An eye infection, X-ray test for pneumonia, and high fever in the middle of the desert. Each a horror in its own right. When one of these happens to your toddler while on the road, it will surely make you swear off long term travel (though deep down you know you’ll soon eat your words when the tot gets better).
You’ll go to great lengths, as far as paying with your soul, just to find a cure. I know I did. Okay, maybe not the ‘paying with your soul’ part. Not yet.
1. Mongolia
For one whole week we endured bumpy, unpaved roads (even the paved ones are a mess) aboard a hired badass Delica in the Gobi Desert with a European couple we met through Couchsurfing. And during the first five, Luna vomited everyday. Hubby puked on the sixth. The ride was that wild.
So it wasn’t surprising that on the fifth day, Luna contracted a fever. Thanks to our Mongolian driver Ganba, we found a hospital in one of the remote towns. The two-story hospital was as deserted as the Gobi. Luna was given pills that we had to slice in halves because it’s too strong for her age, suppositories, and vitamins that looked like Airsoft pellets (which in my opinion should come with a “choking hazard” warning). We never gave her the pellets. I mean, the vitamins.
2. Laos
On our last days in Laos (where we traveled for three weeks last March), Luna had an eye infection and we were totally clueless where she caught it. A sign of such infection, by the way, is having a yellow watery discharge from the eye. Hubby and I searched for eye drops in a bunch of convenience stores but found none.
We were supposed to visit Pha That Luang the day before our flight out of Vientiane. We saved the best for last. However this didn’t push through for we stumbled upon an ophthalmologist’s clinic while we were walking towards it. The clinic’s business hours run from 5:00PM to 8:00PM only, so we thought, might as well stick around and wait for it to open.
The ophthalmologist did not speak much English (he proudly mentioned that he speaks fluent French though) but managed to say “bacteria”. Not a comforting word to hear but at least he seemed to know what’s going on. He gave us three bottles of eye drops, and struggled to explain the doses. Cost us a whopping $20.
3. Turkey
Our limited time in Turkey (no thanks to my fifteen-day visa) pushed us to fly six times in two weeks. Every three nights we changed hotels. And we did sightseeing almost daily. Luna’s health gave in after she climbed Pamukkale’s “Cotton Castle” twice. The freezing water streaming down the travertines partnered with the strong gust of equally cold wind must have been the culprits for her cough-cold-fever combo.
Five days after and about a thousand kilometers away from Pamukkale, our hostel’s owner in Şanlıurfa walked the hubby and Luna to a public hospital. Şanlıurfa Province shares a border with Syria, and the culture is evidently more Middle-Eastern than European. Arabic is widely spoken and only a few people speak English. Suffice it to say that the owner Mustafa had to accompany them in the hospital to explain the situation.
Mustafa assured us that he “knows everybody”. And true enough, even if Luna’s a foreigner, she was given a free injection for her fever. The doctor prescribed about five bottles of meds and were surprisingly cheap. In case you missed it… Five bottles!
I’ve seen hubby cry only three times in our life together (he cried several times while watching Naruto but he was good at concealing tears). During a hospital visit in Brazil’s one of ’em.
What caused our rush to the hospital: Luna’s struggle to breathe from twilight to dawn.
At seven in the morn, we asked pharmacists in a drug store a few blocks from our hostel for a nearby hospital. They only spoke Portuguese. One of them pointed at their staff who was sweeping the parking lot and exclaimed, “Spanish!”, as if it was the biggest light bulb moment in her life.
I took the directions in a language I barely understand, a language that the Brazilian actually barely speaks!
She served as our translator the whole time we were with the doctor. When he mentioned that Luna will undergo an X-ray test for pneumonia, hubby and I both silently broke down. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. Like, up there with giving birth and losing Luna in a department store for five whole damn minutes.
