My health story: 3 days In Phnom Penh hospital.

So, once again, I’m on my way to the hospital and I thought I’d start writing this as it’s a 2.5 hour drive to get there.

After my second trip to the clinic last week, we thought everything was sorted and I’d start to get better. Not long after, I received a call from the UK medical team saying that I need to travel to Phnom Penh hospital at 6am the next morning. Will and Charlotte also needed to he checked out so we all went together in a big car.

I have now travelled 7.5 hours in the taxis, to and from hospital and NONE of them had seatbelts. So forget that I’m pretty sick because I may as well wish my life away in the car. Seatbelts save lives. Considering these taxis have been safety checked, it’s really poor play by VSO as our lives are in danger during these journeys - and it’s not like they don’t drive like absolute loonies around here.

Rant over.

It didn’t take us long to realise that the UK get taken to a private hospital, which is one of the best things that the medical team could’ve done for us. Super clean and all the doctors and nurses spoke good English. However, the Khmer don’t get taken to the same hospital as this one is too expensive (from what we’ve heard) which doesn’t make sense because as volunteers and human beings, we are all equals.

After arriving, we all decided to get a croissant and a coffee. I hadn’t quite realised yet that having this, would show the start of my sickness.

Will, Charlotte and I were all sitting in the waiting room, waiting to be assessed by a Doctor and a Nurse, when all of a sudden I got this overwhelming feeling of sickness. I tried to ask the nurse for a bucket, but as I was there for my stomach pain and diarrhoea one of the nurses said “you need to poo poo?” And giggled a little. This was pretty much the only bad experience I had with a member of staff though so I don‘t hold a grudge. I ran to the toilet and threw up everything I had in me. My eyes had already been a little sore but nothing to worry about, and my head had been banging for around 5 days at this point. After being assessed by the doctor, he thought it was best that Will and I both go on drips to rehydrate us and to take our blood.

As happy as I seemed here, I had no idea how I was going to feel as the hours progressed.

Lunch time came by and everyone was allowed downstairs to have lunch in the restaurant. The doctor said that I was to eat in my bed so he could see if I could chew and swallow (which I could). I ended up eating downstairs anyway but after everyone had come back. They supply Western food In the hospital so I decided to treat myself to a Carbonara. As tasty as this was, I still couldn’t keep it in me and I was being sick no less than 10 minutes later.

As we were on IV’s, every time we wanted to move around, we had to be taken on a wheelchair, which was fun at first but annoying as the days went on.

“Who‘s the other guy in the photo, I haven’t seen him in your blogs before?“ I hear you ask. This is Michael, He was emitted a few days before I was as he had dengue fever - one of Cambodias biggest killers. Michael was very lucky to get “stage 1“ of Dengue and was out of the hospital the same day as I was. However, we’re both in the car now, on the way back. Michael is also working in a different community which is why you never see him on the blogs, our communities are close but we can’t see each other unless we’re in hospital or in one of our out of community days!

After Will and Charlotte had been discharged, the doctor decided he wanted to keep me in the hospital. I was taken to a really nice and private room which was More like a hotel room. It was really nice to be in such a clean and modern place, however it did get quite lonely. Hannah was here the Whole time and slept on the sofa, she made the whole experience a lot more bearable and fun.

I was put on a ”no fruit, veg or milk” diet and they gave me western food. Pork chops, chips, soup, bread and crackers. All for dinner as the doctor was testing weather I could keep something like this inside me, which I could!

I had a hot shower that night and was checked on every hour by a nurse through the night. At 5am they woke me up to take my temperature and blood pressure again and at 6am they came in to change my drip.

We settled down with our really nice window view and eventually went to sleep around 1am. I was really excited to get off my drip at midnight as I had been on one for so long I thought it was over. However, after waiting up for it to finish so I could get it taken out, the nurse came in and switched it over. The amount of sleep was little as I had a giant towel instead of a blanket to cover me which wasn’t the comfiest and the nurses woke us up quite a bit, which I can’t complain about because the whole situation could’ve been a lot worse.

