Visiting Hours

Well my first stay over night in a hospital happened to be in Thailand. 

The short story is that somehow my eye got infected, and I was recommended to stay at the hospital to be administered antibiotics and keep a close eye (haha) on it.

The longer story begins on Wednesday when I went out to have a drink with friends.  I was happy to be out with friends and was celebrating the end of my teaching week.  The next two days were sports day at our school, which you can read about in another post! No classes for two days and certainly an experience.

Anyway I had ridden my bike to a local bar to meet up with friends.  I remember my eye being bothered, but wasn’t worried.  Later I went home took out my contacts and rested for the night, that evening I woke up and felt like I had something in my eye, I tried washing out my eye and went back to bed.  (here’s a moment when I appreciate America’s clean water, because cleaning my eye with water from the tap in the middle of the night probably wasn’t a good idea)

The next day my eye was still bothering me a bit, I was going to wear glasses, but then decided to give my contacts a try because I thought I might be encouraged into participating in sports day races and would be out in the sun wanting to wear my sunglasses.  I then spent the day out under the sun and with dust from the sports field being kicked up, and my eye seemed to be getting a little worse. Anyway, I’m not sure why you might care, but I suppose I got used to telling a long winded story about my red eye to try and get it correctly diagnosed. Throughout the day my eye was sensitive to the light and continued to bother me more, I was also quite tired.  So after going home,  resting, and consulting my primary doctor Mama Stucke, I headed to the hospital to see about getting it checked and getting some antibiotics.  One hour and less than $20 later I had a prescription for antibiotic pills and eye drops to take four time a day. 

The next day, Friday now, my eye still didn’t feel better, so I spent most of the day resting.  And then enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal.

Saturday morning the eye still wasn’t better so I went out to find the eye doctor a nurse at the hospital had recommended I go to.  As it turns out the office is opens at 4:30, so I came back then to have my eye looked at.  The receptionist spoke very little English, but iphone translating apps were a lifesaver, technology can be such an asset. It took not one, but two apps because some translations came through as red silk and other irrelevant phrases. (Thai-English, iphone app is great, has a purple icon, great resource!!)

The doctor confirmed my eye was infected and what a shock when he told me he wanted to admit me to the hospital for 1 to 2 weeks!! So after my slight freak out and call to Thai friends I began my first trip to a hospital!

Thankfully I had escorts, translators, and even comedians (thanks to Orlando! I was ready for anything after jokes about scraping my eye and being blind) to put me at ease.  So, after deciding to pay more to have my own room, I found out that I was not allowed to stay there alone. 

This is a stark contrast to the ‘Visiting Hours’ of the U.S. and western cultures.  It is more uncommon that someone be at the hospital without family and friends in Thailand.  No one batted an eye asking who was coming with me to the hospital (that or I was oblivious in my English-speaking ignorance).  It is amazing family will sleep on the floor, stay through the day and night with their relatives and make sure they are cared for. 

The atmosphere at the hospital here is also relaxed and even cheerful, with nurses and patients smiling and joking.  That is with my experience in the pirate ward.  I am one of the few comrades without an eye patch and certainly the only foreigner.

So although I am currently sitting at a hospital bored and unable to really communicate with the people around me, wondering as to why I am even here since I can put eye drops and ointment in my eye and take a pill twice a day all on my own, I am still grateful for the experience to see another culture’s medical system and truly appreciate the times I live without language barriers (presently it would seem I am also writing the world’s longest ungrammatically correct sentence).

So a careful eye is being kept on my now healing eye infection and I’ll keep you posted.  Sadly though I may develop a fear of wearing contact lenses in tropical climates because the eye doctor attributes the infection to that, although I still think something first scratched my eye. 

However, I happened upon my eye infection it’s being taken care of, although I’m being taken out of my comfort zone it’s a worthwhile experience.  And I know there will be more times to come when I will not be in control of aspects of my own life. 

Discovered the greatness of Koala snacks, when some of my lovely visitors brought me snacks and smiles.