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Published: July 11th 2009
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Mount Misti
Unconquered (well, by me anyway) This isn’t much of a travel story; it’s more about how grateful and lucky I am to have so many caring people in my life, and how glad I am to have taken out travel insurance. I will try to keep it short, but the details and dramas surrounding many of the situations, particularly at the hospital in Peru, made it anything but quick.
My wonderful friend Jayne, and I arrived in Arequipa and spent a couple of days hanging out enjoying this beautiful city, and were both looking forward to tackling the overlooking Mount Misti. After lunch one day, I was suddenly hit by a fever that made me pretty crook...
- I have two days of high fever in hostel
- MY LAST MEMORY - - Jayne calls ambulance; I am taken to hospital (Clinica Arequipa).
- Department of Foreign Affairs contacts Mum (Vick) in Australia, tells her I have brain aneurism and am not expected to live.
- Vick and Andrea (friend and registered nurse) fly to Sydney International Airport.
- Vick speaks with travel insurance company by phone and told I have bacterial meningitis and
Hostel collection
Being carried to the ambulance am gravely ill.
- Vick and Andrea fly to Peru.
- I have 1st lumbar puncture (where a needle is inserted into spine to extract some of the fluid that surrounds the spine and brain, then used for white cell and protein tests).
- Start anti-biotics.
- Vick and Andrea arrive in Peru.
- MEMORY RETURNS - - 2nd lumbar puncture - no local anesthetic - VERY painful.
- Vick and Andrea, both frustrated but determined, try to get Arequipa doctors to say when I will be fit to fly back to Australia. The doctors stall, give a date, and then change it unexpectedly.
- My temperature lowers and am on the mend. Doctors give fit to fly date. Insurance company says I can stay in Arequipa and “see it out”.
- My temperature spikes. Insurance company reviews case, and confirms medical retrieval.
- Andreas son has 21st birthday back in Australia, which, of course, she is missing. Jayne, being the thoughtful young thing she is, organises a cake and little celebration.
- Few days later Andrea flies back to Australia.
- Jules (nurse from
Not being kinky
I was delirious when I arrived at the hospital and have been told I would pull all the cords and tubes out of me...so they tied me to the bed. the insurance company) arrives from Australia. Vick, Jules and I fly back to Australia. I was in business class because I had to sit with Jules - awesome!! Vick was up the back in cattle.
- All of the above was over 18 days.
(The medical retrieval costs from Peru, not including hospital care, are estimated around $50,000. This is why I am glad I had travel insurance).
- Arrive Australia. Checked into St Vincents Public Hospital, Sydney.
- Weighed; lost 15 kilograms.
- PICC (Peripherally inserted central catheter)
(50 centimetre long super-thin pipe inserted in a deep vein, and then advanced through increasingly larger veins toward the heart until the tip rests on another large vein that pumps directly into the right atrium of the heart) put in, very cool and very exciting; no more needles!! (except the 6am daily blood taken for testing).
- 3rd lumbar puncture - local anesthetic used - uncomfortable, but no pain!!
- IV anti-biotics taken to help fight the bacteria in my brain. Twice a day - drug 1; drip for 30 minutes / drug 2; drip for 2 hours.
- Great doctors, excellent nurses,
ICU Arequipa
...looks a little confusing... clean floors, organised medical areas, pretty good food.
- 4th lumbar puncture - getting used to them by this stage.
- The doctor says they still cannot confirm what the organism is that caused the meningitis, or how I contracted it.
- Three weeks later, allowed to return home with Vick.
- Back home with Vick. Daily visit to local hospital - drug 1; drip for 30 minutes /drug 2; Baxter bottle over 23 hours. For three weeks.
- 5th lumbar puncture - results say no white cells, but protein/glucose remains. PICC line taken out. No more IV meds, switched to oral meds for 3 weeks, then MRI and maybe lumbar puncture in Sydney.
From the start I have had support from somebody.
Initially, it was Jayne, who looked after me as much as she could before calling the ambulance, the Australian authorities, and the insurance company. Jayne stayed with me at the hospital until I left for Australia.
I am as thankful for her as I am for Vick, and for my friend Andrea for travelling to Peru and weathering the storm of the sometimes troublesome Peruvian doctors and the endless
My awesome team
- Andrea, Jayne, Me, Vick -
Happy days just before coming home red tape.
I am as thankful to these doctors for giving me the correct drugs when certainty wasn’t confirmed, as I am thankful for the prayers that people sent for me.
I am thankful for my awesome family and friends, and for those who visited me in hospital, and for those who stressed their heads off when they thought I was not going to live.
I am thankful to the myriad of doctors and nurses I have seen, for their endless patience, professional care, good laughs, and for simply doing their jobs well.
I know this is starting to sound like a sermon, but I just feel pretty lucky to have had these people through this "adventure".
Thank you for the love, laughs, and I'm sorry about the worry.
All my love,
garthy
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