A Visit to an Indian ICU

Annika and I took a six hour bus to Jodhpur, the blue city. Most of the homes in the old town are painted brilliant shades of blue. There are some theories, but no one really knows why this town chose blue. 

A few days prior I’d started feeling sick…a small sore throat, dizziness, nauseous, and low grade fever. But my mama raised me right, I travel with an apothecary of vitamins, homeopathics, and DayQuil. I’d been gobbling up all of my goodies, plus immune boosters like fresh fruit and gobs of tea! But none of it seemed to be helping and when we arrived in Jodhpur a red rash began spreading over my arms and legs…Hmm not a good sign. 

Anni is an exemplar buddy and agreed to spend our one day in Jodhpur lounging and watching Aladdin in the guesthouse—a four-story 500-year old building, painted entirely blue.

A blue, blue abode

Since we were having an off day, we decided to try a little Ayurvedic medicine. Our host had Ayurvedic massage connections and said she had two guys who were available.

I didn’t think, when she said “guys” she meant male masseuses. About 30 minutes later two guys showed up. They laid towels onto our hotel beds, and in the direct manner that is common of Indian men, told us to strip down… An extremely awkward 45 minutes followed. At one point my masseuse took a phone call, while continuing to rub my neck with one hand! When he asked me to sit up, I tucked my towel in my armpits to cover my chest. He pulled up one of my arms to rub and a corner of the towel fell away—oop, welp there’s a boob. Then he pulled up the other arm and the towel totally fell… Oh geez, well here we are…just hanging out in a hotel room, topless, with my bestie, and two Indian men. Afterwards, I laughed till I cried when Anni told me that her towel too had fallen away one boob at a time as she had tried to find acceptance of the situation.

I’ve never seen two men exit a room with such hast…apparently they felt as awkward as we did. Anni and I sat on our beds, with our towels clasped to our oily bodies, looking at each other, mortified.

That night we took a sleeper bus to Udaipur. We boarded and I’ll be if there weren’t guys already sleeping in our beds! I grabbed the driver. He told the first man to move, the guy moved. The second guy, obviously not a fan of being woken up, started a shouting match! Annika and I stood looking at the floor, crammed in the bus aisle on either side of them. It ended with the bus driver saying “Look, either you move, Buddy, or we’re taking this outside!” or at least that’s what I could gather, but my Hindi isn’t quality.

That night, tucked on a top-bunk-bus-bed, my fever spiked. This gnarly rash spread to cover my whole body, and I decided when we got to Udaipur I’d go to the hospital.

Sent from Heaven. Black Pepper

Annika got us checked into our guesthouse while I went right to bed.

Finally around noon, I crawled out of bed. Our host walked us to the street and found us a tuk tuk driver, Joe. Joe drove us to an American hospital, came in and helped us through the whole process. This hospital reminded me of an Indian train station, you wait in one line only to be asked “Why are you in this line? You need to be in line six!” And when you get to the front of line six, they tell you, no no no exit the building, cross the road, go wait in line on the third floor in the building on your left—Finally, I got in to see a doctor. He asked me a few questions and sent me over to get blood drawn. It only occurred to me later, he didn’t even take my temperature, even though fever was a main symptom. Joe walked us into the room where they would take my blood. The previous patient got up and I sat down. The nurse didn’t wash or sanitize his hands before starting to take my blood. I noticed dried drops of blood on the floor…yikes! He snapped a band around my arm that pinched my skin…thats when I lost it and started crying, cause I was sick, and scared, and very much so in India! Annika and I sat out on the curb, and she literally let me cry on her shoulder. Joe picked us up and took us back to our guesthouse—Black Pepper. 

A few hours later, Anni and our host went back to the hospital to pick up my blood results. The tests came back negative for malaria and dengue, but my blood platelets were worryingly low. I called the doctor to ask him what I should do now. He talked to me in condescending tone and eventually hung up on me! 

The American Hospital in Udaipur gets two thumbs down, just FYI cause I have written my yelp review yet. So we found a different hospital, anything would be better than that.