We picked up the result ourselves from the X-ray room then handed it to the doctor in his office. The translator soon followed. There was a quick conversation between the two, then we were told that the result was negative. Apparently, it was just too much mucus. Doctor gave us a prescription for meds then signaled with the classic Brazilian thumbs-up sign.
Have you been in a similar situation? If you don’t have kids, have you had any serious health issues while on the road? How did you confront it?
magkasakit na tayong mga magulang, huwag lang ang anak. kung pwede nga lang akuin ang karamdaman ng bata kapag nagkakasakit sila e…
i really felt you gay in this post. more than the hassles of shelling out (what? USD700?!) money & language barrier, the torture of seeing our kids in uncomfortable situation, much more ill states is indeed unbearable.
to aedes, anopheles, sandflies, triatomine bugs, ticks and other vectors of viruses & parasites, damay na natin mga pesteng bacteria, stay away from luna, will you?
be safe always. 🙂
OMG I don’t have a kid yet so I can’t fully understand. But I do have two cats, and whenever one of them so much as lose appetite, I’d worry the whole day and to the vet we go. I can imagine your worry must be 1000x more, and it’s much more difficult when you;re traveling and you have to worry about translation issues!
Sakit sa puso ng $700, pero mas masakit sa puso makita si baby na matamlay 🙁
True, Aleah. I cried over sick pets before myself. And yes, 1000x more ang panic at terror.
Geez, a clinic that opens from 5pm to 8pm?
Sorry, natawa ko dun sa front desk personal cum nurse who’s chewing gum in her 5-inch heels. Maybe a drag queen? LOL.
You know, I would never wish it on anyone to have their kid sick. It’s miserable as hell. Lia got sick with measles at 10 months and we were at home, but still I broke down in pity of the poor kid by the third day. The fever, the refusal to nurse and eat, the inconsolable tantrums, how agonizing their pain/ discomfort is – ay, truly would make any parent trade off their souls for instant recovery. If I were in your shoes, I might probably have sworn off traveling altogether for a veeery looong time.
Stay safe. And healthy! 🙂
Hahaha!The clinic’s actually part of his house. I have a feeling the doc’s got ‘office hours’ in a hospital or something. Poor Lia with measles. When’s the measles vaccine na ulet? Luna’s all covered with the basic vaccines (and then some) so I can’t remember na.
US health care for the uninsured can induce heart attack in itself. Although if you actually go to a hospital, they’re obligated to treat you in an emergency.
Didn’t your travel insurance reimburse that? I pray you guys never have to go through illness down the road!
Ah yes. Probably affiliated with other hospitals nga in the morning. It was the three-day measles/ roseola. Ironically, she got that right after she had the measles vax – from another tot. The one for measles (rubeola) is given at 9-12 months then the 2nd dose is around 12-15 months ata 🙂
Awwww…Makes me dread the moment when I finally experience this. I plan to keep traveling like you too, even with a baby.
Congrats to you and your hubby for successfully taking care of Luna amid all these mishaps!
Next time in the US (cali for now), pls give me a call if the lil one (or anyone gets sick). I do house calls and won’t charge plus, can easily call in prescriptons..(ehem, btw, I dislike the US health care system as much as u do..actively fighting for a change but not holding my breath just plowing thru the system for now the best I knw can =)
We didn’t have travel insurance then 🙁
I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it well 🙂
Argh! That “admitted to the hospital” is such terrifying phrase especially when it’s about ze baby doll.
Thanks Nadge! Just unfortunate it happened in Santa Monica.
I could only imagine the horrors Gay. Although I remember whenever I travel with my grandfather when I was really young that I often got sick too like having those headaches (motion sickness) and puking in transit. Glad thou that Luna is fine. 🙂
$700??!?! shet.
Na malagket, yes.
Aww. Kawawa pa naman kids when they puke while in transit. Ako rin mahiluhin sa byahe nung bata, may plastic bag lagi mama ko nakahanda. Exactly how I am now with Luna. LOL.