Thai Casualty

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3am and I’m not asleep. A sharp pain in my stomach causes me to stir from my slumber. At first I suspect it to be from something I ate at Ubon’s night market. Yet after Claire has finished poking and prodding me, she diagnoses it as appendicitis. We call a taxi from the Sri Isaan hotel and rush off into the dim early morning light to Ubon Rak Hospital.

After blood tests, urine samples, ultra sounds, x-rays and a lot of sick, it was confirmed and so we waited 4 hours until the surgical staff woke up. Seriously, when we got in a nurse had to go around waking everyone up. The on-call doctor was still in his slippers when he came in, asking where it hurt.

At 11am I was taken into the OR. I gazed around at the cold, tiled walls and people getting scrubbed up. One stood watching a TV depicting a non-descript Thai sitcom about the police. 10 minutes later the anaesthetist came in; a thin, spectacled man who wore an un-assuring grin upon his stubbly face. ‘Where you come from?’ he asked.
‘England.’

‘Oooa,’ he gaped in that very Thai way of showing interest in someone. ‘How much do you weigh?’

‘65kg,’ I guessed.

‘You sleep now and when finish, I wake you up!’ Remembering how everyone who has ever had an operation counts to 10, I counted as fast as I could before slurring at 12.



Awaking at what felt like seconds later, I found I could not breathe. Pipes were being pulled out of my mouth, vomit was building up with no place to go and my nose was blocked. I started to panic. I flayed my arms around but found them held down with straps. I tried to mumble that I could not breathe to the grinning anaesthetist but got no joy. Thankfully someone got a small hoover-like thing to suck up the vomit and an oxygen mask was placed over my confused face.

Time tumbled away in a morphine-induced blur and I started to become aware as I was moved into a private room. It was a nice ensuite room with a balcony looking out on the Mun River, and I had nurses coming in every so often to give me food I couldn’t eat. It was here that I remained for the next 2 nights with Claire, Ben and Robyn to keep me company, (and eat the food I couldn’t stomach.) At night Ben and Robyn would share the sofa and Claire would curl up next to me. I don’t think I have ever been so grateful of someone in my life. Claire acted as my nurse: fetching me water, helping me wash and even carrying my pee when I could not move from the bed. We passed the days watching films and receiving visits from Pi Ying and Pra Yang, (who showed off her appendectomy scar that looked more like a 6 inch stab wound).




Spending all day lying in bed gave me time to think about how fast the last 10 months have gone. It doesn’t feel like so long ago I was learning Thai at the AUA in Chaing Mai, or diving in Koh Tao, or speeding through the pouring rain with Claire on the back of a moped. And now Claire is going home in one week, I will be gone in one month and starting University in two. Things are happening so fast but I will be glad to finally heading homeward. It’s going to be a difficult 5 weeks without her but I’m determined to make the most of my final days here. I have my M5’s singing and we’ll be doing a lesson on Northern slang soon, and M1 are blind tasting mentos and chilli powder. Only 2 weeks left of teaching, not long now!

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