Medical Interventions (!) in Our Travels

Medical Interventions (!) in Our Travels

Hong Kong – 1976

       Almost 50 years ago, we were on a tour of the Orient and Fran struggled with lack of potassium and other medical problems. So we went to a British doctor who was treating Westerners. The doctor examined her thoroughly, made some tests, and said to Fran:

“Push On! Push On!” 

So that’s what Fran did and ever since that’s been our motto (except for Guatemala).

Guatemala – 1978

       On a self-tour of Guatemala, we toured the capital, Guatemala City, then went to the rest of the country. We met Fran’s cousin Judy Cohen (from Omaha) coincidentally in Chichicastenango at a market. After the unplanned reunion, we flew in a small plane to the northern Guatemalan jungle. The next day, we climbed the 150 foot high, thousand year old, Mayan pyramid at Tikal. Its also called the Temple of the Jaguar and you could ascend it then. We planned to spend the next day at a nearby Mayan site. 

       We were staying at a hotel called the Maya International. Wrong name! It consisted of some green space with a small office and six wooden bungalows. There were monkeys around but they didn’t bother you unless you were eating. The electricity went off at 9 pm. Around 11 pm Fran had a urinary tract problem that needed treatment immediately. I went outside and shouted, “Ayuda! Ayuda!! (“Help! Help!”). Two tobacco salesmen took me to the office. We woke the clerk and she went to our cabin.

       The female clerk had a car and we drove Fran to the town and woke up the doctor. He suggested flying the next day to the capital, Guatemala City, so that’s what we did. The hospital in Guatemala City treated her and cured her in two days. Our trip was about over so we flew back to Omaha.

Successful, but Fran developed a case of strep that she got in the hospital.

Uzbekistan – 1980

       We made a tour of USSR, including Uzbekistan, and Mongolia. Fran and I had been to Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, and Yalta, in 1966, so we were looking forward to the Asian part of the USSR. After touring Moscow, we flew to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic (that was before it became an independent country in 1991). Tashkent even then was a city of two million. It had partly recovered from a disastrous earthquake in 1966. Our hotel rooms even had showers so we shared them with European students that were backpacking. 

       We toured Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan, and its famous ancient Islam architecture (photo) and mosques. They were great trading places on the Great Silk Road. Did you know there were thousands of Jews in Central Asia before they moved to Israel, Russia, and the USA? They even had their own traditions.

       When we returned to Tashkent, Fran had another urinary tract infection. She went to the hospital with our guide, Adriana, a New York City young woman who spoke fluent Russian. The doctor was tall, 6’5”, and dressed in pink and green scrubs. He was very concerned, but he stroked Fran’s breast as he examined her. The good news is that he gave her some German pharmaceutical pills that had not (and still not) approved by the FDA. They cured her. The bad news is he forever is known as “The Stroker”.

We “pushed on” to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, and stayed in yurts (semi-permanent tents). But that’s another story…

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