Sickness Round 3

So before I go on to tell you about the end of camp I'll tell you about the experience I had today. Sunday night kicked off my third bout with nasty-india-sickness as I have come to call it. I was up all night long, every hour on the hour, praying to the porcelain god. I taught A&A class as usual on Monday but was laying down with every chance I got. I slept most of the afternoon/evening and then was up once again all through the night. I decided this morning that it would be a bad idea to head out to Kalapani with the way I was feeling. At around 10am Ellen said she thought I should go and see a doctor. Ellen's been good at making useful connections since we arrived here. She met a young doctor on one of her visits to the hospital and so Ray called him up. He told him to take me to the hospital so that's just what he and Ellen did. I was pretty impressed when the Dr. met us at the E.R. door and took us right in. He examined me and within the next 20 minutes four other doctors had also examined me. I don't think I've ever gotten to see one doctor let alone five in that short of a period of time in Canada. The diagnosis came quick enough, severe dehydration and low blood sugar. So they hooked me up to an IV, which is definitely not my favorite thing in the world. It took them two tries before they got it in but luckily Ellen was there to hold my hand. Over the next 6 hours they pumped me full of dextrose, saline, pain killers and what I assumed was antibiotics. There was a lot of talk going on about admitting me for observation over night but I really wasn't too keen on that idea, so instead they sent me home with some oral medication (antibiotic, anti-parasitic, and something else that I'm not 100% sure about) and plenty of electrolytes to drink. The electrolytes alone are enough to make a person never want to be sick again. It was quite the day. I'm pooped out tired but very thankful for access to health care. Today's little visit to the hospital set me back about $1500 Rupees, that works out to about $35 Canadian. Not bad if you ask me. As good of a deal as it was I don't plan on being a repeat customer.