Party In Nairobi Hospital

The one thing every single person told me when I left for Kenya was "don't get sick"..... well so much for that. I would like to point out I made it a full 7 weeks before I got sick, but never the less I did get sick.

On Tuesday morning two of my friends were admitted to the hospital due to vomiting. I managed to make it through two of my classes before I too was hit by the illness and was also admitted to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. I was taken to the hospital by one of my other friends, the program director and the host mom of the two girls who were already in the hospital. Huge thanks to my friend who stayed with me until I was admitted to the hospital. Also shout out to our two other friends who came to visit us on their way home from school and my host parents who also came to drop some stuff of for me and check on all three of us. I will say the host parents that St. Lawrence puts us with are some of the most caring people I have met. They have their own lives and children and yet periodically both my host parents and the host mom of my friends came to check on us.

As it turns out we all got an infection in our gut, basically it felt like the 24 hour stomach bug on drugs. To say the least Tuesday was a rough day for us. The night was spent with IVs and antibiotic being pumped into our arms. All of our nurses were very kind to us. For the most part the language barrier was not an issue as they all spoke English, however Kenyan English and American English do differ making it sometimes confusing. For example, I was burning up from my fever and since I could not keep liquids down I asked for a cup of ice. Instead they brought me ice cream which was the last thing I wanted. I went on to explain how I wanted frozen water and I eventually got what I wanted. Once my nurse figured out what I had been asking for she made sure I always had a pitcher of ice next to my bed.

When the nurse allowed us to be unhooked from out IVs (which was not often for me) we were able to check in on one another since we were all in the same ward. It was very nice to have my friends there with me. Lucky for them and sad for me they were discharged on Wednesday morning, but I had to stay another night. It was ok though because Wednesday I slept the entire day only waking up when the nurses came to change my IV or take my blood. On Wednesday night I got moved to a private room with its own TV which was a major win. The program director also brought me a smoothie which I was so grateful for because I don't care what country you are in hospital food sucks everywhere and everyone kept telling me I needed to eat. I will give to the Kenyan hospitals though, they have very good passion fruit juice, although my nurse ruined it for me by putting my medicine in it. I think that was her trick to get me to take it because before that I had refused to take it due to the fact the first time I took it I got sick. I was discharged Thursday afternoon. I am feeling much better. Still tired ,weak and not very hungry although everyone keeps telling me I need to eat so I guess I'll do that after I post this.

All in all my experience in The Nairobi Hospital wasn't terrible, definitely NOT something I ever want to repeat again, but hey like everything here the last 48 hours was another chance for culture Immersion.

Some friend they are they didn't break me out when they were discharged before me :)