In true Ari style, it was all very dramatic and very sudden. One minute I was sat on the poolside stargazing and joking around. The next minute I was upstairs doubled over in the most indescribable crippling pain I've ever been in all down my left side, before passing out on the bed for the rest of the night. Even rushing to hospital the next morning I thought nothing of it, and when the doctor said I needed to be admitted, I asked how long for because I was due to walk up the beautiful Lion Rock, something I'd been looking forward to the most about my trip. Unfortunately for me, the answer was 'a few days.'
That same day I was moved to a hospital closer to where I was based, 5 hours down south. It was there I spent my first night in hospital.
In Sri Lanka there are two types of hospitals- private, and government, where similarly to the UK government hospitals are funded by the government, and private hospitals are funded for by the patient. Most of the private hospitals have relatively good conditions, with good medical equipment and using up to date treatment and medications. Government hospitals are a different story, and it was in a variety of government hospitals where I ended up spending a lot of my time in.
The first few days of my hospital stint are very hazy to me, as I wasn't allowed to eat or drink, and was on a constant stream of antibiotics, medication and saline drips, which meant I was either sleeping or in a very sleepy state. So details of this time are unclear. I know I was in a ward with about 8 other women and children, and although it felt like I didn't sleep a wink, I must of done as this, and doing lots of attempts at blood tests, where blood just couldn't be drawn, is all I can remember.
The next morning a nurse came round, and where the nurses generally heavily struggled with the English language, she mustered up a solid effort and managed to tell me that the only conclusion from my blood tests were that my haemoglobin levels were low. She told me they should be between 13-30, and for a European getting good amounts of vitamins, sugar, minerals and whatever else it should be nearer 25-30. Mine were at a measly 8. After this an ambulance came for me, and what would've been about an hours drive took 20 minutes in true Sri Lankan driving spirit. They didn't say much about the move, only that I needed to go to a bigger and better hospital with more facilities for me.
As soon as I got to the hospital I had to admit myself by signing various papers and seeing various doctors and specialists before finally getting onto a ward with a bed. One of these papers read "I give my permission to have surgery" which I flat out refused to sign. If I needed surgery, which was brand new information for me, I would go back to England. They tried to trick me into signing it by covering up the statement, and then flat out told me I didn't have a choice. Wearily I signed it, as I had grown tired by this point and just needed to get to a bed. Luckily the coordinator of the project had provided me with sheets, as the beds are thin, brown, plastic mattresses which almost certainly hadn't been cleaned since the last patient that occupied it. Still hazy memories at this point, but what must have been a while later the doctor came over and said he thought it could be appendicitis. Even as an 18 year old media student I was able to dismiss this, as the pain, still prominent, was down my left side, so he bustled away again. More blood tests, heart monitors, samples, and a variety of 'treatment' when they had no idea what they were treating.
Then I was sat on a stretcher on wheels with 4 other patients and we were all pushed down to the scan and x ray department. I was shut in a 'changing room' which was pitch black as there was no light, and instructed to strip off and wrap myself in my bed sheet for the X-Ray, and then sat along a bench of people all in the same position. At this point I was a bit more aware of my surroundings, and picked up on the staring and the pointing from the Sri Lankan people and their astonishment of seeing a blonde white girl. My ward and bed were not much, but at this point I longed for it.
To my relief I didn't have to wait long, and was called in to the cool, bright white room and lain down to begin my X-Ray. At this stage I was suffering with the pain, still, and a shortness of breath, so the first couple of attempts at X-Raying me were unsuccessful as I couldn't breath in and hold my breath as instructed. After this X-Ray I was moved to the surgical ward. At this point they were talking about all sorts of things, as the X-Ray proved inconclusive. My diagnosis seemed to turn into a guessing game between the doctors, "cancer", "malaria", "open surgery" and "typhoid" were all thrown onto the table at one point or another. Scary stuff for a lone traveller!
Due to the possibility of surgery, I was still not allowed to eat or drink, so total exhaustion took over. Deep sleep was interrupted by medication or blood tests, or nurses checking for fever, which was increasingly getting higher, long distance phone calls to home, and even at one stage a monsoon that was spraying rain onto me through the non existent wall. A day or two into this, I was taken for an ultrasound scan which revealed my spleen and liver had moderately enlarged, and there was fluid all around my pelvis and spleen. I guess this sort of explained the pain, but the doctors were confused as the enlarged spleen didn't answer for the amount of pain I was in, only the region it was in.
