Apologies for the lack of posts in a couple days. Katey fell ill to a classic “Delhi Belly” bug, and has been in bed for a couple days. While not a pleasant experience, her journey through the Indian healthcare system was easy and relatively painless.
As the traveling doctor was out of the clinic due to the Diwali holiday, the amazing hotel owner/manager, Shakti, drove Katey to the nearby clinic. The wait was minimal, the cost very affordable, and the staff very helpful. While the waiting room may not have glossy magazines, and the offices are not equipped with all the fancy beeping electronics or computers like the clinics in the US, they were serviceable and unoffensive. However, Katey was not really paying enough attention to give you a full description. She was also not in there long enough to take any pictures!
It is amazing to think that while it might have been beneficial to have the doctor take and record her vitals in an electronic medical record, various samples to determine the exact bacterium that had invaded her system, or even pumped her full of fluids, the outcomes of the visit would have been the same for a much higher cost. In the end, her symptoms were very classic (And she knew immediately that morning at 4 AM when she first woke with stomach pains), and so the doctor opted for the usual course of treatment – 3 days of antibiotics, a sack full of electrolyte replacement powders, and an injection of magic which stopped the violent heaving. With a couple of days of rest, Katey is feeling much better, and if she isn’t back to 100% in a day or two more, she’ll head back to a clinic (though now in Delhi), for more thorough testing.
Though it may be scary and inconvenient to fall ill while in another country, the medical care isn’t always the worst part of the story. Usually that’s the traffic.
