I woke up, and must have been confused, because I saw the time was around 5 o’clock, and I thought it was morning. I thought that I had to pack to leave for New Zealand, so I did most of my packing, but then fell again, unable to get up.
This time, I called Matt, our tour director, and he caused a couple of paramedics to come. They got me into a sitting position, and then took me down to an ambulance and whisked me off to a hospital. In the ambulance, outside the Emergency Department, they tested me for COVID, and it came back positive (as all of us had suspected).
Then, they moved me into the Emergency Department, into an isolation room, where they tested me again (positive again), inserted a cannula into my left arm to receive liquids of various kinds, and they told me that they were administering an electrolyte solution. While I could conduct a conversation, I was clearly not fully aware. I was having more trouble than usual finding words. Later, my doctor verified that I was suffering from severe dehydration due to COVID.
It turned out that it was not 5:00am in the morning of March 27, as I had thought, but 5:00pm in the evening of March 26. I didn’t learn that until days later.
In that isolation room, they administered a number of things, including an x-ray, and I’m pretty sure an ECG (the first of many!). Probably other things, but I don’t remember the details.
I spent the night in that ED isolation room.
