Emergency Endoscopy!

September 11,

I woke this morning at about 4 am with acute pain and unrelenting pain in my stomach. The next few hours of waiting for the sun to rise seemed to last for weeks. I prayed and prayed but it was very difficult not to panic. What if I had a stomach ulcer and it ruptured and I bled out here, thousands of miles away from my friends and family? Before you make fun of me, you think about how you would feel if you were experiencing this kind of pain at 4 am in Indonesia. (With the tell-tale black diarrhea. But perhaps that is TMI).

 

At 7:35 I dragged myself onto my bicycle, wove through the Jakartan traffic to the hospital, and stumbled into Dr. Tetty’s office. Actually first I waited about an hour to get up my nerve because I already feel like I’ve been nothing but trouble here in Siloam. I was so tired that I fell asleep several times. Rocky kept coming over and shaking me awake (I was pretending to read a textbook on Rehabilitation Modalities).

 

Under the pretense of returning the textbook I went into Dr. Tetty’s office and she asked me how I was. “Well not that good actually.” When I told her about my new symptoms and pain she immediately picked up the phone and scheduled another appointment with Dr. Epistale—the Gastrointestinal specialist. He is very kind, speaks wonderful English, and didn’t charge me for either of my visits.

 

Dr. Epistale told me that I needed to have an endoscopy so that he could be certain of what was going on inside of me. It is also the only way that they have of testing for heliobactor Pylori, which is a bacterium that can cause ulcers. However I had eaten some breakfast and I needed to wait 7 hours after eating before the procedure. So I went back to the Rehabilitation department and lay on an examination table for 3 hours.  I hate waiting.

 

At 1 o’clock I went to the Endoscopy room and waited for another hour. Two of the PTs waited with me which was comforting but I was still very worried. I realized that I hadn’t written down emergency contact information for my family anywhere, so I did that. Then the nurse brought in all the paperwork for me to sign. Most of it was in Bahasa Indonesian, but on the bottom it said something like, “The physician has explained to me all the risks of the procedure and I understand everything that it says above.” I understood nothing of it. And I also realized for the first time that they would be administering general anesthesia to me. It was all happening very quickly. But I signed it.

 

Then the nurse started an IV and I fell asleep, at the same time as my friends and family on the other side of the world.

 

When I woke up I felt horrible. My throat burned and my stomach felt as bad as ever. After I had recovered enough to walk I went with Dr. Epistale. He said that it was good news: my entire stomach was mildly inflamed but that there was no ulcer and no sign of bacteria. He prescribed another kind of medicine and gave me strict rules on what I could and could not eat.

 

But the pain persists. And so does the bill (which I sure hope that travel insurance will cover).

 

Dr. Epistale says that the pain should subside after a few days but I don’t know what to do in the meantime. Should I continue to go to work? And what if it doesn’t stop? It has already been a month. At what point to I give up and go home and spend my last few days with my family?

 

I probably shouldn’t have bicycled home in rush hour just after waking up from anesthesia. But I made it.

 

Pray for me. This is not the kind of adventure or experience that I had hoped for.

 

September 16,

Once again it has been far too long since I have updated my blog, and I have no excuse. Many days I get from the hospital at about 5 PM and watch Battlestar Galactica (which Rachael got me addicted to) or play chess with Dion. So I DO have the time to update my blog, I just don't.

 

Things are going much better now than there were last week. I am being very careful about what I eat and I am faithfully taking the medicine that the doctor gave me. I am learning quite a bit at the clinic! Rocky and Yuri gave me lessons in myofacial release, traction of the ankle, back massage, sling therapy, stretching for relief of pain in the lower back and many other things. I have played around with ultra sound, E-stim and wax baths.
 

But here, as well as in the States, I am not allowed to touch patients and this seriously limits what I am allowed to do. I wonder if three months was too long of a time to come for. I'm waiting to see how things are after a month and a half. 

 

I had a great day on Sunday. I woke up early and watched Battlestar Galactica with my favorite girl. Then I went to church. Well actually, it was a bit more complicated than that. Milla and Sebastian were out of town so I had arranged to be picked up by a couple that I had met last week. Apparently the address I gave them would not show up in google maps, and they drove in circles for about half an hour. I was on the phone with them but I couldn't tell them how to find me because Jakarta is a maze. So I finally just started walking up the road. After walking for about a mile I came to a busy road and started reading the names of the businesses until they recognized one. Then they came and picked me up.

 

Church was such a breath of fresh air. I just love how God and the gospel are the same all over the world! I am going to an international Assemblies of God church. Sure I have doctrinal and theological differences (especially since pastor Lew preached on baptism) but the gospel is preached and the people are wonderful.

 

After church I went out to eat with a group of young adults. There were three other Bules (white people) and we went to eat Bebek Goreng (fried duck). The food was great and the conversation was even better. Most of the others are teachers at various international schools.

 

I got home at about 4:45 and at 5:30 Rocky picked me up. We went to the home of Therinde, one of the other PTs, where we met up with Abdul. Then the four of us rode on two motorcycles the 45 minutes into central Jakarta. It sure is fun to weave through traffic at night.

 

We went to the "old city" which is a western style group of buildings built by the Dutch back when Jakarta was a settlement. The central plaza was packed with people smoking and playing guitars -- obviously this is the place to hang out on Sunday nights. All the side roads were full of people selling cheap clothes and electronics. It was a very festive and fun area with people doing acrobatics and magic tricks. Unfortunately it was also very trashy. Everyone just throws their garbage on the ground. We drove past a river that was PILED with garbage. it reeked.

 

After the Old City we went to Monas which is the national monument of Indonesia. Here we met up with Ida and Yuri, two other PTs. it was the same thing here. Lots of people and sellers and an inconceivable amount of trash. There was an old man with a chess set sitting on the ground and Rocky explained to me that if you paid 5,000 rupiahs you could try to beat him in three moves. if you won, you would win three packs of cigarettes. The board was set up so that he only had two bishops and I had all my pieces, but I still could see that it wasn't easy (but if you paid him 50,000 he would show you how to win). I sat there for about 30 minutes (while everyone else politely waited) and tried about 4 times but I couldn't do it. It was SO hard! 5,000 rupiahs is about 50 cents.

 

The others ate street food but I am being very careful about what I eat so I just went to a store and bought a bunch of pisang (bananas). I ate about 4 and this caused problems the next day.

 

Yesterday (Monday) was a pretty normal day. I went to the hospital and observed for 8 more hours. then I came home and watched some Battlestar Galactica, worked a little on my PT applications, played a game of chess with Dion (only one because he is studying for an exam) and then went to bed at 9:30. I am excited for Wednesday evening when I go to Life Group with the people from Church!

 

After work today Ida and Yuri took me to the mall to get ice cream. It was the biggest mall I have ever seen! But maybe that isn't saying much. Before coming to Jakarta the only mall I can remember ever going to was the Tacoma mall.

 

We ate Chinese ice cream, which is much much more than just ice cream. They make little creatures and other creations out of jello and shaved ice and strange foreign candies. I got a teddy bear and it was one of the best desserts I have ever had. Only the nose is ice cream, the rest is chocolate flavored ice. And in the bottom was tapioca-ish stuff and chocolate syrup. MMMMMM

 

Now I am attempting to bake scones but I don't have some of the ingredients and I have no measuring cups. So it is pretty touch and go. They are about to come out so I have my fingers crossed.