still alive- Jeff

Sorry for not blogging for a bit, the past couple of days have been quite the adventure. I’m sure as many of you know I was in the hospital for a couple of days. I was feeling fine until Monday night. It started with a bit of heartburn so I didn’t really pay attention to it. Paul gave me some Pepto-Bismol and I thought that was that. I was wrong.

When night hit all hell broke loose and I had probably the most terrible night of my life. I won’t share the wonderful details but I was really sick. Morning came and I was feeling same as I was in the night, so Barb stayed with me in the hotel while everyone else went to Svay Pak. When lunchtime hit I was feeling almost 100% better, until I ate something. There I was back where I was the night before. When everyone came back from Svay Pak I was getting worse and worse. The vomiting started to give me some harsh dehydration and that is when we decided that I needed to go to the hospital. We called up Clayton and asked him where we should go, he said there was a U.S run clinic but they were closed on account of it being a holiday. So we called him again and he told us he would go to the hospital and arrange things for us. While we were waiting for the arrangements to be made my dehydration started to get worse. I started to loose feeling in my hands and feet and they eventually became almost paralyzed. This is when I started to get scared. Though Clayton was on his was and he had gone to the hospital to make sure that I would get a bed and they were getting ready for my arrival.

We took a tuk-tuk to the hospital which was the fastest way to get there and they had a wheel-chair ready for me and within 10 minutes of being at the hospital, I had an I.V in me and was getting pumped full of fluids (wouldn’t get treatment like that in Vancouver). After being in the ER for a bit I was taken to my room. Clayton once again was a hero and told a bit of a fib to get me some special treatment. He said that we were working with the government at least something along those lines I don’t really remember (I was kind of sick). Anyways what Clayton said to the doctor must have been effective because when I got to my room it was nicer then any other room I have seen in Cambodia. I was nicer then any hospital room I have seen in Canada (though I haven’t spent a lot of time in hospitals in Canada). There was a flat screen TV on the wall, couch, table, sink, fridge, and I was the cleanest room I've ever seen in Cambodia.

When getting to the hospital I had no idea that I would have to be there so long. I thought I would be, go in the afternoon and get out at night. They told me when I got there that I would have to stay over night. My doctor was a Thai doctor who went by the name of Doctor Tom. On the second day he came back and told me that I would need 3 days of antibiotics to get rid of the ecoli infection that had caused this whole mess. So yesterday I was freed from the “Royal Rattanak hospital” and given some more take home antibiotics to help me finish off the treatment.

Today we went for our last day at Rahabs house. I wasn’t able to do a whole lot, but I was able to help do some painting. Part way through the day I was just feeling so tired that I had to return to the hotel early but at least I wasn’t feeling sick

Well thank you for your prayers and your support, I’m feeling much better now, not 100% but I'm getting there

Jeff