The next day for breakfast, I had some sausages, ham, toast and I gave hannah my eggs. I was very happy to get my “just ham” sandwich which I have been craving since arriving in Cambodia. (Also excuse the hair, I wasn’t feeling great)! The doctor kept adding cookies and biscuits to my meal plans which was really sweet of him (We packed them up and took them home).

Finally, the doctor tried to test me by giving me the same carbonara without the milk to see if I could keep it in, which I did! So.... seeming better? The doctor offered another night of stay or I could be discharged. At this point, I had been on a drip for

21 hours so I told the doctor that I wanted the drip out and to go back to community, if possible.

The doctor diagnosed me with gastroenteritis and colitis and gave me the correct meds to calm down my body and fixed my dehydration with the 21 hours worth of drip. Colitis is now a life long disease; I already have one life long disease and don’t really fancy another. After talking with my Mum on the phone, we arranged an appointment in England to do a full body check and check the diagnosis’.

My counterpart, Sanmort, who I‘m writing a blog about for the end of the trip, sent me a few messages whilst I was in hospital. One of them read “I’m sorry I made you sick, I’m sorry I didn’t look after you”. This broke my heart as nothing was her fault at all, so I bought her this little piggy which she adores!

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It’s not over yet!

After a good nights sleep back in community ( I did actually miss sleeping on my mattress on the floor), I woke up feeling super out of breath and dizzy. I decided to head to the office and try to do some work. An hour into work, I get this overwhelming pain. A pounding headache, hideous eye pain where I struggled to even open them. It’s hard to describe the pain, but I was shaking and pouring my eyes out on the phone to my Mum - who I’d woken up at 5am. Hannah phoned the emergency line who told her than I needed to go to the clinic and get a Dengue fever test straight away as I was showing all the signs of Dengue except the rash. The test came back negative. My heart rate has been tachycardic for the past few days, reaching a high of 136 and a low of 112.

The doctor at the clinic gave some bad excuse that everything I had experienced since I’d come to Cambodia was due to a 0.1 calcium deficiency, which the UK team thought was stupid too. He, again, gave me $100’s worth of medication which both teams decided I shouldn’t take.

After a few emails and calls to the medical team, they decided I should go to the hospital again and get a test for dengue and meningitis as dengue takes a few days to show in your blood. The doctor at the hospital said that the lady at the clinic had taken my blood wrong and cut a bit of my vein, it should fix on its own though.

I woke up feeling a a lot better this morning, I’m not sure how long it’s going to last and when my next bad turn is going to be. On a positive note, we met Michael in the car who was on his way to hospital again as well! It’s always nice to have him as company.

We came back to the hospital and long story short, the doctor told me that there’s absolutely nothing wrong. Which really annoyed me, how can you go from crying and shaking on the floor in pain, to “there’s nothing wrong, you’re discharged”. My fever had disappeared too which didn’t help my case.

I had a lovely thai woman look at my vagina too... everything was good and it was the funniest experience I’ve had. I won’t go into detail but Hanah said “It was magical” which should sum up that experience quite well.

Back to square one again, other than the colitis diagnosis I have nothing to explain how I’m feeling. It’s getting to the point where (if I’m throwing up every day) I want to go home and see a UK doctor. On the other hand, I only have 40 days left to stick this out.

The UK team are keeping me in the capital for a day or two in case I have another flare up and need emergency care straight away.

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Now, here’s me moaning about throwing up all the time when Michael has just gotten out of surgery! he had an abscess on his butt and he needed it removed today.

For some reason, even though he has an surgical wound, the hospital didn’t want him to stay the night or even a minute! He pretty much left he hospital with us, straight after surgery. Michael is an absolute trooper, I have the upmost respect for how he is dealing with everything (he wasn’t even bothered about the surgery) and I’m looking forward to sharing the guest house with him, pey and Hannah.

A special shoutout to Hannah for making this week bearable and funny In whatever situation. A fantastic team leader who will do anything for her volunteers.

And another special shoutout to my team who made me feel so special last night with all these lovely notes! Xo Srae Thmei team is the reason to stay here.