Last weekend I ended up with a nasty cold which left me house bound as I tried to get rid of it. Monday I started to feel a little better and by Tuesday it was mostly gone.
Tuesday was a major holiday here in Nepal so we didn't go to school. It was Maha Shivaratri, which essentially is Lord Shiva's birthday. We decided we wanted to go and check out the festivities, little did we know there would be over half a million people and complete chaos everywhere. Two of the others had already gone ahead and the plan was to meet them there. We never found them. We spent a few hours wandering around, mostly people watching.
Wednesday was a normal day at the school, and we stopped at a little MoMo place by the house. It's important to note that Pat also ate there and had no problems. Starting that night I was beginning to have cramping in my stomach but I mostly brushed it off and tried to ignore it.
Thursday happened to be another major holiday: The New Year. Again we didn't have school that day. One of the people who work here in the house took me and another volunteer shopping. I was given a budget of 30,000 rupees ($30) to go and buy toys for the CDC. I mostly got what I wanted, and was satisfied with the prices.
On the way there we took a microbus. These buses are made for probably about 10 people. The one we got on had about 25 people squeezed in already. It was pretty interesting trying to get on. I ended up sitting on my feet facing backwards. After a bit the person up front got off and I moved to the front. I cost 20 rupees (.20) to take the bus. Here is a photo I took from the front:
Friday was a normal day at school. After school we walked to a Pizza Hut! It was so nice to have something familiar and delicious. Although we paid a pretty premium (for nepal) price at $15. Which I now even consider expensive as I can get lunch for less than $2.
Friday afternoon is when I started to feel really sick, was having some pretty severe abdominal cramping and getting very hot. There was even an instance before dinner where I got so overheated I became so dizzy and almost passed out. After dinner I immediately came home and fell asleep.
When I woke up yesterday morning I felt so horrible. Bad headache and just really dehydrated. So off to the hospital I went where I spent the entire day. I was given IV fluids all day and monitored. I had some blood drawn and sent for labs. While everything came back fairly normal it seemed I had contracted a bacterial infection which had cause me to become severely dehydrated. After resting most of the day I was starting to feel much better. Although they had originally told me they wanted to keep me overnight for observation, since I was feeling much better they allowed me to go home after dinner. I was sent on my way with some antibiotics and various medications.
While I was originally concerned about being in a foreign hospital once I got there I immediately was put as ease. There were mostly westerns there and everyone was very friendly.
While I'm still not feeling 100% today, I am feeling much better and am hopeful that tomorrow I'll be somewhat back to normal. Everyone has gone hiking today and I'm spending yet another weekend laying in bed.
Here's to hoping this is the last time I'm sick while I'm in Nepal.
No comments:
Post a Comment