Kidney Stone

Let’s get you up to speed with my latest act of malingering.

It started off 5th February, when I went to bed with a bit of backache and a sore throat. I woke up the next morning (6th) feeling decidedly not great, took some paracetamol, checked my temperature (38.0), but went into work anyway because it was a non-clinical day and the general unwritten NHS rule is: ‘if you’re not ill enough to be an inpatient, don’t even think about screwing up the staffing levels even more’.

As the day went on it turned out that actually I was ill enough to be an inpatient. My midwife friends had a look in my throat and diagnosed tonsillitis and throat ulcers), and I felt very shivery and crap. I ticked most of the boxes on my Haematology Assessment Checklist, so I gave the clinic a call and they told me to head straight over. Once I got there I’d developed full on rigours and had the Sepsis 6 bundle.

Part of the Sepsis 6 bundle is IV antibiotics. Penicillin is a cracking broad-spectrum antibiotic (useful for when you don’t know exactly what bacteria it is you’re trying to kill), but unfortunately isn’t compatible with me living. I was given ciprofloxacin instead, and after 4mls of it had been given my entire left arm (the one in was being given into) went red and blotchy, and I started getting tingly lips. I didn’t need adrenaline this time, but it certainly won’t be being prescribed for me again!

Another part of the Sepsis 6 bundle is closely watching urine output (which decreases the worse the infection gets as your kidneys come under more strain), and mine was impressively reduced. What I was passing was dipped and indicated a raging UTI so that, along with the back pain, prompted the diagnosis of pyelonephritis (a kidney infection) which was the cause of the feeling of general crapness (although the tonsillitis didn’t help).

I was move to a ward, started on gentamicin, and, 7th February 2018, some of the worst pain of my life started. I was on 4 hourly paracetamol and dihydrocodeine, 2 hourly oramorph, and subcutaneous morphine top-ups when I was screaming. None of that took it away, and I still spent hours on all 4s on the bed, howling, and vomiting for no reason other than pain.

This continued until 8th February, and then I started weeing blood. By this point I’d had 3 days of IV abx, no pyrexia, and worsening pain so it was questioned if the pyelonephritis was the ongoing cause of it. A kidney stone became much more likely, and an ultrasound was planned.

10th February it was still going on, but I’d had a few hours respite from the pain (I now know this was because the stone had made its way down my narrow ureter, and was chilling out in my roomy bladder for a bit) so I braved a shower. I can’t remember too clearly what happened, but I can remember weeing in a bedpan in the toilet (to measure output/catch a stone) and then having to stand up mid-wee because I thought I was going to split in half if I stayed sitting. I can remember being naked, screaming, pissing all over the floor (not that you could tell; it was a puddle of blood) and two nurses coming in and wheeling me back to bed. Probably not one of my best moments... but... I’d passed the stone!

After that, the pain changed. It’s still here, but it’s just a general soreness which is easily sorted with paracetamol. My wee is slightly blood stained and it still hurts to go (which it would if your urethra’s been shredded), but it’s all fine.

Why does this shit always happen to me?

Love Emily x

P.s. Today I was due to run Leicestershire Half Marathon. That obviously didn’t happen, but if you fancied cheering me up with sponsorship anyway...
www.justgiving.com/Emily-Stringer2

Kathmandu - Dubai

I was up at 4:30 this morning for an Everest flight which was (sorry for the repetitive hyperbole) incredible. To give you a sense of scale: Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK) is 1,345m above sea level, whilst Kathmandu sits at 1,400m, at the base of the Himalayas. Everest's peak is 8,848m and Nuptse (the ridge next to it) is 7,861m - almost a kilometre lower. It was great fun: we swigged free prosecco and went into the cockpit to take selfies with the (really quite hot) pilot.

When we landed our (pre-arranged through the flight company) taxi driver picked us up without anyone asking us for payment for the flight. We didn't get so lucky, though, and the driver took us to an office somewhere in Kathmandu for us to pay. I've learned that the payment part of any transaction takes the longest in Nepal, and this sure did. The Man With The Key wasn't at the office, so we couldn't go inside until he arrived. I really really really needed the loo, weighed up my options, forlornly looked at Clare and said "I don't want to shit in a plant pot" but was thankfully saved from that fate when The Man With The Key, my saviour, rocked up. The rest of the day was spent haggling with the traders of Kathmandu, packing, saying goodbyes, and setting off to the airport.

