911 = *118

     May 22, 2012 Last night I did not sleep well at all. I probably woke up just about every hour. My Zia Giovanna  lives in my nonna's old house. They are up high on the edge of the mountain, and they live on the top floor of their building. Since they are so close to the edge of the mountain they tend to get more wind in that area. Last night was just miserable. The wind was so loud I could have swore the building was going to blow down. The shutters were closed, but there was something banging against them all night long whenever the wind would hit it just right. I was waiting for the shutters to blow off and the windows to blow open. As loud as the wind was I bet it's probably just as loud in the center of a tornado.
     I was so tired when I woke up this morning. Luckily Veruska came by and I decided to go to her house while she worked, so that I would be able to catch up on all my journaling and posting my pictures up on Facebook. It was a good decision because I am finally caught up and not behind like I was before. I had decided to stay the night at her house that so I would be able to sleep, but everything changed when we found out that my Zia Pupa was not feeling well and having problems with her heart. My cousin Roberto is a medic on the ambulance, and they always call him first. Then if he feels that they need to call the ambulance for my aunt he will. Because of the pain my aunt was having in her chest and left arm plus her elevated heart rate they decided to call 911 which here you have to dial *118 instead.
     I was at Veruska's when my mom called me and told me what was going on, so Veruska and I came to my aunt's house to see how she was doing. Here I have noticed that they call everyone doctor. I think they call everyone doctor here if they have their doctorite. I still haven't quite figured out how it works, but it is really confusing. For instance, last night when the ambulance arrived their is a man on the ambulance who is a doctor, yet his jumpsuit sais medic. Roberto said he is a doctor because he makes a lot of money every month. By the time Veruska and I got here Zia Pupa had already had her EKG done, and an IV hanging. They had given her some medicine to relax her plus some Lanoxin for her A-fib. The medic wanted my aunt to go to the hospital, but she refused because Roberto said they would just do the same thing we are doing here at the house for her. Because he is a medic they left her at home with the IV line for us to DC once it was finished. Roberto's wife was induced today and they are expecting the baby at any minute, so he had to get back to the hospital. He asked if I would watch my aunt and DC the IV once it was completed. After the ambulance people left I found out that the "doctor" told my aunt that she was having an MI, but my cousin Roberto said no she wasn't. From what my mom had told me Roberto was telling the "doctor" what to do and what medicines to give. The doctor even wanted my cousin here before he did anything, and had my mom call him to make sure he was coming to the house. So basically the ambulance brought the jump bag, and my cousin ran the call on his own mom.
     Veruska and I had to go pick up mine and my mom's clothes from Zia Giovann's house and bring them back here since tonight we were both going to be staying with Zia Pupa again in case she needed something. I explained to my mom that if the IV fluids ran out before we got back how she needed to turn off the IV. She didn't want to DC the IV because it grossed her out, so when we got back I DC'd my aunts IV and re-checked her vitals. Blood pressure was good, but she is still a little tachy. Hopefully after she gets some rest tonight she will be better in the morning. Praying that she feels better soon.
    The first thing my mom said when I got there was "Are you going to take a picture?" because she knows I am journaling everyday of my experience here plus six years ago when they called the ambulance for my aunt I took a picture of her then too. We had to improvise on the IV pole, but hey it works.