adventures in thai HOSPITALity

Well, I obviously failed at getting updates while I was in the Philippines. Currently, I'm in Thailand.

...I'm not supposed to be in Thailand right now. Really, I should be in Japan. I was supposed to be back at home already by now.

So what happened? A really unfortunate case of food poisoning, that's what. I don't know what gave me it either, though my hunch is that it was due to the unrefrigerated food that I had eaten on the plane as a snack. As soon as I got off the plane in Bangkok, I quickly went into a downward spiral of bathroom-visiting, nauseous illness. I was supposed to visit a friend in Bangkok (and enjoy some street food) but it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to be able to as I became unable to walk more than 50 feet/20m without feeling ill and seeking the refuge of the bathroom. When it came to the point where, in order to feel better, I just sat on the bathroom floor (inside the airport, the bathrooms were pretty clean), I was having doubts about making it out. When I actually reached the "outside" of the airport (where the general public was allowed, and where the departures counter and exit is) and was faced with a tiny bathroom that was not-so-clean, my new goal became to find a phone and call my friend to let her know I wasn't coming. I mean, I had been trying to find a phone to call her with for a while, since I was *really* late but I had, thus far, been unsuccessful in using the phone.

Did I mention I couldn't actually stand at the phones for very long? Talk about not feeling well... I was having these awful stomach pangs that came and went. Moving seemed to aggravate it a bit more.

Eventually, when operating the credit-card based pay phones to contact local numbers proved futile and confusing, and when my stomach felt like someone was stabbing me and even standing for 20 m felt like a huge challenge, I checked in to the medical center at the airport on the third floor. It was like a clinic thing, and the word "stagger" comes to mind when I think about how I entered there.

I think I must have looked a little like death, since all I told the receptionist was "I don't think I feel very well" before taking a seat. They were pretty quick to put me in one of those beds though, and it wasn't long before I was being hooked up to an IV and given an injection to make the pain go away.

The pain did go away, for a bit. I also managed to borrow a cellphone and call my friend. I felt so bad about that, since I hadn't given her any notice and I was ridiculously late. Like a good two or three hours.

They deduced that I had an infection in my stomach or intestines that was probably due to food poisoning, something I had kinda guessed. After I was admitted around 8pm (I think it was 8? Or 7ish...) I pretty much was in and out of consciousness/sleep up until 11pm, two hours before my flight to PEK > KIX (Osaka). They woke me back up then, and asked me how I felt.

Unfortunately, I still felt a little bit like hell. Not as much as before - now I realize that truly, I was kind of a wreck when I entered the clinic - but there was still a lot of pain and nausea when I moved. They recommended that I move to the hospital, since they had no more injections to give me. They also said they could see about my flight and stuff.

I told them that I would think about it, and that I needed to check the status of my health insurance since I wasn't sure if I had travel insurance (stupid me). So I got to go use the bathroom and the pay phone to call my mom... in a wheelchair. I looked like a legit sick person. I felt like a legit sick person. I had someone pushing me, and another person who was carrying the IV bag next to me.

I gotta say, IVs kinda suck. My first one was when I was getting my wisdom teeth out, and the nurse was all, "oh these are much better than shots since you hardly feel a thing!" Sorry lady, IVs freak me out worse. I mean, you have a needle tube thing sticking out of your hand/arm. Those aren't supposed to be there.

It's been over 24 hours now since I've had mine in. Ughhhhhh.

Anyways, after I called my mom and told her about it and found out that yes, I am covered insurance wise abroad, and found out that air china would let me rebook for free with a letter from the doctor, I realized from that short trip to the payphone in the wheel chair and the brief, less than ten minutes I was standing at the payphone, that going on a plane at that point was impossible. I was feeling pretty awful from standing for such a short period of time, and going on a plane was probably going to make me feel worse. I mean, I have the hunch that when we were sitting, it would be somewhat alright, but still not super great.

Either way, when I told them around midnight that yes, I would like to go to the hospital... that's when things got kinda interesting.

They had me get into what looked like a high wheelchair, but it turned out to be one of those gurney beds that you see people laying on when they get carted to an ambulance. Soon after I got into the bed thing and they lay me on my back, I got carted to an ambulance. We went up a bunch of escalators too; that was kinda weird, since I was on the bed, looking like an invalid/sick person. My only thoughts at that point were "cool, I'm going to get to see Thailand without ever having to take one step! I get to look at it in style! Laying down even!"

"Hahahaha I get to enjoy Thai HOSPITALity. HAHAHA. PUNNN." Kid you not, those were my exact thoughts at the moment. I blame the nausea and the overall fever I had developed.

I'm not sure what I expected (to be put in a taxi, I think) but when they rolled me outside (legit sickie style!) there was an ambulance waiting. I was like, "woah... sweet, I get to ride in an ambulance. Oh god, how much is this going to cost? Are they going to use the lights? OH SWEET THEY'RE GOING TO USE THE LIGHTS. But I don't *need* the lights because it's not like it's life threatening or super urgent... right?"

The hospital they took me to was Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital. I can't pronounce it at all. It's a children's hospital, which made me feel kind of... old. They rolled me into the ER, where, in my feverish sick state, they had me sign a couple papers and decide what kind of room I wanted. Then they took my blood (though I didn't know it at the time, since they said they were giving me an injection and I can't look at what they're doing if I don't want to freak out) and gave me more IV stuff before letting me alone for a little bit. I think they basically upped the dosage of whatever they had given me before, and gave me something to try and get my fever down a little since I was clocking in around 38.8C (~101F) and something for my ah, bowels. Those were doing the worst, actually, since you know how when you're nauseous, it comes out one end or the other? Yeaahhh I wasn't vomiting. Sorry if that's TMI. But that was probably part of the reason why they had suggested going to the hospital in the first place. I'll spare you the more disgusting detail though, haha.