On the way, Anni called her mom, who use to be a nurse and had ran my bloodwork by some of her medical friends. I slumped over in a heap, burning up, thinking about people who had gone septic and died. I felt the worst when I thought about my parents and how scared my mom must be, feeling powerless to help me. She said dad was on standby to buy a plane ticket to India! I hate that I put them through stress because I choose to be adventurous. 

We walked into the ER. There was no checkin, or line to wait in. A man took me right to a bed. A group of young doctors and nurses surrounded me. They took my temperature—104 degrees—hooked me up to an IV and wheeled my bed to the ICU. While we waited for the elevator, the nurse asked Annika for her number, Anni said “Yeah, of course!” thinking he might need to get ahold of her…Then he said, “Cool, I just called you, so now you have my number too!” In a few hours, once my fever came down, I asked “Did that guy just ask for your number?”

“Yeah, I think so…”

I forgot admittance to the hospital comes with hospital clothes! They pulled the curtain around my bed and stripped me down. Just another day getting naked around Indian strangers… I got changed into a pink, ass-less gown, a huge diaper, and a hairnet. Wow now I felt classy!

After a few hours on an IV drip I had to pee… A woman came and took off my diaper and put a bedpan under me… “I should just pee?” Yep “Just right here?” Yep “Ok, I’m gonna pee. Right here.” Its actually pretty hard to pee laying down when someone is staring at you! 

A large open room with several beds and curtains separating them made up the ICU. A desk sat in the middle where ten or more nurses in green scrubs buzzed around. My first assigned nurse, Mohasin was a cute young man with big beard and a kind smile. Mohasin radiated pure goodness. He spoke a fair amount of english, and explained the purpose of every new blood sample, shot, or pill. He made me feel safe (crazy grateful for that man). He kept telling Annika, “You’re not allowed to be in here, but five more minutes, ok?” Ok, ok, then she’d turn to me and say “I’m just going to stay here until they kick me out!” They ended up letting her stay for the next six hours, until midnight when Musihem finally told her she had to go, but he’d found her a hospital room to sleep in (crazy grateful for that girl).

Mohasin (left) and another awesome nurse, working hard.

The doctors told me that I had to stay for four or five days… “But here’s the thing, Doc… I’m flying out of the country in four days, so that’s not really gonna work.” Fuck. Now I just had to get better in time for the doctors to be willing discharge me so we can catch our flight out of this place! What a strange predicament to be in! 

The next morning Annika came in first thing. Then our host and his wife from Black Pepper. She had packed Anni butter marsala and chapati, a pot of coffee, fresh coconuts, and bananas. They took Annika back on their motorbike so she could pack up our stuff. Traffic clogged road. For over an hour Anni squeezed in the middle of the motorbike, between our host and his wife—who sat side saddle on the back in her sari. 

Hospital food, not to bad actually...

When Annika and our hosts left, four or five nurses came around my bedside, I guess so I’d have company. Pretty soon, one asked if he could take a selfie…that led to groups of nurses and the doctor swapping phones and taking pictures of us all around my bed! I asked the head nurse “Do you get many Westerners here?” “Oh no, no…last year, there was someone from Australia.” Oh, whoa, last year they’d had one white person!

From my perch, I watched the function of the ICU. The nurses all seemed to be good friends. They held each others hands, pretended to punch one another, making jokes, or chasing each other around the center desk. There were shift changes at 8am, 2pm, and 6pm. Those times became the highlight of my day, getting to say goodbye to the last staff, and then meet a whole new group of people. 

Annika spent most of the day by my bed, chatting with the nurses. We tried to play cards but a nurse came up and said 

“Cards, not allowed!” 

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah, but can I have a selfie?”

Annika told me, “Everytime I leave and come back your bed is just surrounded by people.” It was like full time social hour! I found myself thinking, man if I could just rest for a little while or have some quiet time that would be stellar. I ended up with so many people on Instagram and Whatsapp, some of who still kindly text me to see where in the world I am and if I’m healthy! 

