Soaked from head to toe . . .

Soaked from head to toe. That's how I had spent most of the week before our trip to Sai Gon. The remnants of Typhoon Hagupit and start of Severe Tropical Storm Mekkhala had been dumping rain in Northern Viet Nam for several days, and, needless to say, I had gotten wet. No matter how good my poncho was at keeping most of me dry my head and feet got soaked. Aside from obvious fact that riding a motorbike in the rain will get you wet, there are two other realities about life in Viet Nam. One, you frequently get bitten by little bugs, usually mosquito's, but other things as well. And unless you are in the habit of bathing in DEET this is unavoidable. So I had two little bug bites that were in just the right place for the front strap of my Teva Sandals to keep wet. The second fact of life here is that if it rains hard anywhere in Viet Nam the streets will inevitably be flooded and you may find yourself standing in ankle deep (or deeper) water. Water, which, because of all the stuff in and on the streets will probably be contaminated with all sorts of nasty things. In 1993 I found myself thigh deep in water trying to pedal my bicycle back to my dormitory after one particular lengthy rain storm which my friend and I had tried to wait out at the German Embassy's monthly Bier Kellar. Unfortunately for me these two things came together three weeks ago, and whether in Ha Noi or in the deluge in Sai Gon those two little bug bites got infected.
The first few days we were back from Sai Gon I did not notice anything unusual, but on Wednesday morning I woke up to find that that area of my foot had swelled and a red streak had made its' way close to the base of my ankle. Naturally I was a bit alarmed. Huyen was alarmed too and after ruling out going to one of Ha Noi's many public hospital's without her to help translate I called over to the SOS International clinic just 4 blocks away from our apartment. Luckily there was one appointment available that afternoon, so after having a quick lunch with Huyen I jumped onto our trusty Super Cub and headed over to the clinic. Though I'd first been in the building that houses the SOS clinic in 1999 when it housed the Business Consulate of the American Embassy where my friend Tara was working I had never needed it's services before. So when I walked into the reception area I knew I had made the right decision.
Dr. Fone was a big man and very affable, as are most of the Australians I've met (Huyen was a little shocked later on when I told her I had been joking around with Dr. Fone. He commented on the fact that I had brought in two helmets, to which I responded the bigger one was for my posterior. Apparently joking around with doctors in Viet Nam is something you don't do, but never met an Aussie without a sense of humor, Med school or not.) He took one look at my foot and declared it a staph infection, also stating it was too bad there weren't any med students around to observe my textbook condition. The good thing about not working (or doing much else for that matter) is that I had all the time in the world to hang around for an hour of medication via IV. Dr. Fone recommended two days of IV treatment, so he told the nurse to leave the IV in overnight as I had agreed to clear my busy schedule and return the next morning for round 2. Unfortunately, this meant the nurse decided to stick the IV in my wrist, which would prove a bit of a hassle given the limited use of my left hand, but, I suppose it was a better option than having a needle taped to the crock of my arm for 18 hours. I lay there for about an hour listening to Honduran woman translate Spanish into English to a Belgian doctor for her Colombian friend who was having severe chest pain. The next day the curtains separated me from a German man who had come into to make sure his children's immunizations were up to date, while on the other side of me a Japanese man lay silently attached to a IV and an oxygen tank. International clinic indeed.
Last night I took the last of my oral medication and the swelling, redness, and blisters have all but disappeared. Hopefully there will be no long term ill effects, and under the advice of my mother (the inventor of due diligence) I will be stopping at Bumrangard Intl. Hospital in Bangkok on our way to India in two days to see an infectious disease specialist to make sure of just that. As Dr. Fone felt the for any swelling in the lymph nodes behind my left knee two weeks ago he said it was good that I had come in that day as staph infections can travel rather quickly. I agreed and thought to myself, what a difference a day makes . . . .