Eventually, around 2ish, they moved me to my room via gurney again, to a bed that's really really... stiff. It's almost like sleeping on the floor - that's how hard this bed is. The couch is much softer. My futon is definitely softer than this bed. I actually started to miss the gurney. Sigh. They gave me more medicine, before it was off to sleep with me (finally). Stupid hard bed. They asked me if I had any questions, and - you can tell where my priorities lie - I asked if they had wifi in the hospital. Then I told the doctor I had asked nevermind, since it wasn't like I was going to use it right then anyways.

I woke up several times during the night and in the morning, because they would come to check on me and do things like take my temperature and blood pressure. Breakfast... was dismal. They gave me Thai chicken soup, two pieces of toast, two slices of ham, and a hotdog cut in half. Oh, and tea. The chicken soup... was deceptive. I expected it to taste like chicken broth, but mostly it tasted like water with some spices in it. Sadface. I've had that broth at every meal, and thankfully, my stomach can tolerate it pretty well. But I still didn't have much of an appetite, despite having eaten last at 2pm the previous day, so I only managed to get through the soup, 3/4 of one piece of dry toast, the tea, and a small bite of ham. This convinced me that I still wasn't well yet.

The doctor came back and asked me how I was doing, and told me that they were waiting for my fever to go away and my stomach to get better before they released me from the hospital. They said possibly tomorrow, possibly 3-5 days. I'm hoping for tomorrow, since otherwise, I have to sit here in the hospital all day long like I did today. Super boring. Or well, I spent most of the morning kind of drifting in and out of sleep anyways, and most of the afternoon writing emails to people about what happened and working out my internet connection. Hooray for free wifi in the hospital! And yet, I can't find free wifi in Japan anywhere...

Lunch was slightly improved over breakfast. In addition to the not-chicken broth soup, I got a small bit of tomato soup that was actually pretty good, and a chicken... patty... burger... thing, with no bread, but a couple slices of potatoes instead. I managed to eat most of that, thankfully, since I was actually pretty hungry at that point. A woman also came in to take my order for dinner and breakfast the next day, and lunch. My internal alarm went off, since part of me went "oh no, does that mean I'm going to be here until tomorrow afternoon?"

It also turns out I'm on a special diet, hence the sparse breakfast and lunch. The nurse lady told me that I wasn't allowed to eat fruit, eggs, cereal, milk (or dairy really)... and vegetables. The first few I can kinda understand, but no vegetables? D:

I think I went through like, four different choices for breakfast before I was finally able to select one that I was allowed to have. I'm not even allowed to have the continental breakfast. That made me really sad. Or the American breakfast, which had an omelet and other tasty things. I forget what I actually ordered. I also went through a number of choices for lunch before finding one I could actually have. I ordered creamy chicken soup... but got a call later saying I wasn't allowed to have creamy things so I was just going to have chicken soup. I also ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I was kinda surprised they actually let me have that, but when I got the sandwich, it looked like they had just melted a little bit of cheese between the ham... not grilled at all. Sigh.

My IV just started making weird noises. Hmm.

The nurse I page chided me for not being asleep hahaha...

Anyways. I felt so... rebel-y and like a smuggler for having contraband cheese on my sandwich. Then I ate the sandwich, and found out they had probably forbidden cheese for a good reason. My stomach made some pretty weird noises.

When I was picking from the asian menu side, they had a whole bunch of interesting looking noodles and they had pad thai! BUT I COULDN'T HAVE IT because it had eggs and vegetables in it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Seriously, the biggest irony about all this is that I deliberately put a long layover in here so I could stop off to visit my friend and eat some delicious delicious Thai street food, yet I haven't been able to actually go outside let alone eat any delicious food here because of something I ate elsewhere. LAME FACE.

Hopefully though, I'll be let out here soon, and then it's going to be fun fun fun trying to rebook my flight. I don't think I'll be able to make it back by Tuesday. Crap. I'm supposed to be at work then. I feel kinda bad, because before I left, I had also missed days at work due to being in the hospital since I was getting my knee checked out after I fell on my bike.

But yeah. Thank god for free wifi. Hopefully I'll be let out of here tomorrow. I guess I should go to bed. The sooner they get this stupid IV out of my hand (I've had it for over 24 hours now T_T) the better. It's so hard to do anything with it in my hand, though I've finally got the hang for typing with it in. Otherwise, writing this post would have been kind of awful. :D

I really wish I knew what made me sick. Sigh. But! I am feeling much much better, despite still being hospitalized. You know those IV drip bags and the wheeled stands that you see old people and sick people have in movies and stuff? I HAVE ONE OF THOSE. It makes me feel old. And sick. But I think it's just pumping electrolytes (mostly) into my body. Something else too, but I don't know. Mostly now, I have a very slight temperature, a small bit of stomach pain, the occasional headache, and this stupid IV sticking out of my hand. I'd wager that I'm actually able to fly, but they want to make sure I'm fully better before they release me from the hospital. Also, I think they might have a hunch that once I get out of the hospital, I will throw myself into the thai street food scene and get sick again, but this time because my stomach can't handle the awesomeness.