The Sound of Silence — Vientiane, Laos | April 2017
“Hello darkness my old friend . . . ”
“Papa,” says my son with a voice almost trying not to be heard, “when are you coming home?”
“Soon Jason,” I answer, but I don’t know if it’s true. I’ve been at the Alliance Medical Centre near Vientiane’s Wattay Airport for about a week now. Before that I was at a hospital in Udonthani, Thailand for a week and before that another week of clinic hopping throughout Vientiane. Am I going home soon?
It’s funny how life sometimes resembles the tablecloth trick. The one where a table has been completely set and then, with one determined jerk, the tablecloth is tugged away. If performed well, most items will remain on the table and only a couple might wobble and fall. This is what happened to my life a couple of weeks ago. The fabric of my daily routine was suddenly dragged from underneath me. Most things kept standing but I wobbled and fell.
It all began on an ordinary Tuesday night. I’d come home from work, had dinner and suddenly felt very tired. Not giving it much thought, I decided to go to bed early. As I lay in bed reading, I started to shiver. A little at first but soon uncontrollably, my whole body shaking and my teeth clattering; so cold. Then I started sweating and the fever came up. Within minutes the shivers were gone and my forehead was now hot enough to fry an egg on. It was a long uncomfortable night.
The next morning, my temperature lowered a bit but this was followed by pain behind my eyes and in my joints. I knew the symptoms: Dengue fever! My wife took me to see one of the doctors in her family who took a blood sample and confirmed my self-diagnosis. I informed my work that I’d probably be out for about a week but expected to be back before the end of term. It wasn’t going to be that way.
After a couple of days in bed, resting and drinking lots of water, I noticed my left leg was swollen and it had become difficult to walk. My wife took me to a private Vietnamese clinic where, after a whole series of tests, it was concluded that my leg had an infection but they couldn’t identify the underlying cause. “It would be best if you stay here for observation,” a Vietnamese doctor said in broken English. What!? I didn’t want to stay as the only white face in an overcrowded hospital with with only communal rooms and beds two sizes too small and told them so. After some discussion, I was given antibiotics for my infection on the promise I would return for regular check-ups and went home.
Over the weekend, things seemed to improve. I felt the Dengue was slowing being forced out of my system and my leg also seemed to improve. What was a bit strange was that a lot of white-yellowish liquid oozed from my leg, making a mess of the bed. Assuming the liquid oozing out was the result of the antibiotics and I’d be able to return to work soon, I sent an update to my boss on Monday. I got the following reply:
Good you are getting better. Leg sounds a bit of a worry though – that’s edema and is not a sign of healing – it’s releasing fluids that your body can’t process, probably due to poor circulation so you should take it pretty seriously and get it checked!!
I googled edema and went back to the hospital, a government hospital close to my home this time. Another blood test and the same conclusion: the leg was infected but the cause unknown. A young Lao doctor prescribed more medicine and took some tissue samples for further testing. “You can go home now but you need to come back every day to clean and dress your leg,” the doctor said with a solemn face. I agreed and every day returned to have my leg checked. Everything seemed to be going fine but, after about a week, two doctors appeared as a trainee was dressing my leg. “The infection is healing well,” one of them said, “but we don’t know what caused it. This could be very dangerous, you’d better go to Thailand for further treatment.”
Thailand? I didn’t really want to go to Thailand so I decided to go to a clinic in Vientiane related to a Thai hospital for a second opinion. At the clinic, another blood test and another examination of the leg. “Sir,” a Thai doctor said, “your situation is quite dangerous and needs to be taken care of immediately. We need to save your leg! There is an ambulance waiting to bring you to our partner hospital in Udonthani.” I was rolled into an ambulance and, once again [read: God Only Knows], rushed off to Thailand with screaming sirens.
At the emergency room in Udonthani, another blood test and another leg examination; worried faces. I was brought to a private room, hooked up to a monitoring system and given an IV with very strong antibiotics. The next morning, three nurses and a doctor brought me to an operation room. I was given a spinal injection and woke up three hours later in the intensive care unit. There now were three holes in my leg and a big ‘bite’ had been taken out of my left foot.
After a week of observation, more antibiotics, daily cleaning of the operation wounds and a couple of more blood tests — amy arms now resembling those of a heroine junkie — the Thai surgeon overseeing my treatment decided to send me back to Vientiane for further treatment.
This is where I am now. Every morning and evening, a team of two doctors a two paramedics spend about an hour cleaning my leg, cutting away dead skin tissue and redressing it. Three times a day an IV of antibiotics is plugged into my right arm and a couple of times a day, a nurse checks my temperature and blood pressure.
“Papa?”
“Soon Jason, soon.” It might not be true but I’ve had quite enough of this. After more than three weeks of testing, I still don’t know what caused all this trouble. The doctors say my leg is healing well, but for how long? Will this kind of infection become a recurring event? I want to go home.
After my wife and son have left, my mind wanders. What is my leg going to look like once the wounds have healed? At the moment it looks like I’ve been bitten by some ferocious animal. I need an exciting backstory, perhaps a shark or hippo attack? Maybe a UXO incident?
Although I haven’t been in Africa for over a decade, I’ve decided to go with the hippopotamus, it’s the more adventurous and romantic sounding option to me. I really need to feel a bit adventurous right now!
Disturbed – The Sound of Silence on Immortalized [MP3]. Las Vegas, USA: Warner Bros. (2015)
This autobiographical sketch comes from my bundle In the Moment: A Disjointed Audiobiography which is available at Amazon.com. (USD 9.50 for a paperback or USD 4.50 for the Kindle version)
