One day I woke up with my left shin absolutely black and blue with two look alike bullet wounded holes, between the knee and the ankle. An infection that had spread quickly within two days after a fine sunny day socialising and flirting with other tourist on the white sandy beaches under the clear blue sky in Varadero, Cuba. Escaping the blistering cold winter back in Montréal and I still had three more days left to enjoy my Caribbean vacation in what to be known as the Canadian escaper destination during the harsh cold temperatures up in the north and my leg was about to fall off.
A day after the beach, I was on a tour to check out the vast city of Havana and every time I went to put pressure on my left leg, I would feel this disturbing uncomfortable dull pain and it would cause me grief. At one point of the tour, I remember that I was at the El Capitolio (National Capitol Building), as soon as I stepped off the bus I had to take off my pants to see what was happening to my leg and come to discover two black dots about 2mm wide circles above the bone of my shin with red and blue colours surrounding the gaps of my holes, spreading like a virus eating away my flesh. "Dude, that looks infected, you need to get that check out asap" I hear a girl from Ontario say out loud for the other 11 people from the tour to take attention of what she was dramatizing about. "Tell me about it" I answer back quickly with enthusiasm. After a moment of embarrassment, everyone recommends that I go to the nurse at the resort once we return back. I crack up another beer from my backpack as it helps to numb the pain. The more I drank, the less pain I felt.
After I found the courage to walk into the nurse’s office with my friend, José. He spoke good English, French and Spanish. (Needed a translator as my Spanish is not fluent.) I had surprised the nurse when I presented her my zombie infected leg, she had gasped and her eyes popped out in shock at the same time. I tell José to translate the nurse that I had noticed my leg feeling funny after I was in the ocean while I was chatting up with the girl from Chicago, who happened to be on a special visa program as it is very hard for Americans to come to the country since the missile crises back in 1962 and the tension between the two nations over the years. She was very attractive girl in her mid-twenties and certainly had a sexy figure with tan skin and brown eyes to match her brown hair. In fact, my buddy who happened to be traveling with me at the time, was also interested in her as well and both of us tried to get to know her better but none of us succeeded. After that, I began to scratch my shin more frequently until the blue and red colors grew darker. The nurse just said to me in English "This is no good" shaking her head sideways, left and right with a sign of no hope.
"What the American girl or the leg? No Mierda! (shit)"
In the conclusion, I had the choice to go to some sort of 'hospital' in Varadero for treatment or hold on until I return back to Canada. I figure that I would stretch it out until I land in Montréal otherwise they probably would just chop my leg off in Cuba due to lack of facilities or medication to treat the infection.
The day before departure, I could not even barely walk. Hopping around the resort and decided it was best to miss out on my last day adventuring the tropical paradise island. Leaving me no choice but to park my cripple sorry ass by the pool and to start pouring Mojito & Hurricanes into my mouth and having a towel covering over my leg as I didn't want to draw any attention.
As time goes by alone, nearby me was two young females that were chatting in Spanish on their sun beds. I had scanned them a few times to give my personal rating of their sex appeal and I am confident that they had done the same thing about me because we were constantly observing one another. Macklemore's hit song the "Thrift Shop" starts blasting his tune out from my portable speaker connected to my iPod and the three of us starting singing the chorus out aloud waving our hands in the mid air. This helped to be the ice breaker of the current situation and the three of us began to introduce each other and began to maintain open conversations. And if you are wondering, yes, they had seen my infection and questioned my disease without a doubt.
The stars light up in the topical dark sky and the moon is shining bright on a clear night. My last night in Cuba had come to arrive and just hoping my leg holds out. I was very drunk from drinking all day by the pool with the girls from Cancun. I did not want my decease to stop me from living a life and I know people say that your health is important, but being young and hungry for adventures at the time, I liked the idea of "living on the edge" plus I had spent time and effort slaving my labour ass, saving for my winter vacation. I certainly wasn't going to waste my 'All-inclusive Caribbean Package' deal.
