Living on a Narrowboat
My arms and legs are aching.
I feel drowsy and run down.
Currently, I’ve only felt like eating chocolate wagon-wheel type things, although I may have a proper meal later.
Tomorrow, I will go back to the hospital. I have a feeling that the drugs are very strong, but will not be effective to deal with the root cause.
Cho Ray Hospital, Saigon – to be exact.
Contacted them from my homestay, which was in Vinh Long, the woman let me borrow the phone. The woman spoke English and was very helpful in recommending some drugs that could give immediate relief.
I took her suggestions to the pharmacy and they prescribed the drugs for 21,000 or $1.
Took them back to my homestay, Ngoc Phoung.
I was in quite a lot of pain by this time and had been sick on the ferry.
Took the drugs, got in bed, went to sleep. Woke up caught a taxi. Got a bus.
Spent 3 hours on the bus from Vĩnh Long to Saigon.
Got off the bus, caught a motorbike taxi.
Went directly to the hospital.
Once inside the hospital, I initially approached the remittance desk, where there was only one boy working. I showed him my phone, which has Google translate for Vietnamese installed on it, with the words ‘I am ill’.
We had a little wander round together, in that typical East Asian style, eventually he decided to send me into the A&E ward – with the red sign over the door. ‘Blue’ he said, which obviously means red. Luckily, there were some nurses hanging around, and I also showed them my phone. They ushered me into, the A&E ward, where I was given a bed and a girl took my blood pressure.
After a while, a doctor approached and asked what the problem was.
I said that I had been suffering from high blood pressure and vomiting, I showed them the drugs that I had been given for my kidneys Mofpa and Mobic. And that I was in pain and my arms and legs were tingling.
The doctor asked for my passport.
They checked me in, and gave me a bed on the A&E ward for real (pictured). Continue reading “Vietnamese hospital”