One of the Overseas Adventure Travel’s themes is Learning and Discovery or L & D. Generally it means getting off on our own and having adventures that are not on the itinerary.  Today’s L&D required the presence of our Tour Leader,  An, to give guidance and cross the language barrier.  Shocking as it may seem my vocabulary in Vietnamese is limited to sin chow (Hello) and gum ang (Thank you). Those transliterations are approximations as is my pronounciation.  People tend not to laugh to hard.  But I am avoiding the subject.

Back on December 6 I entered yet another new hotel room. The designer had very cleverly created a platform that extended about a foot from the foot of the bed.  It has nice sharp corners.  Three of us men,  naturally,  impaled ourselves on the corners upon entering the rooms. One got a scratch and Kelly and I managed to draw blood.  In my case, infection combined with edema from travel to give me a swollen leg.  I’ve been dragging it around with cleanings and a course of the wrong antibiotic until yesterday.  It got worse and the knee swelled up.  Overnight it returned to the way it had been,  but I had gotten An involved, so off to the hospital we went after lunch.  We arrived at 1:30 knowing that An had to lead an optional tour which we had cancelled at 3 PM. The short story is that we had completed my treatment in time to be back at the hotel by 3. Total cost for me was $58, including meds.

Longer story.  The hospital looked like something out of the 50s. I was placed in a room that was a cross between a storage room,  an exam room and the pathway to the WC. The walls were glass and the door was left open.  Passersby peered in to watch the treatment,  all in all not what we are used to,  not that we spend a lot of time in ERs.  There was no attempt to take vital signs,  for that matter no blood pressure cuff or stethoscope was in view.  They did eventually take my temperature with a Mercury thermometer in the armpit.  They did not take a medical history of any sort.  I had to speak up to say I had type 2 diabetes and was allergic to penicillin.  The latter caused great consternation on the part of the doctor who obviously was planning on something from that family.  The rest of my history was not even considered.  I have since sent the treatment information to my doctor who confirmed most of the recommendations by email.  You can’t imagine how grateful I am to be able to communicate this way when I am far away. 

I will not talk about this episode or my recovery again unless there is something out of the ordinary or funny to report.  After an afternoon of rest Carol and I took the hotel shuttle into ancient Hoi An and walked just a bit until we found our way into the Cargo Club where we had a wonderful meal sitting at a terrace table overlooking the river.  Cab back to the hotel, $3, and we are packed for an early departure from Da Nang airport in the morning.