Medical Adventures in Thailand

It all started with a fever. They are fairly common here in the tropics, for they sneak up on you like a serpent crawling up a mango tree. The sign of one is also usually the start of something bad. Two weeks ago I was on my way to a Habitat for Humanity house build from Angkor when suddenly I felt aches in my joints and neck. Passing it off as a side affect from a long bus ride down to Phnom Penh, I took some Tylenol™ and went to sleep that Saturday night thinking it was just something minor. By next morning I was vomiting in the shared bathroom of my guesthouse, and I had the suspicion that all was not well. After recovering and cleaning myself up a bit, I lay on my back for a while that morning waiting for whatever I had to pass. The ceiling fan provided some monotonous entertainment until I felt well enough to move. Walking to the Peace Corps office along Monivong boulevard, I felt a little better but not by much. I met up with the other volunteers that afternoon, and we hopped in a lan-touree (minibus) towards Oudong where we were to work on the house. The specific project we were working on was to see how long it would take us to build a house made out of cement bricks and steel roofing. Habitat for Humanity is having a house build bonanza across Asia for five days come next November, and they wanted to see if volunteers working with skilled workers could successfully build a house in that short amount of time. The projected site that we were working on was planned for a community that currently lives in a dump site near Phnom Penh. On the whole, it went pretty successfully. Here’s a short little blurb I wrote for the Habitat for Humanity newsletter:

During the last week of April this year, fourteen Peace Corps Cambodia volunteers and I helped test-build a house for the New Life community in Oudong Cambodia. While most of our volunteers are currently involved in English instruction assignments throughout the country, nearly half of our group was able to help with the project. Although most of us did not know anything about masonry or building houses, both the Habitat staff and Khmer skilled workers were diligent in their instructions to us. After the first couple of days, we seemed to fall into the different professions that we seemed to like the best. These included bricklayer, brick-fetcher, brick-mover, brick-soaker and washer, brick-chopper and mender, filler of the spaces between the bricks, as well as other assorted jobs around the site. We arrived at the building site on Monday to find only a bathroom and a cement base there. Our team worked fairly fast on the walls despite the heat and a few interruptions from the beginning of the rainy season, and by Thursday we had put up the doors, windows, and were almost finished with the roof. The days were hot, but most of us were able to cope with that having lived in this country for almost a year. Two coolers of iced bottle-water, a tarp that provided shade, and a couple of nice afternoon breezes just before the rains helped with that as well. At the end of the week, our group was exhausted but happy with the work we accomplished. When the New Life community came and visited the site, we were overjoyed to see that they liked the house. It was also good to see that a lively dance was held after the dedication ceremony! We hope that rest of the build in November goes well, and that the families of the community enjoy their new homes.

The only problem for me during the build was that I was suffering from fever, aches, nausea, and a lack of appetite during the whole time I was there. Thinking that it had to do with food poisoning, I started taking the antibiotics (ciproflaxocin) that are included in our medical kits for such a thing. After a few days, my condition remained the same. Out of concern I called our medical officer for help. She said to continue taking the cipro and to see if it would work in a few more days, but by Sunday the next week I was still having severe nausea. Not wanting to go back to site, I called the medical officer again and we guessed that this was actually giardia roaming around my stomach (giardia is something which I have had three times during my life, proving that the little parasite and I are truly the best of friends.)

I rested for a couple of days in Phnom Penh in a debilitated state of entropy. Having no real appetite to eat anything, I could not enjoy any of the wonderful food that the city has to offer. By Tuesday I was on my way back to Angkor, and by Wednesday I arrived there. My appetite had returned slowly, but by Thursday I had kind of a strange pain developing in my groin/abdominal region that made sitting or moving about uncomfortable. Concerned that I may have pulled something during the house build, I called the medical officer who greeted me on the phone with, “Oh Adrian, what is it this time?” I explained the situation to her, and she told me to go see an American doctor who loves in Siem Reap the next day.

The following morning, I packed a few things just in case I would have to be sent to Bangkok on medical. I hopped into a pickup truck headed out of town, and finally arrived in Siem Reap. The doctor in Siem Reap took a look at me and told me I had a hernia. Finally knowing what it was, the medical officer in Phnom Penh then arranged for me to fly from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, and then from Phnom Penh to Bangkok. After traveling about in slow moving vehicles for ten months, it was amazing just get onto a plane. I felt great sitting on plane in my dusty handwashed clothes holding a glass of iced water. I could look down on Cambodia from above, and marvel just how pancake flat it is.

When I touched down in Bangkok, I could immediately see the difference between Cambodia and Thailand was like night and day. The gleaming metal airport I arrived in was so clean, efficient, and orderly. When I went to the Taxi stand, I did not have to pick one driver over tens of screaming motorcycle or tuk tuk drivers. One was assigned for me to take me to the hospital, and I could not stop staring at him. He was really overweight, and it occurred to me that it had been nearly ten months since I had seen anyone who had money to eat that much. When we drove away, my eyes were like saucers with the sight of all that I could see. Wide expansive highways with overpasses and barriers, gigantic billboards with advertisements for washing machines and cars, and bright lights were all around me. I could see signs for McDonald’s, 7-11, and other glimmering buildings of wonder.

I arrived in Bumrungrad International Hospital, which is where I’m currently writing this. It is a fairly nice hospital, with excellent staff and a good reputation. People come from all over the world for treatment here, and there are lots of different people around. The food menu even consists of a oriental, western, halal, or vegetarian option to eat. Thai, English, Chinese, and Arabic is written over almost everything I see here. I’ve got a nice room with a TV, refrigerator, safe, bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the city. The nurses are fairly friendly. A couple of them were looking at my photo on my ID card from Peace Corps, and they started laughing hysterically. I have lost a lot of weight since coming here, and they could not believe how thin I looked compared to my face in the picture. “Maybe I need to spend a year in Cambodia too!” they told me when I left.

In terms of treatment, they did an ultrasound the morning after I arrived. It turns out that I do not have a hernia. It’s something else, but it is also very treatable. Hopefully, I’ll be out of here soon. So far in the Peace Corps I’ve had several minor colds, strep throat, dengue fever, two cases of giardia, athlete’s foot, and now something called epiditimitytis. It just goes to show you how living in the tropics can really take a toll on you.