🇺🇸 Laredo, TX - Hospital Part 1 - 01.14.2026
The third leg of my Mexico City to San Antonio, TX trip… was detoured to an E.R. of a small Laredo, TX hospital.
I woke up several days ago in Monterrey, Nuevo León to begin the drive to the border… I had some coffee and immediately began to have stomach cramps. I was familiar with that feeling… food poisoning. I’ve had a few serious bouts and I know what I’m in for. So… I drove fast to the border, I needed to cancel my import permit for my car… completed that… and crossed. By the time I hit my Airbnb in Laredo I was in severe pain.
My past experiences… 12 hours of pain cycle - 12 hours of recovery.
But this… this thing… it’s day three and I’m in misery… and I now need to seek medical attention. It takes me another several hours to get the energy to get dressed and drive to the ER. I arrive, it’s the very early hours of the morning, no poeple so I’m attended to quickly. Blood tests, urine tests, CT scan… and the Dr steps into the room… “you have a blockage, an infection, severe dehydration, high-white cell… and we’re shipping you to the main hospital for care.” “Do you want a morphine shot for comfort…” he asks.
“Yes” the answer is always yes. He gave me two.
Once I was settled into the main hospital… it was complication after complication. They were wanting to insert a NG drainage tube, which goes in through your nose and down your throat into the stomach, for drainage, to relieve pain and possibly help clear the blockage on its own. Apparently, I have a deviated septum and the tubes don’t fit. Eight attempts… nurse after nurse convinced they had the best technique… but each failed… just stabbing my brain… until my sinuses where left a bloody mess. They would all recoil after their attempts and as they left the room, “ I hope you feel better.”
A super nice male nurse that calls me, “Papa,” bribed me with an extra shot of Dilaudid to give his supervisor a chance to insert the NG tube. Now… I wanted that thing in because it would relieve much pain and pressure so I agreed. A late night narcotic didn’t hurt either.
He managed to get it in… but it never worked correctly but it gave me some relief and I was able to sleep some that night. And in ridiculous irony… they disconnected it the next day because the surgeon ordered a contrast X-ray… and you can’t have a tube in that sucks out all of the contrast… and the contrast X-ray is a series of X-rays… every 15 minutes, and it lasts 2 hours, sitting in a cold dark room… but… because I have blockage… the contrast doesn’t move and the radiologist says it takes as long as it takes… probably 6-8 eight hours.
So… I’m not allowed to put my earned drainage tube back in… and become more ill, and began violently vomiting, all evening. And they finally agreed to the last X-ray so I could be hooked back up. One of the ER nurses came in to fix the drainage NG tube because it wasn’t working properly… and accidentally pulled it out… as I puked all over… and over her. She was confident she could put one in right. Stabbed my brain. Sinuses began to bleed. Recoiled out of the room… saying, “I hope you feel better.”
She did pop her head around the corner, “can I try the other nostril?”
“Leave!!!”
The surgeon arrived in the morning… “we are going to surgery at 2… don’t eat anything.” I haven’t had anything to eat for 6 days now. I’m ready… I’m ready for anything different than this. I was spent… from vomiting all night… and the misery of the previous days… so when the dudes picked me up to go to the operating room… I was calm.
It’s so surreal… surgery nurses and staff are all business… there’s a plan… and no time is wasted. Off with the clothes. Sign this. Answer these questions. Big lights over your face. Lots of faces hovering over your face. Breathe into this… and…. sleep.
I woke up with a slight shake and was asked, “do you want pain meds?”
“Yes” with the slightest of whisper… and the answer is always yes.
I already felt better… or maybe I was super high from the anesthesia. When I was recovered enough, the staff began to gather around my bed and they were going to take me back to my room. It seemed unusual… maybe it’s a ritual… and one surgery nurses was asked why she was coming because she never does this. Is that good? It’s that bad? I was surrounded by people and that was comforting what ever way.
I made it to my room with the crowd… and it was dark out. Which means I was in surgery for much longer than I was supposed to be. What happened? No one mentioned anything and the left to let me rest.
I did feel better… and in the morning the surgeon stopped by and said they found the obstruction and cut out an 8” section. He didn’t go into any details… but it was scar tissue from a messy surgery 20 years ago that created adhesions… and was projected to cause future problems. I thought it was food poisoning from the barbacoa at the travel center in San Pedro Mexico.
I am scheduled to get out in 2 days and resume normal life, less 4-6 weeks heavy lifting. I currently have no appetite for travel center barbacoa.
I have some close friends that were… that are… immensely supportive and being in a rough spot on your own is easy peasy on the mind and the heart when you know you have them on your side… when you really need to feel it the most… and a double shot of morphine doesn’t hurt either.