Leaving India and Nepal I thought my fear of traffic had ironically improved, if not almost gone, but since arriving in Dubai where there's an infrastructure recognisable as roads complete with indicators and lanes and traffic lights and everything, I've realised that driving in India and Nepal was so unlike at home that I couldn't even make a comparison - and it's strengthened my belief that those who moan that "health and safety has gone mad" have probably never been to a place where no such concept exists. In the UK I'd cry foul play if someone cut me up, but in the countries I went to it was so normal that drivers expected it, and anticipated and reacted accordingly. I've felt more scared in Dubai than I did in India and Nepal, even though the roads and standard of driving are so so much better, just because it feels more familiar. 

I've bagged myself an absolute bargain hotel room here - it was a £200 down to £60 sale, which I'm always a bit wary of, but I think this is worth £200! Sleepy time now.

Love Emily x

Pokhara - Kathmandu; Nepal

Urgh.

Last night a group of us tested Pokhara's reputation of being a great night out, and went out for a few drinks. We negotiated a 90 minute extension to the cocktail Happy Hour and exploited it to the max. The cocktails here are potent, and worked so effectively that I was smashing a glass for every two that I drank. I was trollied, blaming my state on the altitude, and booing anyone who pointed out that Pokhara is at roughly the same height as Leeds. When it came to ordering dinner, I was so shitfaced that I happily ordered, and then gobbled, a spaghetti carbonara. I got onto the bus to Kathmandu at 6:30 this morning feeling disgustingly hungover and guilty, and also with crippling stomach pains from my body trying to digest half a pig after years of vegetarianism. I'm pretty sure Darryl doesn't read this (he once grumpily half-joked that no man should have to subscribe to his girlfriends newsletter) so hopefully I've got away with it from an ongoing guilt perspective, if not from a digestive point of view! 

The distance between Pokhara and Kathmandu is only 200km, but it feels like you cross a border to a different country when you arrive. My impression of Nepal so far was that it's far cleaner and better presented than India, but Kathmandu feels poorer than Jaipur or Varanasi. There's only one road between Pokhara and Kathmandu, and I'd advise you to fly between the two cities than take it! It's a single carriageway road which clings to the edge of mountains, hairpin bends and sheer drops are par for the course, clogged full of lorries. Parts of it were destroyed by landslides, there were plenty of crashed vehicles which had been abandoned, and I'm not being flippant when I say I wish I wore a sports bra for the ride! At 17:00, tired and grumpy, we arrived in Kathmandu and rushed around a monkey temple before it closed. All I really wanted from the monkey temple was a chance to use the bathroom, but the janitor had locked that and gone home, so instead I climbed 300 steps to see three dogs having a 3some, and mulled over the fact that they were having a better day than I was.

I've got another 4:30 start tomorrow, but I really don't mind this one, as I'll be flying around Everest!

Love Emily x

Pokhara; Nepal

Disclaimer: I realise I use the words "awesome", "amazing", "beautiful", "stunning", "incredible", etc, a lot. It's not that I have a narrow vocabulary, it's just that there are no other adjectives to describe some of the things I've seen.

I had another ridiculous wake up alarm at 4:20 this morning, to reach the top of Sarangkot mountain, part of the Annapurna range, in time for sunrise. We did, and it was amazing. The top of Sarangkot was above cloud level, with Pokhara city to one side and the rest of the snow capped Annapurna range to the other. 

Later in the day Clare and I boarded a minibus to take us up another one of the Annapurna mountains for paragliding. These mountainous roads were half rubble, with lots of hairpin bends and vertical drops for added excitement. Clare and I, being two white girls in a van full of Asian men, stuck out like sore thumbs and I was alternating between two thoughts most of the way up the mountain: 1) I've got no idea where we should be heading, this is a hell of a lot of trust to put in a van full of strangers, and there's a chance this bus journey could be subject to analysis in British tabloid newspapers, and 2) I hope my instructor isn't the one who keeps winding his window down to gob out of it. These two thoughts gave way to "we're really quite high up now" and "it's interesting that we're still climbing". Eventually the bus stopped and I felt relieved that we weren't going any higher - until we were told to walk up the last bit! 

