29-30th aug

29th August

Today we have decided that tomo, Iv gotta see a Dr about this stomach thing. I think its got worse, after every meal now, im running to the toilet, and the stools are partially formed which means im not absorbing anything, which probably accounts for the complete washed out feeling that I have. This in conjunction with me being too tired to sunbathe definitely indicates illness, oh and also this intermittent fever that I have oh and headache. Okay yikes, I am quite unwell, but I kinda expected to get sick here, as keeping anything clean and bug free is a bloody nightmare.
Last night I think was the final straw for me also, I awoke at about midnight with the urge, grabbed the poo bag, ran to the loo, switched on the torch and was greeted by so many cockroaches, I daren’t sit on the toilet seat and so had to do my business in a plastic food bag (thanking Sammy again for these bags which have become indispensable). How my aim was straight I dono but I did it! Yay!. Also this palaver enabled me to actually examine my stool and see if there was any blood or mucus (or god forbid PARASITES). None of which were present but I definitely could identify which meal in the last twentyfour hours (egg and toast) that I had expelled.
This morning, I thought toast would be appropriate (yes, that’s right, we have a toaster but no bloody running water) anyways I went to spread margarine on my bread only to discover that despite me sealing the tub, and wrapping it in two plastic bags, a family of ants had managed to set up home inside the tub! –fume.
Argh everything is infested with animals here, my only safe haven is my bed, and this is due to the minging mossie net that covers it.
Despite this I have managed to do away with the cockroaches in our toilet –i poured warm bleach over them. But the flies still persist and have this bloody annoying trait of not being afraid of humans and so landing on quite personal areas of my body, areas such as my lips, my nose my hands ergh, hand gel city.
Despite all this I am enjoying my time here, and actually really can’t wait to start at Siaya district on Monday. Hopefully, the antibiotics that I get will do the trick, as im starting to lose my appetite (don’t think ive lost any weight though) and as Janet text me, ‘dont come back looking like Africa aint got any food!’. The place has food, its just now im too afraid to eat anything. Its Sunday and im going back to bed im bloody exhausted!

Ok so Im finishing this blog on Monday the 30th of Aug. I got worse. I was running to the loo after every sip of water, my abdominal cramps were worse, and I think that after getting up from bed and pretty much fainting, Helen insisted that I go to the Drs. Mission. I figured I was ill cause only had I not washed, brushed my teeth or changed my clothes, but thought that my present appearance was suitable for a trip to the hospital (gal was ill). I kept falling asleep on the matatu (not good as only I knew the stop to get off) and just felt completely exhausted.
We arrived at Dophil and Dr Phil insisted that I should be put on a drip, have some IV antibiotics and be observed. Me being the worse patient in the world, refused everything –I seriously thought that I had travellers stomach and would feel better. But I gave up after having to run to the loo two more times and this was without eating anything!!

Guess which bloody bed I was placed on –I was put in the isolation room, on the bloody bed that the guy who I resused had died on. Great. I had the same view of the walls and ceiling that he had ad he took his last breathes. I bloody hate being a patient, I tell you its one thing being a Doctor in a third world hospital, but being a patient in a third world hospital and actively comparing the difference in care between that hospital and the one back in England, sends shivers down my spine. I perfectly knew that they would use clean needles to draw up my blood, I knew that the fluid given to me was sterile, I knew that the bed was clean but I still in the back of my mind was like, ‘am i gonna get HIV?!’ –bloody idiot.
Anyhow, I didnt have malaria. I didnt have typhoid. My Hb was like 16 (the highest its ever been mind). Next the lab tech wanted a sample of my poo. In England we give patients quite large sample pots into which to put their sample. Here, I was given a sample pot with the entrance diameter of about my little finger. Er, how am i to poo in this pot with out shitting all over my hand? But at this point I was desperate to please everyone and be allowed home, NO FUCKING WAY, was I staying the night in this hospital. And so I filled the pot and shat all over my hand. Grim grim grim grim grim times.

Embarrassingly but nicely, all the staff at the hospital, without knocking mind, all came to see me in my sick bed. All asking what I think could have caused my sickness. I replied some Kenyan food. They all typically replied, ‘Kenyan food dosnt cause sick stomach’ –Ey? I was too tired to argue with such nonsense.

Anyhow, after the litre of water had pumped its way into my veins and rehydrated my body, and the IV antibiotics has killed which ever organism was inhabiting my gut, and after I had some rest, IFELT SO MUCH BETTER! With hindsight it was obvious that I was bloody ill. Prob is that my threshold for illness is so high, Im sure that If I had I had left it until today MAN ALIVE I would have been so much more sick, and prob wouldn’t have made it to the hospital, and lord knows what would have happened then.

The joke is after I discharged myself, Dr Phils son came with some food for Helen and I, er, he came with rice, chicken and pepper soup. Lovely, thankyou I said but ive just had food poisoning I thought, the last thing I bloody want is spicy chicken. Needless to say I ate the chicken, jogged on with the rest though as now I have the fear, fear of food.
Today, Monday Iv had pretty much nothing but toast. Too afraid.. Everything here, has flies flying around it, or ants inhabiting it, I am starting to miss English food. The plastic packaging, the preservatives, clean, ah clean, i miss clean.
Okay so I haven’t needed to poo at all today, I bloody hope that I aint going through another week of constipation and then next week illness again. We shall see. Fingers crossed for wellness for the last three weeks.