Pain, Long Distance Ambulances, and Dirty Hospitals

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Tuesday October 17 - We arrived at the Nepal border after our 20 minute or so grueling dusty truck ride from the Tibetan border control. I got my $30 visa to enter the country and changed some money with the immigration man hoping that the rate (and rupees) he was giving me were good. I also changed my watch back 2 hours and 45 minutes. China runs all on one time zone, even though it is enormous, and this account for the two hour time difference, even though we just went directly south. The 45 minutes is a little stranger - apparently India runs at 30 minutes ahead of the rest of what should be their time zone, and Nepal runs 15 minutes ahead of them just to show that they are different from India. Strange but true.

We then walked into town where we were planning to get a bus directly to Kathmandu. We were quickly informed that there was a strike a few kilometers up ahead and that there was no bus going today. We were then told differing stories about taxis that could take us all the way, or only to the strike where we could pick up another taxi to Kathmandu. The ride to Kathmandu is about 4 hours from the border and it was already nearing 4pm. We confirmed that the strike was actually happening with some other tourists who had called their embassy to check the facts a bit earlier. To make things easier we decided to have a relaxing night in the border town and get up early to find a bus going to Kathmandu, assuming the strike would be over by then.

We searched three different hotels and ended up in a pretty decent place. We shared a room with three beds for less than $1.50 each. We had a shared bath but this has been the case for most of my trip. There was no hot water but I made myself shower anyway, as it had been several days and the climate was much warmer than it had been in Tibet, making the task just a bit easier. To make it even easier, another tourist offered me his wife's hair drier! I haven't used one since a botched attempt in Buenos Aires in March, and I would normally always dry my hair straight at home! Score! Once I was all dry and happy, we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, which looks out over the river. It was dark already, but still nice. I ordered some Nepali food and it was ok but not great - I think this is due to the particular restaurant, not the cuisine itself.

After dinner we went up to the room, read a little bit, and then went to bed fairly early. We were all exhausted. I turned the lights off at 9:30pm and was looking forward to a good deep sleep. How wrong I was.

At 9:45pm, I started to feel a pain in my left side. I was instantly nervous - it felt like what had happened to me in Beijing when I went to the hospital. The pain there had subsided in two hours and the doctors were not able to locate a problem at that time. That was four weeks earlier and now the pain had come back. It started small but got big in a hurry. I spent a lot of time trying desperately to find a position that would make me more comfortable but nothing helped - sitting, standing, kneeling, laying - it was all a nightmare. At one point I left the room and threw up in a garbage can just outside the bathroom. The bathroom wasn't clean enough to breathe in - it would have been much worse there. I laid on the ground outside the bathroom because I felt so bad. I should have been horrified because it must have been flithy, and I should have been cold because I was outside in a tank top and shorts, but I just felt so bad that it didn't matter. I eventually went back to bed and tried again to deal with the pain. Kindie and Guillaume couldn't sleep very well either, with me tossing and turning. Kindie asked if I was alright and I said no, but there wasn't anything they could do to help. She eventually got me some pain medication from her bad and I can;t even remember if I took it or not. I think I did eventually but the pain continued.

I was awake all night, leaving frequently to use the bathroom. I thought it was definately my kidney - what else could hurt like this? I threw up another time in the room, but fortunately Kindie had given me a plastic bag to use ahead of time. She then got out of bed, took away the bag, gave me a new one, and threw the old one away. All this in the middle of the night.

Wednesday - At around 6am, Guillaume got out of bed to try to find me a doctor, or some information about an ambulance to Kathmandu. We thought it might be better and faster than a bumpy bus all the way there. He came back with some medication for me to take - he actually woke up a pharmacist to get it. In most of the countries I've been to this year you just tell the pharmacist what is wrong and he gives you the medicine. You never need a prescription. I was hesitant to take it because I didn't know what it was or what was wrong with me. While I thought about it, Guillaume went to phone my insurance company to ask them about my coverage and what we needed to do. He had to come back for information several times and call them three times. He called them collect but was still charged by the hotel for the calls since they didn't understand. He also arranged for a taxi to take us the 5km to the ambulance. While he was doing this Kindie was packing my bag and taking care of me. They are an amazing couple.

