It was bound to happen. I've been here for over a year and a half now, and that's a long time to go without. . . it happening.

Montezuma's revenge. I finally got my inaguaral case of dysentary. . .amoebic dysentary. The last few days have not been too fun.

Thursday night I went out with some friends for dinner and didn't have an appetite because it felt like something crawled into my esophogus and died. Later that night. . .it crawled out . .. so to speak. Friday, I thought I was going to get better, but Saturday and Sunday, it came back. I got real sick and I became much more intimate with the porcelain than I'm comfortable with.

On Sunday afternoon I intended to go to the doctor, but the one doctor that I know in town isn't available on Sundays, so I figured I'd try to wait it out. Later that afternoon, my good friend, Duy, had a housewarming party. I really wasn't in any shape to be going to a party, but I knew that he'd be pretty disappointed if I didn't at least show up. Anyway, since his new house isn't to far from mine, I decided, "what the hell". In an emergency I could always make a mad dash back to my beloved porcelain bowl. Anyway, I arrived at his party a little early and I was telling him a bit about my condition, and he got an idea. He got on the phone and called up his friend, Dr. Nguyen. Nguyen speaks English and French fluently and Duy says he's the best doctor in town. I'm skeptical already. It isn't that I don't trust Duy, it's just that he. . .he tends to overestimate the quality of some of his drinking partners.

I think I was right in being skeptical. When the doctor arrived, he asked me basically one question, diagnosed my condition as gastroenternitis and wrote a prescription for five different meds. Then he told Duy to drive me to pharmacy, buy the meds, and bring me back to the party. He said after I took the medicine, I could lay down for about 15 minutes (I refrained from mentioning that I didn't think I could sit or lay in any one place other than the wc) for that long and then join the drinking party. He didn't care to mention that one of the antibiotics that he prescribed is strongly contraindicted with alcohol. The scary thing was that I think he was serious. He actually would have allowed me to take a bunch of antibiotics and other meds and then sit down and drink a ton of rice wine.

I finally had to insist that they let me go to the pharmacy on my own and then go home and rest. Which I did (and later that night my fever rose to over 103 degrees--further confirming that drinking that afternoon probably wouldn't have been a good idea). I do, however, have that doctor's number in case I ever need to get him to fill out another prescription for me.

Anyway, I feel considerably better today. I little worn out, but glad to have recovered from my first bout with a tropical disease. I feel a bit of giddiness. i'm not sure if that's cause by lack of fluids or the hot weather or just being elated about the fact that I don't have to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, but it's a nice feeling.