Lodge and Bar. 

sneaking away to enjoy Westport

• Day 6 Hospital

Saturday. Praise the Lord! Hubs is FINALLY feeling like a human again. Now here’s the real kicker. The hospital we were admitted to? It was a university hospital. They don’t discharge people on the weekend because the doctors aren’t there on the weekend. We begged the on call doctor to let us be discharged, but no. Sunday maybe? We’ll see.

my poor, sweet Hubs

DD was able to work with the BnB owner in Westport to get us a room in a different BnB called the Rose Garden which was located closer to the hospital in Castlebar. 

All of the BnB owners were so kind, so accommodating, driving us around themselves or arranging things for us. It made the experience bearable knowing that these strangers were genuinely concerned. In fact, after we returned home the owner of the Moher Lodge called DD to check in about Hubs.

view from the Rose Garden
that's the hospital in the background

• Day 7 Hospital

Sunday. Well, everyone except DD, Hubs, and I were headed back to the States. When booking the trip DD had purchased travel insurance so we were able to reschedule our flights. We decided to have our own little mini-vacation for Hubs and extended our stay an extra two days.

By this point we had given up hope about being discharged before Monday. We played a lot of rummy and had a seemingly endless supply of tea and toast.

• Day 8 FREEDOM

The doctor from Friday, the last one we saw in the morning, was back. He wanted to keep Hubs under his care as a case study. DD said no. I’m so glad she was there. I don’t know that I would have had the gall to take a stand. Hubs was feeling immensely better, had his coloring back, his appetite back, and was fever free since Friday. His test results had improved leaps and bounds. 

After DD convinced the doctor to discharge us, to catch our flights we already rescheduled (she wasn't very clear on the new departure date...hehe), Hubs and I went down to billing to settle up. They said the discharge order hadn’t come through yet and they’d mail us a bill. They never asked to see our licenses, our insurance cards, our passports… I suggested they at least double check our address. It was wrong; we had to correct it. (Flash forward to weeks later: our insurance covered every penny. The total bill for the 5 day, 4 night stay? $5000. That’s it. All inclusive.)

Why did we wait to be discharged? Why did we not simply leave? We were afraid our travel insurance and health insurance would not cover anything if the discharge papers read "AMA" (against medical advice). 

At 1 PM Hubs walked out of the hospital for the first time since going in at 11:15 AM the Thursday before.

love this man

Since we changed our flight home from Sunday to Wednesday, Hubs was actually able to get a vacation day or two in. I believe I’ll continue that story in the next post.

Thank you for reading and STAY HEALTHY! 

-Sarah-

Ireland: Act One

Western Way

Six months after this trip I am finally ready to rehash what happened! I waited so long to see what memories would stand out so I could focus on the highlights for y’all. I’m going to divide this trip into two parts: part one will be before the hospital and part two will be after. And yes, we had a hospital visit, but all is fine now!

Quick overview of our trip first. 

Our group consisted of my dad (Dr. Dad), stepmom (DD), brother (Bro), sister-in-law (Curgz), stepbrother (CC), half-sister (Elf), Hubs and myself. We hiked for 5 days along the Western Way from outside Galway to Westport. We hiked carrying our day packs and all of our luggage was transported ahead of time by the company.

Act One

• Galway to Oughterard

The first leg of our trip we flew into Shannon and then hopped a bus to Galway. Galway was a cool town; it had the right amount of tourist kitschiness where the city felt alive and welcoming, but not so much to be patronizing. With our belongings were safely stored away at our AirBnB, half of us went out and about and the other half stayed behind and napped. While gallivanting around we had a Guinness at a pub called The Skeff. Starting here and moving forward, every single person we met and socialized with was the kindest, chattiest person. I mean, I’m a Georgia girl and I know Southern hospitality, but the Irishmen put us to shame! Hubs at this point said he felt ill so he slept, or tried to, most of our Galway experience. Poor man, he had a nasty infection in his finger and was on antibiotics for it. Then he started feeling feverish so Dr. Dad started him alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol thinking Hubs was reacting to the antibiotics and long travel. Unfortunately, we were very wrong.

Dr. Dad in the streets of Galway

sisters who love street art

We took a bus from Galway to Oughterard. Oughterard would be our jumping off point the next morning. That evening Hubs became so feverish the owner of our bed and breakfast offered to call her doctor but we declined thinking he would recover during the night. Again, we were wrong.

• Day 1 Hike

Hubs, Bro, and I being ourselves

After a delicious traditional Irish breakfast we were dropped off at the trailhead and commenced our beautiful first day of hiking. We trekked from Oughterard to Cornamona. Bro was in charge of making sure we stayed on course. Whenever we asked him how much farther it was always, “Just two more kilometers.” He said this for, I don’t know many kilometers, but at least 4 or more miles. (Two km is actually equal to about 1.25 mi.) The hike ended at the doorstop of a local pub. A ride provided by the tour company came and picked us up after we had our celebratory Guinness. On the way to our bed and breakfast we got to drive past Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley’s castle.

"how much farther?" "only about 2 km"

• Day 2 Hike

perfection in a picture

The second day was the toughest day. (From my experience at least; apparently day four was very strenuous but I did not hike past day three.) We hiked from Cornamona to Connemara.  The trail wound through some local farms and then went up a steep hill to St. Patrick’s shrine called Mám Éan. CC, Hubs, and I took our sweet time on this hike. CC and I like to look at everything and take pictures and sweet Hubs was having major fever chills and aches. We made our way down the hill and to our next bed and breakfast. That was a little farm in Connemara. Hubs immediately showered, ate, and went to bed. My siblings and I lingered at the cozy lodge/restaurant/pub down the road for way too long. We closed the place down. Word to the wise: be wary of a drink The Skeff staff called “fluffy duck”; it’s two parts Baileys and one part Hennessy. 

Dr. Dad and DD at  Mám Éan

the siblings about to close this place down

love love love and wine

• Day 3 Hike

here we go!

This third day Hubs and Elf rode straight ahead with our luggage to the next bed and breakfast in order to sleep. Hubs still felt terrible and Elf had had too much fun the night before to enjoy a day along the Western Way. (By the way, that bed and breakfast was haunted, I swear. In the middle of the night I awoke with the feeling I was being watched. I rolled over and saw two dark figures on the wall. I blinked hard and looked to see what would cause the shadow. When I looked back, they were still there. I blinked again and they were gone.) The others and I hiked from Connemara to Leenane.  Ireland reminded me so much of Iceland with its green rolling hills, the rocky landscape, and the numerous amounts of sheep. After a day of hiking we went to a pub for some delicious local mussels. We even walked past the mussel farm from which they came! And yes, we did make plenty of "muscle" farm jokes. Poor Hubs didn't get to eat with us, but I did bring him back a "toasty" (a toasted ham sandwich) and some mussels. At the end of this day he was so incapacitated that the next morning he and I went to the hospital.

I don't typically like mussels but I devoured these

That ends the first act and leads us into the second act of this saga. I will pick up on that next post.

-Sarah-

Bonus Pics! 

Connemaras in Connemara!

buckskin stallion

his mare was grazing with their colt and sheep