HAMPINI WASI- my first encounters with the Peruvian health system.
It is ironic, that just a few days before, I was talking to my mother saying how proud I was I had not yet experienced a single bout of the dreaded travellers disease (read lots of trips to the toilet with food leaving your body any way possible). I spoke about how tough my stomach was, how good all the food here was and how I could not understand what all the fuss was about. Oops. My housemate and I both woke up last Wednesday morning not feeling all that flash. Sick but not too sick, I shrugged it off and went to work. Poor Miriea only made it past 10 am at work, and I struggled to finish the day.
That night was hell. Not to go into too many details, but I swear I have never had to go to the toilet as many times as I did that night. It got to the point where I would force myself to drink 2 teaspoons of water, and one minute later it was already time to go running. Never have I been so nauseous even smelling water. Is it possible to even smell water??? Miriea suffered in a similar fashion. It is not difficult to therefore imagine how we looked and felt the next morning.
We quickly got taken to the local clinic, named Hampini Wasi (in hindsight I can find this name amusing, however at the time I´m not even sure I noticed where we were getting taken). We spent a long long time in the waiting room, doing just that, waiting. Everyone had lunch breaks, morning tea breaks, just breaks or when around sat there filling out important looking stuff. They took our names down eventually and then we waited for the doctor. As we had already diagnosed, after a blood test (??????) the doctor kindly told us we had travellers diarhea, and were told to drink plenty of fluids and take some medication ( antibiotics, ANTIOBIOTICS; ANTIBIOTICS) when in doubt, take some antibiotics is the moto here, even more so than back home.
We were also given an injection to help the nausea, so that perhaps we could keep something down. The problem with all that was the nurse couldn’t find my vein where one would normally find one, so she decided to go for the outside of my wrist. WHAT THE HELL. Of there is no decent vein on the side of my wrist. After much poking around I basically fainted, and while I was down she grabbed my other hand and god knows how found another vein on the top of it, near my knuckle. A decent amount of fluid went in apparently, or at least that’s what I can assume from the massive bruise I now sport.
After the little feinting episode, they wouldn’t let me go until I drank a litre of electrolytes. Now electrolytes seem like it would be nice tasting, sugary fruity flavoured concoctions, but do not be fooled, they are DISGUSTING. Each sip is a mixture of intense sweet, like fake sweetener stuff, combined with plenty of salt and on top of all that in effort to mask it, the most horrible fake strawberry flavour. Each sip is like taking 10 of the most horrible shots of the cheapest spirits. I´m not joking. It took me over an hour to drink the stuff, and as much as I hate to admit it, it did really help me up on my feet (in the most literal sense). More tests revealed that on top of all this, I also have a pretty bad urinary tract infection. How on earth that happened without me noticing I don’t know, but surprise surprise what was prescribed for that.
Friday I woke up feeling much better, eating and drinking and all such luxuries. I was mighty relieved, as we had already planned to trek to Machu Pichu the next morning. The trip was on. So armed with a backpack full of crackers and even some powdered electrolytes (only in SEVERE emergencies) I was ready for the weekends adventure. As dramatic as it all sounds, it really was all under control. They looked after us really well with projects abroad, concerned for our health and dragging us to the doctors. I survived it all quite well, and even the bruises from the needles are going down. I know there is help available when needed, even in a tiny town in the middle of the Sacred Valley. Let’s just hope I never get into the situation again where I have to drink an entire litre of that vile stuff. Perfect incentive to not get sick again!
Love to you all, and please don’t be worried (especially my dearest Mummy) xxxxxx
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