July 13, 2009
Hey Everyone,
Well this week has been full of sickness for us here in Belgium. On Tuesday, my companion was having really horrible stomach problems, it was actually the 3rd day in a row that it had been that way, except that it kept getting worse. Now he could barely walk anymore, so we took him to the hospital. We ended up staying there all day and got back late at night. They gave him some pills and told him to rest. That night the recently baptized member, Aurelie brought us over some really good French food to make us feel better. She made the BEST ratatouille that I have had me whole mission and some good bread, with some super good garlic Humus. And also some Belge zucchinI soup. It was really good. Well the next day my other companion the new guy, started pooping out straight blood, so of course we had to take him to the hospital too. We spent more or less, that whole day again at the hospital. They could never really find the problem, but again gave him some meds and told him to rest. Well of course I was doing fine but the next morning neither of my companions could get out of bed. So I studied all day and cooked for them. The next day; Friday, Elder Spackman went to another city and I was with the two new guys in Leige, we worked for the day together and went to the gare to pick up Elder Spackman and then send him off to another city. Well, he barely missed his train, so we had to wait for the next one. So we waited for about an hour and went to a pizzeria to eat while we wait, because we were also supposed to pick up someone else while we waited, so we couldn’t go far. Well we ate pizza and sent him off to Charelroi, another city, for the next day. Well that night, I started to get super sick. By the next day I was super dehydrated and couldn’t get out of bed. found out I had food poisoning from the pizza. I was alone in the apartment with my companion and needed to get some help, but we didn’t know what to do. I talked to the mission doctor and he tried to email me a prescription for something to help me retrain fluids because I was throwing up everything I drank, and I was so weak that I could barely stand. I was ion pain from head to toe in bed and I felt really alone and frustrated. The sister missionaries had tried to go get the medicine, but there were all sorts of problems with the prescription. They couldn’t get it at first, then when they finally got it, the medicine apparently doesn’t exist in Belgium, then when they went to about 4 other pharmacies someone told them that this other one was the same one, but then the doctor found out about that and said it would make me worse. So he had to send another prescription, and it continued on and on. Lo and behold I finally got my meds about 7 hours after I talked to the doctor. I was supposed to go to the emergency room if I couldn’t get the medicine within 4 hours. So I was very frustrated and angry, and I felt like I was dying. The missionaries that had a car were in a far off area helping someone move. I had talked to them at 7:30 in the morning and told them that I needed them, but they were getting stuck with this member. It was rough, but when the medicine finally got to me, I found out that I couldn’t take it because of the other medicine I am now on, so I was hopeless. Well long story short, I finally got asleep and somehow survived, with a lot of frustration. In the middle of all this confusion, Elder Spackman had to come home early from his other city because he was getting vertigo and starting to throw up too, and another new missionary here in liege that we ate the pizza got sick too, but not as bad. All in all we pretty much had a hospital running down here in our apartment.
The next day was Sunday and I was still as dead as could be. I had no food and liquids in my body. I slowly recovered but we didn’t go to church. The mission president and his wife came and visited with us for an hour or two at our apartment and gave us some sick food. It was good to talk with them and I have now recovered. But that was our week. Full of sickness and being in our apartment. I am hoping that the next week is a bit more uplifting.
I tried to send an email last week, but I sent it with about 8 photos, so I wonder if it didn’t make it through. I will try a different way.
Elder Curtis
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