Hospital in Thailand

I find it prudent to warn everyone that you are now in too deep to turn back. We're having a really awesome trip, but I keep having these nights that require gruesome descriptions to fully capture the mood, and you're required to come along with me. So, I'll try to tone it down on this one to a reasonable volume, but you're just going to have to clench your teeth and come to a hospital in Thailand with me.

It's Thursday night and we grab some dinner. My stomach isn't feeling too hot, but it rarely is nowadays, so I basically ignore it as usual. Let's just say the river doesn't flow to the ocean, ok?

Anyway, we have some broccoli and brown rice for dinner, to help the flow, but I need to hurry back to the hotel because I need to go potty. I go, but I still don't feel well. Soon after I throw up my nice dinner. Damn. Then this continues. I don't want to get too graphic, but let's just say that the toilet can only be used by one end of my body at once, so I need to employ the little plastic baggies for a while. I can't stop throwing up. There's nothing more in there, but I can't stop. By this time, Kane is concerned and is trying to get me to drink water and take some Immodium. He is aware that this can make a person very dehydrated and is worried. I can't drink. I can't stand. I lay in the shower shivering and dry heaving. Blood is present in both the substances exiting my body.

Kane calls his friend Sean who is local and asks him to come pick us up to take us to the hospital. Not that we couldn't have found a hospital, but it was really nice to have someone guide us to the closest and best one, which was really close to our hotel - thank you Sean! We get to the hospital and Kane carries me in. They do the I.V. thing to give me some fluids. Ask some questions, poke some places, put me in a plush room for the night. The nurse gives me 4 huge syringes of stuff through my I.V., anti-nausea stuff, antibiotics, etc., etc. I feel better already but still not normal. Through the night people come in and make me eat pills and take my blood pressure; Kane sleeps on a couch in the room. And by "sleep" I mean sits there mildly unconscious until I make the slightest movement or someone enters the room at which point he's sitting up and awaiting instruction. He's like a soldier, it's amazing. Anyway, they assess it as a case of food poisoning, though I have no idea what I ate. The doctor said it could be from something as old as 3 days ago, and with my digestive system, I thought maybe even more than that. So, really no idea, just know that my body was not happy.

Couldn't eat or drink all night, but they gave me the go ahead in the morning to drink water. Throughout the night I had to potty a few times, but no more throwing up. I didn't realize it because I felt ok laying down, but standing was a bit too much. On the way back from the bathroom at 3am, I passed out just before I made it to the bed. Kane caught me and pushed me on the bed. I then awoke and proceeded to scold him for not getting my I.V. stand over to the other side of the bed quickly enough. I'm so sweet when I'm semi-conscious.

I hung out at the hospital all day Friday; we missed our flight to Koh Samui. Oh well. I was going to stay another night, but when we found out that the cafeteria had closed I said let's get the hell out of here. We paid our bill (to be taken up with insurance later) and took a tuk-tuk home at about 9pm. It was $540 for the night and 5 more days of meds. And I came out better than when I went in - I suppose that's really all that I ask for from a hospital in Thailand.