My Experience with Kigali's Hospitals

This was unpleasant...

So after returning from Bujumbura things went downhill, and quickly.  My roommate started feeling ill on the way home, and I thought I was doing ok.  I was wrong.  About 8 PM Monday night I started feeling sick, and by 10 PM I had all but taken up residence in the bathroom.  By about midnight I was heading to the bathroom about 8 times per hour, every hour.  It was really, really bad.  By about 2 AM I had decided something was really, really wrong, so I called my other friend who had gone on the trip with us.  She had just started vomiting.  I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't vomiting as well.  10 minutes later, I was back in the bathroom vomiting violently - really violently.  A little after 3AM I called a friend who was a doctor, at a complete loss of what to do.  I was starting to lose fluids, a LOT of fluids, and fast.  On her advice I started trying to take the cipro, but it I couldn't keep anything down.  And vomiting cipro-bile through your nose into the sink, while also sitting on the toilet having diarrhea - wow.

This continued all night, and by morning I could feel myself getting dangerously dehydrated.  My doc friend did a house call in the morning, said to keep trying to take the cipro, but if i wasn't getting any fluids down to go to King Faisel Hospital.  By noon, at which point I was vomiting and crying at the same time, it was clear that wasn't working.  Six times per hour to the bathroom with no liquid intake is bad, really bad.  Hardly able to walk by this point and losing far more liquid than the few drops i was taking in, and still with no antibiotics in me, I called a friend to take me to the hospital.  He was wonderful.  As was the hospital. 

So I spent the day admitted to King Faisel Hospital in Kigali.  It's the private hospital in town, and is actually quite good.  Not like one back home of course, but everything was sterile and new.  I spend the day on an IV rehydrating somewhat and getting massive ammounts of antinausea meds, antibiotics, and I'm not even sure what else.  By nightfall they had determined that I had an intestinal infection, though no identifiable parasites, no malaria, and no typhoid.  This was good.  The best part of the tests was the following medical report (I have this in writing) "Stool Appearance: Green."  Aie.  Let me just tell you that providing a stool sample into a little cup with massive diarrhea while also managing the IV in your arm... interresting.

I ended up returning home that night once I had been able to stop vomiting, which meant I could get fluids and antibiotics in me.  That said, it took me the better part of a week before I had any energy back at all.  Massive fluid loss, sickness, and not eating for several days straight will do that I guess.  It was unreal just how much it totally wiped me out, and especially how fst it happened. But in any event, it seems to be better now.  All in all, the doctors were great and my friends were amazing during a very very scary time being sick.  We still have no idea what caused it, or why it attacked my so violently, but it's definitely made me very wary of any food.