I barely knew what a spleen even was at this stage, and it took a phone call to a worried sick dad for him to do a quick google search and tell me that it is a fist sized organ on the left side of your abdomen, sitting just beneath your ribcage, which filters your blood, creates new blood cells and has a pretty big part to play in the immune system too. Finally at this stage they ruled out surgery, and I was moved to a medical ward. It was then that a doctor came around and told me it was looking like this mysterious illness was in fact typhoid, a tropical disease caught in tropical countries through contaminated water or food, and I was to start typhoid treatment with immediate effect. As I was being assigned a bed, my mum rushed around the corner, as the insurance company I was with ended up flying her out.
The treatment was nasty, causing even more drowsiness than I had before, with hallucinations and confusion. I responded reasonably well to it, however, and days later I was sat up chatting to my friends who had ignored instructions about not visiting and come anyway. That support meant so much to me, and with mum coming one night and them coming the next day I began to pick up. A couple of days into the treatment, the doctors did their daily round. And finally, mine came with a semi conclusive blood test result: positive for infectious mononucleosis. This answered the spleen and liver enlargement, the tiredness, and the fever. But they were still saying I had typhoid as well as this, because there's no way I would be in the state I was in because of IMN. But they couldn't seem to get a clear result about typhoid. Another test was also indicating a bacterial infection as well as the viral infection that was mono. This was about 5 days into the ordeal, and I had just been permitted to eat and drink normally again. It was also at this stage the insurance company deemed the hospital I was staying in unsafe for me to stay there due to it's conditions, and moved me to a private hospital funded by them.
Although I was obviously relieved, I was surrounded by very sick people who wouldn't get such an option. Some lying on cardboard boxes on the balconies because there were not enough beds for them. How could I complain about the cleanliness and such insignificant matters when there were people who would've killed to get the bed that I'd been complaining about? It was a very weird feeling as a team of doctors and nurses and porters from my new hospital rushed in and wheeled me out into the ambulance, I knew I'd be ok in their care, but what about the people surrounding me? In England we complain so much about the NHS, waiting times, treatment, anything, but we fail to see how lucky we really are that we get such quality care for nothing.
After a number of blood tests at the new hospital typhoid was pushed aside as they discovered that I had a bacterial stomach infection, most likely from contaminated water, as well as IMN. So this was displaying similar symptoms to typhoid, as the other hospital picked up. I had a few more scans and such here, and a few days later was discharged, with instructions to get my strength up, fly home, and continue treatment back here.
Back in England scans found my spleen had torn inside it's membrane, causing an internal bleed which would've made my haemoglobin levels so low and caused the severe pain that night back in Sri Lanka. Back here they ruled out HIV and Hepatitis A & B, however still said there seems to be a tropical infection in the mix somewhere, which, like the stomach infection, is caused by unsafe water. Luckily, whatever medication they gave me in Sri Lanka seems to of sorted that out, so it's just one of those things that we'll never know and hopefully won't prop up again in the future. My stomach infection is also on the mend too, and I'm gradually building my diet back up to normal after dropping about a stone and a half during my time in hospital. The infectious monocleulosis is still prominent as I'm left with the limiting aftermath of extreme fatigue, which could go on for months. Where my liver seems to be going down, as you cannot feel in from the outside of the body anymore, my spleen still has a long way to go, with the tear repairing itself but still painful on occasion, and just the weird feeling of discomfort of it generally being out of sort.
This all means I'm not allowed to go abroad for a couple of months, and no spicy or fatty foods and no alcohol, and nothing which could risk my spleen rupturing such as contact sports. Apart from that, I'm seeing my doctor regularly who says things are on the mend, and I will definitely be able to take my place at university in a few weeks.
This aside, I had the best time in Sri Lanka and miss it terribly. 3 days after leaving hospital I flew home and am receiving on going treatment here, but everything's getting back on track. It's definitely not how I expected or even imagined my trip turning out, but it's a story to tell!
Comments
Post a Comment