Day 11 and 12 - The Bridge of Fevers

We should have stopped and prayed at the Bridge of Fevers yesterday! Perhaps it would have saved us the trouble to come...

On the outskirts of Tui the Camino passes over a small, medieval bridge. Yesterday, we just strode over it without another thought. Other pilgrims had stopped and we thought they were just taking a quick break. There was a stone cross. But we've been passing dozens of stone crosses every day. Later we found out why this was called the Bridge of Fevers. 

Saint Elmo (San Telmo locally) is a big deal in Tui. We even saw his hand carried processional platform topped with his statue when we visited the Cathedral. We had just missed his festival and parade. It was last week and the flowers surrounding him were still fresh.

Saint Elmo (called Peter Gonzalez then) died on his way back from a pilgrimage to Santiago in 1246. He too walked the Camino.  He fell ill and died of a fever by a bridge where the cross now stands - now named "the Bridge of Fevers. "

Saturday the 21st Pam wroke up feeling miserable. She had a fever, headache, and was nauseous. Both of us had been suffering from small bouts of gastrointestinal woes over the past few days. Yesterday we both felt fine and we thought it was all behind us. 

But it was very clear that Pam was in no shape to walk 15 or so miles today. We evaluated our schedule and decided to skip the next two stages of our walk. We had already built in a rest day in Pontevedra on the 23rd. If we went there immediately we would have 3 recovery days. 

Our tour company was great. They switched our hotel reservations with no problems. They even made sure we could check in early and arranged for a cab to take us from Porrino to Pontevedra. 

Ian wanted Pam to see a doctor in Pontevedra. It was an interesting process. The hotel receptionist was very helpful and arranged for a taxi to the nearby medical office. But this clinic turned out to be only for people with a Spanish (or European) medical card. This public health center is forbidden from taking payments and have no process for receiving payment even if one wanted to pay! Imagine that! Instead, we were redirected to a private hospital and they kindly called a cab for us. Once there Pam parked herself in a chair and Ian went to deal with the urgent care desk. 

We don't speak Spanish so it was a slow process. Ian relied on google translate and their limited English and eventually got everything straightened out. He returned to find Pam in a scary bad way.  She looked very pale, 'out of it' and then passed out due to a drop in blood pressure. The staff jumped to it then and hurried her to an exam room. Pam was poked and prodded, given an EKG and blood test. In the end she was diagnosed with a form of viral food poisoning. 

After lots of rest (a really long siesta) and lots of fluids, Pam will be eating a very bland diet for the next week and taking various medications to manage the ugly symptoms. Hopefully she will be feeling well enough to start walking again on the 24th.