Never in 26 countries have I EVER been this ill.
Now, you may not want to know the intricacies of my gastrointestinal problems, but, I never thought anything like this could get to me – cement gut – and especially in a first world country.
Cue Camphylobacter Bacteria, and the chicken club sandwich that gave it to me. I have never had food poisoning in my life until last week, when I ate a not-even-that-tasty-sandwich, and 36 hours later had a fever, chills and the absolute worst bout of the runs. At first I thought it could be decompression sickness, since fever, chills and diarrhea are all symptoms, but it became quite clear that this was something entirely different – and I ended up in hospital, hooked up to IV fluids for 8 hours while they pumped 2 litres of saline and potassium laced goodness into me. I basically figured, I have insurance – why the hell am I suffering to try to sip water allllll day long and then run to the toilet allllll the other parts of the day when I can just go and someone with much more knowledge and specialized equipment can sort this out for me?!
So in I went feeling a bit foolish, but everyone was very kind. The very nice doctor, who was about 2 minutes older than me, took all my info and asked me lots of questions. One of my favourites was ‘Now, you don’t have any bites or stings do you?’ to which my reply was ‘Heaps! I got stung by stingers all up and down my legs last week out on the reef and now I have some weird bites on my elbows, and this weird rash in my elbow-pit . . .’ NOT quite the reply she was looking for I think. Eventually we found a half-decent vein that still wouldn’t give them all the blood they wanted (de-hy-drated) and got me all hooked up. And so I waited, and read a book (yes, I read an entire book) and my lovely doctor said at about hour 6 that she was very glad that I had come in to see them, making me feel lots better.
IV fluids are amazing. When they let me out of there I felt like I could run a marathon! That feeling lasted about 4 hours. Then the delicious 1 1/2 hospital sandwiches caught up with me . . . ugh. However, I was now ahead on my fluids, and I’ve managed to stay ahead for the last few days. Eating like a normal human (ie eating anything other than bananas, toast, crackers and hummus) is still a pipe dream, as apparently this evil bacteria takes quite a while to fix, even with the help of the super awesome antibiotics I’m now taking.
So, the moral of this story? Travel Insurance – don’t travel without it!!! Because even in a first world country like Australia, where your toilet is not a hole in the ground, the food is refridgerated, and the money has not been used as toilet paper once upon a time, there are evil nasty bacteria’s waiting to grab you unawares. I made it through 6 African countries without ever needing to see anyone for anything other than a spider bite, but Australia has totally thrown me for a loop. So yes, buy travel insurance, keep it updated, keep it with you, and USE IT when you need to. If you don’t have your health, then you don’t have much.
The Travelling Twin 