Diane: At around 2 am, TM woke up saying that he felt violently ill. TM felt it was a stomach bug. We had all been eating and drinking exactly the same for the past 3 days, but only TM felt ill. Tom and I immediately thought - VERY high blood sugar. Since TM had been hiking all day yesterday, my expectation was for overnight low blood sugars. Indeed, he did have a high blood sugar, but nothing in the extraordinary range. Hmmm, a seeming contradiction. Sherlock, get out the magnifying glass, pipe, and slippers.
After a change of insulin cartridege, a bolus (dose) of insulin, an hour and a half, a trip to the outhouse, and a bout of vomiting, TM's blood sugar was still quite high. Tom forcefully suggested that TM change out his infusion set (the disposable supplies needed by the insulin pump). For TM, this is standard procedure, when he has not come up with a satisfactory explanation as to why his blood sugar has been this high, twice in a row. TM refused, arguing that if he had some kind of infection, that would explain his high blood sugars. Of course, an extended high blood sugar would explain why his thinking was cloudy and he was coming up with this alternative to the obvious explanation.
Trying to honor TM's desire for more autonomy, Tom and I acquiesced. TM gave himself an additional bolus of insulin and went back to sleep. So, here we were on a farm in rural Ecuador, a 5-hour walk from the nearest road. After two nights of almost no sleep, and 2 7-hour days of hiking down hilly, rocky terrain, I can't sleep. Of course, I am also trying to sleep on a wood floor with a thin foam sleeping pad. A little bit of physical discomfort plus a pinch of parental worry mixed with general insomnia equals no sleep for this exhausted hiker.
TM's next blood sugar reading is practically back to normal. This was totally unexpected. Since we had only waited an hour and 15 minutes since the insulin bolus, I would have expected a lower reading, but not a normal reading. I asked TM if he was sure that he had read that correctly. He clicked on his headlamp, rechecked his meter, and reported that all was well. This only made me more anxious. We have all the supplies we need, but I am concerned that I can't really explain TM's blood sugar readings over the last 15 hours or so.
I wake TM up an hour later and ask him to take another blood sugar reading. It is higher than it has been all night. There is obviously some major glitch with the insulin delivery and perhaps with the glucometer. TM changes out all the pump supplies. I am already relieved and I actually manage to sleep for half an hour. I wake up in time to wake TM for his next blood sugar reading. It was coming down to normal.
TM woke up, exhausted and feeling ill. His blood sugar was now on the low side, but he refused to come over to the kitchen for a meal. He didn't think he could walk out to the road today, so our guide, Linder suggested that we use his horse for the hike out. I felt so thankful that a horse was available. After getting TM's blood sugar back up to normal, we let him sleep and joined Linder for a guided tour of his orchid research area.
There are over 300 types of orchids growing in the small stand of trees beside the house. Linder had collected them all relatively nearby, at the right altitude, ensuring that the climate would be proper to support their growth and propagation. Although I had taken a quick walk through yesterday at dusk, I had only managed to spot one orchid in flower. With Linder, we saw many flowers of all shapes and sizes. Linder showed us how to pollinate an orchid. He showed us how to identify a terrestrial orchid. He even showed us an orchid that he had discovered. He had officailly named it Epidendrum Suinii, Suin being his last name.
Linder had planted the small woods about 5 years ago in order to provide the shade and foliage to eliminate the need for watering. He also surrounded each orchid plant with moss to help retain moisture. At this point, the only maintenance needed for 300 different orchids was to curtail the moss growth.
During the walk through the woods, I found a small stick lying on the ground, maybe a foot long. Even as a broken limb, every square centimeter was jam-packed full of colorful life.
We got a very late start just before noon, but I was confident that with a horse we would make it out in time to catch the last bus. Linder wasn't so confident and urged us on. Actually, he and everybody else was urging ME on. They seemed to think that I was walking too slow. Now, I do pretty much everything slow. I bicycle slow; I swim slow; I kayak slow. But without a backpack, I can walk pretty fast. However, today, when I tried to walk faster, I would slip in the wet areas, so from my perspective, I was walking plenty fast. After a couple of hours, nobody let me stop to look at any plants or take any pictures. After lunch, everybody, including TM urged me to ride the horse. TM felt that even in his state, he could walk faster than me. Not one to bow to peer pressure, I refused. I did finally relent, because I realized that we were going to miss the last bus at our current pace. After riding for a couple of minutes, I couldn't figure out why I had been so stubborn. I sat on the horse looking in all directions as we passed through some spectacular scenery. Everybody else was just hoofing it, or horse-shoe-ing it as the case may be.
We had another addition to the group today - Nelson. Nelson appeared to be about 10 years old. He was the mule's owner and accompanied us to our final destination.
As I sat on the horse, I started wondering about Nelson's life. Here it was a weekday and he wasn't in school. In Ecuador, we have seen quite a few children working long days with no opportunity to attend school. From what TM and Calliope tell me, many of the children in school don't care at all about their schoolwork. My thoughts were interrupted, when TM had a low blood sugar - no surprise there - and he was back on the horse. Fortunately, the downhill grade had lessoned and I had no trouble increasing my speed. Linder sent Nelson ahead to beg the bus driver not to leave before we arrived. I didn't really finish pondering Nelson's life and at that point, there wasn't an opportunity to ask him any questions.
When we arrived in La Florida, our final destination, Linder and Nelson took the horse and mule to one of Nelson's family's houses there. Both of them joined us on the bus to Gualaquiza. Once there, Linder made a visit to his Uncle's house to take a quick shower, Nelson disappeared, evidently to another of his family's houses, and we hopped on the night bus to Cuenca. Linder joined us on the bus and we all slept fitfully. We arrived in Cuenca at about 3 in the morning. We invited Linder to spend the wee hours at our apartment, until the first bus left for Jima. He declined saying that he had a small apartment here in Cuenca, which he intended to make use of.
This business of owning houses has really gotten confusing. Linder told us that a large portion of the population of Gualaquiza had another house in Cuenca, even though it was 6 hours away by bus. This may be one of those issues, where I need a good explanation in English to really understand.
The woods were beautiful, but due to our late start and slow pace, I have no pictures :-(
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