The Java Jive

Food Poisoning

Posted on 12. Jan, 2005 by Brandon in General

Just as I was thinking how great my 3 week break was, and how awesome Bali was – I got hit.

Yep, I was the guy savoring the chicken on the flight back from Bali (they say never eat chicken on Indonesian flights). Within hours of arriving home, I started feeling chills and as if my skin was crawling. By 11pm I was hit – hard – with by far, the worst case of food poisoning I’ve had in my life.

By the next morning I was confident I could ride it out, as I’ve had it many times before living over here – I was wrong. By noon my fever was 39.5 (103+), and I was feeling ready to pass out. My buddy took me to hospital where they jabbed me full of I.V.’s, and told me I had to be admitted.

I’ve never spent the night in a hospital – but I figured it’d be more interesting with a roommate. When they wheeled me into the room, I was met with a smiling elderly Chinese man. Now, I truly understand that hospitals aren’t always the most pleasant smelling places, but nothing prepared me for the wall of stench invading my nostrils. Urine. Plain and simple.

A few hours later, he walked over to me, I.V. in tow, and said, “You must eat – or later you will be weaker.” Friendly advice, thanks guy. Then, “If you want to pee – you don’t have to go to the bathroom, just use that (pointing to the bedpan), and the nurses will take care of it.”

Hmm… could that be the source of my nasal intrusion? Sure enough, under his bed was a full pan of glistening golden goodness – evaporating into the room in the humid heat.

The nurses came in and asked if I’d like a sponge bath.
“How many nurses?” (just jokin)
“Six.” (gasp!)
“I can have six nurses sponge bathe me?” – Her face drains to a pale white.
“Oh, no no no! So sorry! I mean six work here! Only one for sponge bath.”
“It’s ok, I’ll manage on my own.” – too many images flooding my pounding mind.

Within the next few hours, they took blood samples to find out if it was Typhoid Fever or an ameoba. Luckily both came up negative. After a horrible night with 5 bags of saline pumping through my veins, I finally came around. I was released later that day, after the doctor said my immune system was very strong and I was very lucky, as it could have been much worse.

I’m back on my feet, but I hope that provides sufficient reasoning for my lack of posting.

Lesson learned? Don’t have the chicken and DO pay the extra money to have your own room in the hospital!

Guess that’s what I get for titling my last post, “Safe and Sound.”

Tags: General