When all was ready we got in the taxi and got to where they keep the ambulance. I saw a doctor in his "office" which was a small room off the street full of meds and a small table. He gave me three different pills, which I took with no problem. I then laid down and waited what seemed an eternity for the ambulance to get ready. Guillaume agreed on a price for the ambulance that was somewhere in the neighborhood of $25. It was maybe 30 minutes later and then I was put into the front seat next to the driver (they drive on the left here) and Kindie and Guillaume sat in the back with all the luggage. It took a while to get going as there was a light on in the ambulance (which looked more like a jeep) and the driver kept checking the fuses. We finally left and it was a slow, bumpy ride. The road was not paved for most of it and we had to keep dodging other cars and cows and children on this mountain road. Luckily the pain meds had kicked in and I wasn't hurting too much. There was also clearly no urgency as the driver even stopped to buy cigarettes along the way. Then he started smoking in the ambulance! Emergency indeed.

We stopped along the way so the driver could inquire about another ambulance in a different town and then we went on. Somewhere about halfway to Kathmandu we stopped and he said we would need to get another ambulance as his battery was dying. He was arranging it. I was in and out of it and I don't remember much of what was happening or how long we waited, but it seemed to be a long time. As we were still waiting the driver said we had to pay him nearly the whole amount we had agreed on to get to Kathmandu and that we would have to pay the next driver the same. Guillaume was pissed, as I was, and said no. We had agreed to a price to get us there, I was sick, and we had told the doctor we would have to get money in the city as each of us had only changed a small amount when we arrived at the border, which was true. They took our things out of the ambulance and luckily a bus to Kathmandu pulled up. Guillaume went to ask about the price and it would only cost about $4 for all of us to get there so we said ok. The ambulance driver told the bus driver we didn't have any money and we were sure they wouldn't drive us. But we did have enough money for that and they let us on with no problems.

The bus was packed full of people but two men stood to let Kindie and I sit down. I fell into a trance-like half sleep almost immediately and stayed that way until we reached the city hours later. Guillaume sat up on the roof on the bus with our luggage and several other men. He said it was great - the views were amazing. From what I had seen when I managed to open my eyes, he was right. Green beautiful hills and rivers...it was lovely.

When we got to Kathmandu, the bus driver asked where we wanted to go. Guillaume decided it would be best to go straight to the hospital. We didn't have a guide book for Nepal and we didn't know which one to go to. But the bus dropped us off at the Bir Hospital, the largest government run hospital. We went to emergency and I explained the problem. They gave me a prescription for pain meds and said to go to a nearby office where I could have an ultrasound done to see if there were any kidney stones. Then I was to come back the following day to the Urology OPD doctors and show them the ultrasound. Easy enough but I felt there should be some more urgency to my problem. And more worrisome was the state of the emergency room. It was very dark and was crowded with sick people in beds with their families all around them. They weren't even behind a closed door - just right there next to me. It looked really bad and dirty and I became worried.

I went to get the ultrasound and it was a strange experience. This is the kind of thing you do to see a baby in there, but there was no baby to see. And nothing else it turned out. When we were done they gave me the pictures and the results that said nothing looked out of place. Bummer. I asked them if I could pay the following day and pick up the information then and they agreed. It cost 500 rupees, about $7, but I still had no money on me. I then went and got my prescription filled.

From there we took a taxi to the Kathmandu Guest House, a hotel that had been recommended by several people. And with good reason - it was enormous and had all kinds of on sight facilities, including a hair salon! They turned out to be completely booked, but they recommended another place and called over to check that they had room for us. There was room, and they even gave us a lift over there as they were headed out to the airport to pick up some guests.

We ended up at the Hotel Crown. We stayed in a room with three beds and a private bath with hot water for about $8. I ran over to the internet to email my mom that I was alive in case the insurance company called her - I didn't want to overworry her. After the internet I met Kindie and Guillaume and we went to a restaurant that drew us in with yummy smells. It was yummy indeed. I had garlic naan (thin bread), a banana lassi (yogurt shake) and palaak paneer (Indian dish made with spinach and a kind of hard cheese). It was really good and about $2. Pricey, i know, but worth it. The only bad part was that I didn't feel much like eating, so I only had about half. Anyone who knows me knows how sick I must feel when I can't eat!

After dinner we went back to the hotel and called it a night. I was feeling better with the pain medication but still worried about what was wrong with me. We were all so tired though that we went to bed early and got some good sleep.

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