Dengue Hospital 2

, originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

Waking the next day at 4:30am to the mullah's morning calls I knew I had to contact Hedda and let her know where I was. The 5 or 6 teenage girl nurses were basically useless. It wasn't till after a few days had passed that I realized they were giving me sleeping pills in the morning. No wonder I felt so completely out of it!!!! At one point during the day I woke to discover my IV line was blood red. Thought that was kind of strange... The nurses had been coming in to monitor the level of the IV bag and had been replacing it when it got low. I was knocked out. Probably due to the daily dose of sleeping pills I'd been given that morning, so I hadn't noticed the drip. I was blown away once I realized that instead of receiving the nourishing, hydrating fluids from the IV, my blood was actually being pumped out of my body and was filling the IV bag!! There being no call button for the nurses at this hospital, I grabbed a flip flop from the ground and started whacking the wall trying to get someones attention. Eventually a couple of nurses came in and nonchalantly took the IV needle out of my hand. No worries, this happens here all the time I thought. I decided I had to call Hedda right then. I explained to the one male nurse that I needed to make an international phone call. There was no question of doing this from the hospital since they didn't have a working phone line. I got on the back of his motorbike and we rode over to the Telkom office a couple of miles away. This was one of the most difficult phone calls I've ever had to make. To call the one you love half a world away to tell her you have contracted some scary tropical fever is not easy. I really didn't want her to worry about me. I also began to realize just how serious my situation was. Hedda was incredible. She stayed calm, organized the insurance and began to chart her own flight changes to come to me. After finishing the phone call to Hedda I actually felt much better knowing I wasn't completely alone on that island out there. The photo above is of the Hospital in Medan where I eventually met up with Hedda after a week in the Clinic on Simuelue.