Better get a Bucket

I know it has been a while since I (We) have updated the blog, but it has been a very busy week. We are now in Phi Phi and spent a day on the beach. So I am now ready to catch up for the past week, hope you are all ready as well...
07 November 2006
Lets start this day's blog with a little discussion on Thai food. Which I think you all by know know I LOVE. To wit, I am the only person I have heard of who has gained weight while visiting Thailand, must be the Immodium AD that I take like a daily vitamin. You know the old saying, an ounce of Immodium (prevention) is worth a pound of travelers diahrrea.....did I really just type that?....definately enough on that subject, Typical pale "farang" that I am, I was under the assumption that Vegetarians were not susceptible to food poisoning. Much to my chagrin, and consternation, I was again proven wrong (I think we all know the frequency of that happening) as Rebecca came down with the worst case I have seen outside of a Monty Python movie. Poor thing , she awoke at 2am tuesday the 7th and stayed in the bathroom till 7 am. I layed in bed till she came out and then headed to the Pharmacist for meds and to cancel the 3 day trek to the jungle. Good thing it did not hit her while out in the jungle as she is as sick as I have ever seen anyone. I assumed food poisoning came from tainted meat products. After a trip to the local pharmacist I now know better. After describing the symptoms to the pharmacist she set about giving me four packets of medicine, very specific instructions on what order and when, and made me promise to come back in the evening if she still cannot keep anything down. She stated it would take 2 days to run its course, even with all the meds prescribed. Southeast Asia is NOT the place to get sick!!!! I feel for her as my bout of sickness was self-inflicted (Chang Beer) and about 1/10th as bad. I felt like a jackhammer was in my head trying to get out and that I had been kicked in the stomach. I know she is worse. I feed her the meds as prescribed, anti nausea wait 20 minutes, anti diahhrea wait 20 minutes, pain pill wait 20 minutes, antibiotic wait twenty minutes. She cannot keep it down so we repeat with electrolytes. We try this till 230pm, when I tell her the time and say I will be back at 4pm. I need to get something to eat and find out what to do if things get worse. I go ask Vivi -the trek organizer -what to do if things continue to get worse as she is very honest, friendly, and caring. She lets me know that if things get worse this evening that the Chiang Mai Lam #1 Hospital is the ONLY one I should take her to and says if the tuk-tuk driver gives me any problem to give him this note she writes for me in Thai. I go eat and head back to the guesthouse. One hour and 15 minutes have passed. When I return Rebecca is much worse and says it seems I have been gone for hours. I show her the clock and say I have been only gone a little over an hour, she is delirious, sweating profusely out of every pore on her body, has a very high fever, and is in excrucuating pain if her stomach is touched. I think she has an appedicitis!!!!!!!!!! She says she wants to go to the hospital and I agree. Only problem, we need to walk 100 yards to get to the road to catch a tuk-tuk. She can barely stand, let alone walk. It takes us almost 10 minutes but somehow we make it. I grab the first tuk-tuk driver and tell him Chiang Mai Lam #1, he says he knows a closer hospital just as good. Thank God for the good honest caring Thai people like Vivi!!!!! I pull out her note and give it to the driver, he reads it and says nothing more but get in I will take you to Chiang Mai Lam #1. I have know idea what she wrote but there was no arguement from the driver after he read it. Upon arrival at the hospital we are wisked into the emergency room where 4 nurses descend upon her, this is a good thing. They examine her and I tell them I am worried it is an appendicitis, the head nurse says she will call a gastroenteroligist in to examine her. All I can think is, I made a promise to
Donna to take care of her daughter.........how do I call her at 2am Chicago time and tell her......better yet what do I tell her??????........do I let them operate or catch the next flight home????? I am "traveling diahhrea" bricks right now. Luckily right in my panic attack the specialist walks in, Rebecca is moaning on the table, sweating bullets curled up in ball, and I am FREAKING .................bet he didn't want our room!
When he examines her he says not to worry he thinks only 1% chance it is appendix, 10% that it is food poisoning, but is 90% sure it is a bug, he tells me the name. I can't remember the name as I am thinking, wait a minute that is 101%. Does this guy know medicine as well as he does math? They do things differently in Thailand I know but come on. He looks me dead in the eye and says "don't worry , I will stop her pain and get her better" . Two minutes later a nurse walks in with the biggest syringe of medicine I have ever seen, it is literally the size of a quarter and about 4 inches long, they put all of it in her IV. Ten minutes later she stops moaning, 5 more minutes and she is no longer curled up in a ball. I think this doctor knows his stuff and told me the truth. He tells me he thinks she needs to be admitted and spend the night, I say an emphatic "HELL YES" . Now the medical care shifts into high gear. She is taken to a private suite with 3 nurses and fed more pain killers and a second bag of IV. After four hours she is sitting up in bed, by 6 hours she says she wants to leave. I say "NO WAY" we are staying the night as this doctor told me so and I now think he is a magician, god, and the amazing Kreskin all rolled into one. She takes 4 bags of IV fluids and meds every four hours throughout the night. Not to mention it is the best room, and shower we have had our whole trip!!!!! We awake a 7am and Rebecca is ready to go, but the doctor has to release her, I go ask the nurse at 11am where he is and she says he has done 3 endoscopy's this morning and is on his way. Obviously we are not the only foriegners that this SE Asia bug likes. We get to leave at 1pm. Total cost (emergency room, specialist doctor, private suite, all the meds, and three days more take home supply, and ride to guest house in ambulance) $250 US. We make a pact right then, if either of us goes more than 4 hours vomiting we are to take the other to the hospital. I feel absolutely horrible I waited 16 hours!!!!!!!!