Thursday, February 05, 2009

Sick in Bangkok

On Monday, I got a thorough physical exam.   I get them annually, but every 3-4 years, we are required to get these MAJOR physical exams.  I had every conceivable medical exam short of a MRI (they did a regular x-ray on my head instead...yeah, really).  I was screened for cancer of every kind.  I had blood tests, hearing tests, lead level tests, and all sorts of things.  The various doctors told me I was the picture of health, no problems.  I felt a twinge of pride at my healthy condition.  A doctor once told me that these exams are a "snapshot," an indication of your health at that one particular moment in time.   He wasn't kidding.

About 10 p.m. that night, in my Bangkok hotel, I got violently ill, sick as a dog.  I don't know if it was food poisoning or something going around.  It was really, really bad.   I was by myself. For six hours this went on and on and on.  Finally, when I thought I could do so safely, in the middle of the night, I threw on my clothes and dragged myself like someone in a drunken stupor to the hospital emergency room.  It was not too far from my hotel...only the Pakistan Embassy was between my hotel and the hospital.  

I told them what was wrong (they speak English, I do not speak Thai).  They sat me on the side of the gurney as they gave me various injections in an I.V. stent, and when they turned their back, I laid down on the bed, curled up and took a long nap in the ER...I don't think they expected me to camp out there for a long time, but that's when they realized how bad I really was, so they were amused and left me alone.

Later I told them I wanted to go back to my hotel, so they got me a wheelchair and a taxi (we agreed that the Pakistan Embassy was too much territory to traverse by foot in my condition), and I went back and slept all day, woke up to send my parents an e-mail, and then slept all night.

All in all, it could have been worse.  I'm 90% better now.


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