In sickness and in health
They say (and by "they," I mean Lonely Planet) that 50% of travellers to 3rd world countries get sick from food or water. Out of that number "they" say that 10% of travellers get dysentery. Well, I'll spare you the gory details, but both Derek and I have had dysentery...already. Statistically speaking, that means we are very unlucky.
Derek bought this little book, Healthy Travel in Asia and India. This has allowed us to able to self-diagnose. D had bacterial dysentery, "curable" with ciprofloxacin, which we took with us on our trip.
My case was not so simple. From our trusty book, I was pretty sure that I had amoebic dysentery. This meant I had to go to the hospital. The nearest hospital to McLeod Ganj is Tibetan Delek Hospital, which treats refugees for free. It is about a 20 min walk downhill from where we were staying.
After we registered at the front, we were pointed to the doctor's office. I opened the door to find a white doctor and his white assistant inside. The doctor, who spoke perfect English, informed me that I had to wait - my number was 40, and they were serving number 12. Considering that they had been serving people for 1.5 hours already, this did not bode well.
I waited outside for about 1.5 hours, and then went inside to check on the line. As I was waiting, the doctor's skinny young assistant offered to interview me. Turns out that she could only interview people who spoke English (she was from Scotland). We went into the next room, and I was able to jump the line - I needed a lab test done to see what was wrong. After half an hour, I was diagnosed with E.H. - endamoebic hystolitica. The doctor, who was Canadian, as it turned out, gave me a prescription for Tinidazole - a drug that is not allowed in the US! After a feast for lunch I swallowed 4 pills (which I will do for two more days) and waiting for the internal holocaust to begin.
Overall, the whole hospital experience went much better than I expected. The saddest thing was that the majority of other patients were getting chest xrays for TB. Some of the patients were elderly (and coughing up gross stuff), but the majority of them were young Tibetan Buddhist monks no older than me. It made my situation seem so trivial.
The young medical student said that her medical school lets students go anywhere in the world on rotation. She had been in India for only one week so far, but she said she was very happy with her placement. So was I.
Derek bought this little book, Healthy Travel in Asia and India. This has allowed us to able to self-diagnose. D had bacterial dysentery, "curable" with ciprofloxacin, which we took with us on our trip.
My case was not so simple. From our trusty book, I was pretty sure that I had amoebic dysentery. This meant I had to go to the hospital. The nearest hospital to McLeod Ganj is Tibetan Delek Hospital, which treats refugees for free. It is about a 20 min walk downhill from where we were staying.
After we registered at the front, we were pointed to the doctor's office. I opened the door to find a white doctor and his white assistant inside. The doctor, who spoke perfect English, informed me that I had to wait - my number was 40, and they were serving number 12. Considering that they had been serving people for 1.5 hours already, this did not bode well.
I waited outside for about 1.5 hours, and then went inside to check on the line. As I was waiting, the doctor's skinny young assistant offered to interview me. Turns out that she could only interview people who spoke English (she was from Scotland). We went into the next room, and I was able to jump the line - I needed a lab test done to see what was wrong. After half an hour, I was diagnosed with E.H. - endamoebic hystolitica. The doctor, who was Canadian, as it turned out, gave me a prescription for Tinidazole - a drug that is not allowed in the US! After a feast for lunch I swallowed 4 pills (which I will do for two more days) and waiting for the internal holocaust to begin.
Overall, the whole hospital experience went much better than I expected. The saddest thing was that the majority of other patients were getting chest xrays for TB. Some of the patients were elderly (and coughing up gross stuff), but the majority of them were young Tibetan Buddhist monks no older than me. It made my situation seem so trivial.
The young medical student said that her medical school lets students go anywhere in the world on rotation. She had been in India for only one week so far, but she said she was very happy with her placement. So was I.
posted by Liz C at 3:43 AM
5 Comments:
Hey it's Tim!!
I'm super-busy and don't have much to say other than get better!!! I'm thinking of you, well at least when I'm not thinking of schoolwork!
Statistically speaking, it would be surprising if you didn't get sick. If the average trip is 2 weeks, then your 1 year stay in the third world gives you a 93% chance of getting dysentary and a 99.99999% chance of getting sick at all.
But perhaps this is more helpful. In a given period, if the two of you always eat the same thing, then the chances that either of you will get dysentary is 10%. If you always eat different things, then the chance of at least one of you getting dysentary is 19%. On the other hand, if your priority is making sure that at least one of you remains healthy, then you should eat different things, because then you have a 99% chance of survival, as opposed to 10% if you share meals.
Either way, it sucks to be sick! I hope you get better soon.
--Matt
Oh, man! Sorry about the dysentery...but perhaps it will make you stronger (not having killed you.) Your trip sounds great (dysentery aside), and I look forward to hearing more. I miss you, Liz! It's not the same here without you! Take care, you two. Love, Cathleen
Hi from "the Mother" aka "one of the Carols"
Guess which one!
Anyway- quite impressed by Matt's statistical commentary on your travel sickness. Nice to have such helpful friends.
We here are hoping you are both feeling less "Green" and have learned enough from your Tibetan cooking lessons to dazzle us with some tantalizing delicacies upon your return. Please- no Indiana Jones type- Monkey eyes or anything though!
Take care and be well.
Carol
I hope you guys are getting better! I think a mental picture of my hairy ass might put you in a better frame of mind:)
Thinking of you,
Andrew
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