Lots...

and lots...

and lots...

of SELFIES!

My second morning, Annika texted me “The guard won’t let me in!” I asked Mohasin. He straight away called the guard, “I told him, you let her come in whenever she wants!” a minute later Anni’s head popped into view. Mohasin pulled her up a chair and we settled in for another long day. I was doing so much better and could have been ready to leave, but since it was Sunday the only doctor who could discharge me wasn’t working. Fuck. 

I bumped up against a language barrier whenever I had to pee. I’d tell someone “Pee. I have to PEE.” and I’d just get a blank stare. Finally I found that if I just said “Urine! Urine!” that usually got the point across. It didn’t help that an older ward-woman said through broken English “Baby! Big baby!” and pointed to my ridiculous adult diaper. The worst part was that I wasn’t even sick anymore, just hanging out in a diaper…

One my third night they moved me into a private room. I got to change into my clothes. There were two beds, and a TV! My IV was attached to a pole that wedged into the side of my bed. How delicious to have my freedom back! Annika carried my IV and we went on a big outing to ask for a towel! I washed my hair in the sink, went to the bathroom on my own—Annika stood on the other side of the bathroom door hold my IV—bless her little German heart. The food service men came through. When we opened our door their eyes got huge with surprise. They were about to leave when, “Selfie?” Then my new nurses came in, they talked to us for a long time, then “Selfie?” Sure ok, let do it! Annika went down to the cafeteria, got ice cream and a chocolate bar as big as they come. We watched America’s Got Talent—in English!—and were eating ice cream and chocolate when three of my doctors came in, we both froze like two kids caught with our hands in the cookie jar! 

The next morning my discharge doctor came in… 

“I heard you were eating ice cream last night.” 

I looked at the other doctors, “Come on guys, you told on me?” 

My final diagnose: an unspecific jungle fever. Probably caused by a dang little mosquito…

Two person IV parade

My last morning several different ICU nurses popped in to say goodbye. Annika and I drew the ICU staff a card and gave it to Mohasin. It felt emotional to leave, they were like family now, this was my life, these hospital walls are all I’ve ever known…Hmm scratch that! Actually get me outta here!

Drawing a card for the staff 

Anni wrote in Hindi for the first time "Thank you very much"

Finally around 1pm on my fourth day, a woman took Annika and my debit card downstairs… Annika burst in the door, “We can go!!” Just like that were spit back out into the Indian heat. Trying to talk down tuktuk drivers, find a bus, or call an Uber! Right back at it!

What we got to see of Udaipur in the 45 minutes before heading to the airport.

And it was beautiful.

Udaipur is a beautiful city, with tons of lakes, viewpoints, we’ve heard its amazing. I had used all of our time—and then some—up in the hospital. That meant that Annika and I had to travel the 150 km to Mumbai and catch our flight in 24 hours. We decided neither of us were up to catching a flight the same day we left the hospital. We needed some Black Pepper time. Mama at our guesthouse cooked us butter masala, palak and veggies, chapati, and chai. 

Anni and I tucked in bed and watch Tangled, laughed until our bellies hurt over inside jokes, and talked about what our trip had been. I’d been so stressed about being in the hospital and trying to get discharged in time to make our flight, I hadn’t realized that these were the last few days I would get to spend with my number one… We’d spent the last month together, and most of the time it was just the two of us, navigating this confronting, new world. We talked and laughed and adventured together every moment of the last 25 days—except for that one time I went out to buy a papaya! 

That night we climbed up stairs to the roof. Mama made us a late night snack and lassis. There were fireworks lighting up the skyline and an occasional lantern floated above us. We asked our host what was going on? She replied, “This is just India…” 

Our godsend hosts.

Last morning of drinking chai with Annika in India

I am so overcome with gratitude for all the people who helped me through this and went out of their way to be kind, helpful, and reassuring. Our hosts at Black Pepper, the hospital staff, my parents, and mostly Annika. I think all those loving vibes of community and seeing people care about one another is what made me healthy again—and maybe the antibiotics helped a little too.

Much love for this one.