1st trip to the local mooban emergency room

[beazalbob69]

Well I have been living it up in the village for 10 months now and other than a few bouts of irritable bowel syndrome and one hangover I have been spared anything serious until Friday morning.

Woke up Friday morning needing to run to the bathroom. After about 5 similar trips in the next couple of hours started to feel nauseous and couldn't eat breakfast. Stomach started to feel as if it was filling up quickly even though it was empty. Next I started to get waves of nausea followed by sweating profusely and shallow breaths. The 3rd or fourth wave don't really remember I blacked out for a few seconds and my arms and hands got all tingly. I managed to stagger outside to ask my wife to drive me to the hospital. She took one good look at me in the light of day and quickly helped me into the truck.

Ended up driving me to the nearest Hospital about 25 minutes out. The cool AC in the truck helped a little and by the time we got there I felt slightly better. My wife drove me right up to the ambulance drop off area and helped me out of the truck. They must get a lot of falang heart attacks out here because they took me in ASAP right to the front of the line!

Laid me down on a bed and did the normal workup. Blood sugar...perfect. Blood pressure....Fine. Hooked me up to a heart monitor to make sure I wasn't in cardiac arrest.....Heart looks great nice and strong.

Doctor ends up giving me an IV for dehydration with a anti nausea medicine in the drip. And oh yeah the male nurse missed the vein on his 1st attempt and had to try again on the other hand but no problem my veins don't stick out.

2 hours later IV finished I walk out of the ER with freshly re-hydrated blood and a bag of anti nausea pills. Total cost 240 baht!!! Would have cost $1000 fuckin dollars in the US with no insurance.

So I get back in the truck and my wife drives down to the market to pick up a few things. She leaves my sorry looking ass in the truck. While waiting for her to get back got another wave and was drenched in sweat. She comes back and starts to pull the truck away. I try to tell her to stop and I try to get out of the truck but only manage to get the door half open before I puke my brains out all down the door panel and the ground. So now I am wretching and dry heaving in front of a bunch of Thai shoppers who are trying to not look at the dying falang.

After that I felt a little better and managed to make it back home. Slept most of the rest of that day.

So here it is Sunday night and I just started to eat. 3 days with no food and little water. Stomach is still a mess but now its the opposite. Stomach is making all kinds of funny noises but no poop to pop. I figure I lost about 3 or 4 kilo's in 3 days. Not a bad diet!

Not a fun experience. Food poisoning? Stomach virus? Fuck if I know.

[terry57]

^

Exactly why I remain firmly within farting distance of a real hospital.

End Off.

[Gerbil]

^^ go to the hospital and get a FULL blood test (including liver function test, red & white blood cell counts, etc) - that will cost 500-700 baht, but should show up if there is any underlying problem.

Not a bad idea to get one of those done once a year, even if you are healthy.

[beazalbob69]

Good advice Gerbil. I still don't know what it was or is that I got.

[Eliminator]

If you eat what you think is bad food, then get some of the charcoal tablets and the little white ones, I swear by em. Had the same problem a few years back and went to the local hospital and the dickhead doctor and owner of the hospital put me through 2 hours of nothing but PAIN.

After nearly 2 hours of him trying to get me to stay in the hospital at least over night, he prescribed the 2 different tablets I mentioned before and my problems were gone. I wanted to hit the asshole/.

I have almost totally stopped eating off cart sellers and seeing this thread, I'm going to tell the misses to stock up on the tablets.

[chassamui]

Good advice Gerbil. I still don't know what it was or is that I got.

Agree with gerbil.

Is it the male menopause? Do you want a Ferrari and a new wife?

[rickschoppers]

From the symptoms you described, it sounds like food poisoning. If you had a temperature, probably a nasty stomach virus. Either way the IV anti-nausea medications sounded like they helped you short term until they wore off.

You have two choices. First, you can go back and have more thorough tests done as described above to rule out some possibilities, or you can see how things go the next 72 hours or so. If you are not better by then, go see a good physician. Stay with clear liquids and water until your stomach calms down. Then start up with soup and possibly crackers.

My guess, which is what the physicians are doing, is food poisoning. Too many things out there that can reap havoc with the digestive system. Go ahead and take the anti-nausea meds and if diarrhea persists get some lomotil or immodium.

Hope you feel better.

[Mr Lick]

As Eliminator mentioned it's always best to have charcoal tablets in the house.

Unfortunately in LoS food poisoning is commonplace so good to have them at hand for those special moments when we aren't quite sure what end we want to squirt from.

Pleased to hear you are feeling much better

[chassamui]

Stay with clear liquids and wate

Seriously,, boiled cooled water is recommended for any gastro intestinal issues. Thai default is a drip for all and any conditions.

Tingly hands, sweating, nausea and delerium is another issue.

Guy needs a proper doc now, not TD amateurs.

[rickschoppers]

^
That pretty much covers everyone who gives any advice for anything then, doesn't it?

[Rural Surin]

^
That pretty much covers everyone who gives any advice for anything then, doesn't it?

