Sick on the road

Elise was still not feeling well, so we decided to do any easy hike for an hour or so early in the morning and then go to the emergency room at the Verde Valley Medical Center branch in Sedona. The hike was pleasant and provided some great views. At some point, however, we evidently missed a turn and ended up finishing our hike at the trail head of a different trail at least three or four miles from where our car was parked. We could have taken a shorter walk back on the trail from which we had come, but this ran the risk of getting lost again. At Elise' insistence we decided to walk back by the road, so at least we wouldn't end up lost halfway up a mountain. We also stuck our thumb out at passing cars, and it wasn't long before someone stopped to pick us up. He was a middle-aged man from Sweden who had moved to this area in the Sedona suburb where we had ended up. He liked the area but said it wasn't so good for his four kids, since most of the residents in the area were retirees and the schools were also very poor. In any case he was going into Sedona and was willing to take us there. Elise and I then walked to the museum,where I left her while I walked another 20 minutes to get the car.

After a bite of lunch I got directions to the medical center and we drove there to get Elise checked out. The man at the desk said they would be happy to examine her, but unless we had good insurance we would be much better off to go to the Urgent Care Center a mile or so up the road. We weren't sure exactly how good our coverage was, so off we went to the Urgent Care Center. At the Urgent Care Center, they checked with our insurance company and were told that the insurance would cover Elise at an emergency center but not at the Urgent Care Center, so off we went again back to the emergency care center. Fortunately Elise was not having any kind of acute medical crisis - a person could die while waiting to get their insurance coverage clarified. They ultimately gave Elise a very thorough check-up -chest X-ray, urinalysis, blood tests, a nose swab - much more thorough than her annual physical. In the end they found that she was basically OK. No flu, no pneumonia, nothing more than a minor infection not even related to her cough. The doctor gave her 3 prescriptions, 2 of which she actually had filled and one of which she is actually taking.

We then drove off down Route 40 in the general direction of Mesa Verde. We got as far as Wilsonia and put up in a motel so we could be sure that Elise would get another good night's sleep to help her recuperate.
We had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant frequented primarily by American Indian families and then called it a night.