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Published: January 12th 2009
Eva here writing from... wait for it... Australia. A slight detour in our journey from Thailand to Cambodia, but a necessary one. Allow to me explain...
Last you heard I was expecting to get out of Koh Samui hospital the following day. I was feeling better and ready to go. However, it turns out what I was experiencing was a momentary fling with good health and I remained in hospital for several more days. What was suspected to be typhoid ended up being salmonella poisoning that I most likely developed after eating the hospital food. The antibiotics I was put on for this then made me even more sick... this time with intense nausea. But logically, the doctor and myself put the nausea down to the salmonella and so I continued to down the drugs hoping they would make me better soon, not knowing it was those very drugs that were keeping me sick. My daily blood samples were improving and so, on Jan 4 (my birthday), the doctor freed me from my hospital cell. I left with my kit of drugs and continued to down the nausea-causing antibiotics.
Nella and I mistakenly checked into a little bungalow at the end of Koh Samui’s main tourist beach. The mistake here was that the residents of this beach seemed to think every night was New Year’s Eve and thus every night they partied like it was 2009. This meant loud music and fireworks throughout the night. At this point, though I’d been discharged from hospital, I was still feeling pretty die-able and my only perceived escape from this sensation was sleep. But I got little of that thanks to the good party-spirited people of Koh Samui.
Two days later we’d had it with the island. Koh Samui - an island renowned for its good times and great vibes - was everything but. We had to get out of there. So we purchased airline tickets on Sardine Air (aka Air Asia) from Surat Thani back to Bangkok. At 6am the next day we began our 6-hour journey of more busses and boats to the airport. This trip was excruciating because I was still so sick. We finally made it to Bangkok late in the afternoon and checked into a hotel off Khao San Road (Bangkok’s main tourist drag) and then proceeded to pass out with exhaustion.
The only escape from my nausea was sleep. But I couldn’t sleep because I was so nauseous. It was an evil, evil trap. I was getting less sleep each night and this left me with way too much time to lie in bed and get depressed about the whole situation. Last Wednesday I pulled some energy from somewhere I’ll never know and caught a cab to hospital (again). I handed over my various bodily fluid samples and had the results back in a couple of hours. I saw a doctor who switched my medication - act that finally initiated my recovery. After this hospital visit I still had a bit of nausea, but now my biggest problem was that my sleep rhythm had been completely stuffed. I could still only manage a few hours a night. I had been through a variety of sleeping pills but nothing seemed to work. My sanity was rapidly going down the s-bend. Things were getting pretty emotional and I didn’t have the health to cope. And so, while lying awake at 4am last Friday morning, I hatched a plan to get home. I was on a plane that night.
I was a pretty teary mess on the plane. I hated leaving Nella alone in Bangkok (even though I had bought a return ticket and would be back in two weeks). And I really felt that I’d failed in our big trip. It only took me 33 days to pack it in and come home. I couldn’t figure out if it was because I was a spoiled brat with a weak constitution or because I knew what was best for my long-term health. As I was sitting and pondering this, I was interrupted by an airline steward who said that the plane had been overbooked and enquired whether I’d mind moving to business class. I could have kissed the man. Instead I politely told him that I didn’t think it would be too much trouble and then followed him to my new seat.
I sat down in my super-cushiony oversized business class seat. I was asked which items I’d like for entree, mains and dessert and which champagne I’d like as a starter. I tested all of the 10 buttons that contorted the seat into various luxurious positions. I put my feet up, my chair back, my seat massager on, and then I remembered the woman that Nella and I passed who was dying on the sidewalk of a dirty Bangkok street. Suddenly I was hit with some major questions: Why, when I was sick, was I taken to hospital in an ambulance, given first-class treatment and covered by insurance at $1000 a night? And why, when she was sick, was she lying alone in her underwear on the grimy sidewalk, foaming at the mouth and waiting to die? Why did I have family and friends who called daily with love and concern when the next person who would probably talk to her was the council body-collector to check if she was dead yet? Why, when I was scared and fearing for my life, did I have the option to travel business class back to all the comforts of home where I would be wrapped in love and goodness when she had no such option? Why did my life seem so precious and hers so expendable? Why are we all connected by humanity and then separated by money and apathy? And why am I so terrified of the answer? Because if I acknowledge my humanity and my apathy, I should then do something about it....
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Kelly
non-member comment
Beautiful
What an amazing blog, you have a wonderful style of writing and so much talent. I really enjoyed reading this from start to finish, I'm very sorry you have been so sick. But it really was the last paragraph that touched my heart, very beautifully written.