Except for those who think they know what they're talking about....

[rickschoppers]

They don't have any of those on this forum, do they?

[wasabi]

He did see a proper doctor but wasnt satisfied so he asked the members for their ideas.

[rickschoppers]

Stay with clear liquids and wate

Seriously,, boiled cooled water is recommended for any gastro intestinal issues. Thai default is a drip for all and any conditions.

Tingly hands, sweating, nausea and delerium is another issue.

Guy needs a proper doc now, not TD amateurs.

The reason they start a drip on someone, is so they can give IV medications. The OP received an intravenous anti-nausea medication, which is the best way to give one and not have to worry about keeping it in your stomach. The fluids didn't hurt him either since I am sure he lost some from nausea and diarrhea.

Haven't you every taken an first aid class?

Besides, you misspelled delirium. You are not the medical type, are you?

[kingwilly]

I wouldn't have left the hospital until they could tell you what it was. Treating the symptoms aint gonna fix anything.

[rickschoppers]

^
Good point.

[sabang]

It takes a while to develop an 'asian stomach', and anyone can be unlucky and cop something worse than your standard gastro bug. A chap I know in HK copped a bad stomach, left it a few nauseous days before seeing the doc- and it turned out to be amoebic dysentery. He pulled thru', but lost one third of his body weight in the process. Gerbil's advice is sound- if you are not already feeling 100% better, recommend you get some tests done at a decent hospital.

[beazalbob69]

Thanks for the help everyone. I am feeling much better today. Was able to eat a little last night and it stayed down. Now I am eating some toast and a glass of milk. Going good so far.

I just want to clear up some points. The Doctor actually was better than I had thought He would be. When I got to the Hospital I was almost symptomless as the cool air in the truck made me feel better. From the symptoms my wife and I described he concluded an upset stomach and dehydration. The IV helped and the pills were good as they put me to sleep. He was very concerned about me having a heart attack but it wasn't that as everyone could see and I knew.

Was actually treated a fair bit better than the last time I went to the ER in the USA. I give the Thai Doctor a B. I went in with very bad abdominal pains and everybody in the fuckin ER in Florida thought I was just a junkie looking for some pain killers. They didn't even help! $200 dollars with my insurance for a bunch of dirty fuckin looks and fake smiles. I would rather be treated here than not treated in the USA by a bunch of pompous, look down their noses at you, douche bags.

[Yasojack]

Beaz good to hear

My experiences here of doctors in hospitals has generally been positive, only bad experience i had was with my wifes father and that was a private hospital in Yasothon, cost me a small fortune, and we ended up going to Ubon to a govt hospital.

Theres govt hospitals near us that i wouldn't go near.

[beazalbob69]

Yeah Yaso I have seen both sides of the coin here as well. Some of the govt hospitals are scary. The place I went to was a small hospital that can only treat small things. Anything really serious they ship you off to a big hospital in Korat City.

Another thing is the Thai's will go to the hospital for anything. It's practically free so it doesn't matter if it's something serious or the sniffles they will just go and clog up the waiting room.

[rickschoppers]

Yes, you are right Beaz when you said the Thais go to the hospital for small aches and pains. It is usually free, so why not? My wife takes my son to the hospital any time he has a fever, which is OK with me, but would not fly in the US. The hospitals are trying to turn people away that are not serious, or they make you wait 3-6 hours for treatment. Personally, I prefer the Thai way of doing things.

Having worked in a hospital for more than 20 years, I also give them a B. I do know there are some bad ones out there, so the trick is to know which hospital to go to in your area.

[Dillinger]

Not a fun experience. Food poisoning? Stomach virus? Fuck if I know.

My sister in law has that Irritable bowel syndrome,brother has irritible bastard syndrome sounds like your IBS came on.

Try and remember the food you ate that night and steer clear of it

[chassamui]

The reason they start a drip on someone, is so they can give IV medications.

No it isn't. It's so they can start billing you and look like they are doing something useful. It also helps cover for the fact that they are clueless. Being able to give IV meds is just a bonus and adds to the bill while they use you as a test bed for the latest theory on what might be wrong with you.

[chassamui]

I do know there are some bad ones out there, so the trick is to know which hospital to go to in your area.

How does that work for the tourists?

[Yasojack]

Theres a hospital near us that puts everyone on a drip, and gives them paracetamol,from what i have heard if you want to die you go there.The locals who can get to Yasothon general, get there medication there and get referred back to the small hospital for repeat prescriptions though when they go they change the meds and seems they go back to square one.

we had murder with them because the wifes brother suffers from schizophrenia and they were changing his meds, and he was getting worse, in the end ubon hospital had to get the brother to go back to ubon every month, hes great now.

saying that the horror stories you hear in the UK now is unreal

The reason they start a drip on someone, is so they can give IV medications.

No it isn't. It's so they can start billing you and look like they are doing something useful. It also helps cover for the fact that they are clueless. Being able to give IV meds is just a bonus and adds to the bill while they use you as a test bed for the latest theory on what might be wrong with you.