Most of the guest are hanging out at the bar in the resort with a live 3-piece band. There must have been about 30 people. Mostly Canadians of course. Sitting at the bar with some people from Alberta, my frenchie from Quebec, a small group from Vancouver and four girls from Mexico. The band plays latin style and entertains the audience for half an hour. The stereo had rocked the house afterwards. Everyone that night that I had met, was totally cool and awesome. I felt discomfort at times and the sunburn on the back of my neck didn't help either but I still knew where I was and didn't want to leave the party. I spend the rest of the night engaging more and more with the girls from Cancun at the party, Abrill & Eleena. I really did enjoy talking to them and to be honest they were cute, funny, smart, spoke fluent English and eye fucking me, but however they were not amazingly hot or to my standards. That said, foolishly I made out with Abrill numerous of times.“You're a good kisser" she said with her satisfied latin tone. She then dares Eleena in English "You should kiss him too, he's really good" Eleena made out with me and agreed with her amgia. My buddy was shaking his head with laugher. Shortly after, it was time to change the bandages over my sore. As I finish off the rum I take a breath and leap towards the lobby and tell I tell the others "I'll be back". Out of generosity, Eleena & Abrill offered to escort me to my room, I had no problem with that since I had trouble walking anyways.
Entering the room, the girls rush over to the veranda with excitement as I sat on my bed glancing down at my leg, taking note that the redness colour of the infection had spread further closer to my ankle. There was not much to do now only deal with it for 16 more hours until arriving home for treatment. I meet the girls on the veranda."It’s nice out here, we don't have a veranda" Eleena tells me. The three of us completely horny drunk, listening to the music from the tiny portable speaker, I lean against the railing to reduce the pressure from my pain. Abrill leans in to kiss me, feeling Eleena's hands rubbing me on the side then leaning over kissing her. Clearly this was leading to a threesome. Regardless of the life threatening condition I was in, a sexual activity was on the agenda. As much as I love detailing my sex life and so therefore, I will try to keep the scenes limited. Most of us know how the situations flows on afterwards, just like any MFF (Male, Female, Female) threesome movies you can find on any porn sites. But I have to say it was not easy with one leg. For example, when Abrill was flowering Eleena's temple in the middle of the bed and myself who was predating Abrill from behind, standing on the white tile floor. I had no choice but to keep lifting my foot up as it hurt so much to stand on two feet. I had to mount Abrill in a position as if I was trying to imitate a Soulija Boy's famous dance move from Crank That . I kept raising my left foot up as long as I could, because it was the only way to release the dull tension off my shin. This cause me to force it with extra work on my hips and difficult to balance especially after large amounts of alcohol and close to vomiting once, maybe twice. Eventually, I had slipped hard onto the floor and got right back up "Ok girls, you have to move further up on the bed." And they did and kindly asked me if I was ok and I nodded my head yes. We continued on, making my movements as less effect as possible. Letting the girls do most of the work. Less than an hour later, they passed out in a tangled knot while I laid beside them on the edge of the bed uncomfortably.
On the way to the 'real hospital', departing from Cuba was dreadful. My left side below my hip was double the size. A ugly fat swollen leg pulsing and hurting me like hell, burning from my toes to the knee then fuming up towards my head. Once we had landed in Montréal I was wheeled out into a taxi and checked into emergency. The doctor did not however seem too surprised after I had shown him my blood clocking leg. First, they injected some liquid in me to numb my leg and slightly pierce a sharp blade into the swollen part of the shin and started to drain a lot of yellow puss and blood. The doctor wraps my leg up and hands me my subscription for medication and orders me to take a week off work and rest. I asked him what was infected and how ? His response to me was, "Something must have bit you in Cuba and got in effected"
He walked off to his next patient. "Sure, ok" I said to myself. At least I had the right western meds to save my leg. Hopefully.
A few days later, the skin began to show improvement and my strength was regrowing quickly.The medication was working. It was not long until I had to return to work and I already had started to create ideas for another plan to go and explore new places, a small Spanish speaking town perhaps, or maybe a huge rawing latin city somewhere in South America. My energy and soul craving to travel more. Exploring new places & embracing the journey to what could possible come across my horizon without expectations even if shit happens along the way.
- Photo taken from José phone at the Nurse's clinic in Varadero.