When we finally reached the top I wasn't sure if being above cloud level was helpful or not; sure, I couldn't see how far down the ground was, but the implication was probably 'pretty bloody far'. By the time our instructors (I didn't get Gobby!) got us harnessed up and the parachutes sorted, the clouds had cleared and we could see precisely what we were running off. Out of the two of us Clare went first, and she had a bit of a botched take off - her an her instructor sort of stumbled, and then got picked back up by their 'chute a little way down the mountain. I watched this, contemplated every life choice which had led me to this moment, and then heard "run, run, run!!" being shouted. We ran, off the side of a mountain, and then flew down. The only English words my instructor spoke were "run", "beautiful Pokhara" and "nice?" - but he did let me loose with a GoPro and a selfie stick, plus I was sitting on his lap, so we bonded! We glided for about 25 minutes, and landed on the shore of Pokhara lake. It was awesome.

Love Emily x

Chitwan-Pokhara; Nepal

This morning was a relative lie in (6:30 start), and I woke up feeling surprisingly okay given the obscene quantity of vodka I had last night. We left the home stay village and hit the road to Pokhara, travelling through the Mahabharat mountain range.

These roads were amazing, and I have huge admiration for the bus driver for navigating them safely. They clung onto the sides of mountains, sometimes above cloud level, often inches away from vertical drops of hundreds of metres into dense rainforest. Some parts were badly damaged from recent floods and landslides, and other parts had waterfalls gushing over them. Gradually, the rainforest gave way to snow capped mountains and we arrived in Pokhara at 17:00. 

This evening we visited a house where women rescued from human trafficking live, and receive an education and rehabilitation into society, removed from the issues which saw them become a victim of trafficking originally. They made us a great Nepalese dinner, and taught us how to make momos: a Nepalese dish, like a stuffed dumpling. They turned out surprisingly well!

Tomorrow I've got a 4:20 start for a sunrise hike, and then... paragliding!

Love Emily x

Chitwan National Park; Nepal

They say it never rains but it pours, and that was certainly the case today. I didn't sleep well last night (hard bed, mosquito net too close to my face, and lungs feeling full of gunk if I lay flat) and woke up feeling cold. "How can this be?", I thought to myself, "I've not felt anything other than disgustingly sweaty in nearly a fortnight". I could hear rain hammering on the hut roof, and realised the rain had been coming through the mesh window and gradually making me wet overnight.

The dash from our hut to the communal room required my Emergency Poncho, and I was absolutely soaked when I arrived. When we arrived there, we were told that the jeep safari planned for the afternoon had been cancelled because the rain had flooded the tracks, and the wifi was down. Seriously unimpressed, we cracked out the Uno cards and Emergency Chocolate, contemplated daytime drinking, and started pleading with out guide. 

Eventually the pleading worked and the safari was rearranged. It was a jeep setup similar to in Africa, driving through dense rainforest. Every few minutes the jeep stopped and we excitedly wondered if it was because the driver had spotted something, or had the truck just got stuck again? (Spoiler: it was always the latter). I don't want to sound too grumpy though, so here's a list of all the animals I saw:

2 parrots

A deer

Seriously though, it was a fun drive, and I'm really pleased I had the opportunity to see so many cool wild animals, even if they didn't feel like saying hello. 

In the evening we had dinner cooked for us by the local Tharu people, and they gave a performance of their traditional songs and dances. I was consuming a fair amount of vodka (the standard spirit measure here is 60mls...) during their performance, and therefore didn't even slightly hesitate when they invited me up to join in. It was so so funny, and I'm sure some photos will emerge. Tomorrow we'll be sobering up, and driving through the mountains to reach Pokhara.

Love Emily x

Nepal Border - Chitwan Park; Nepal

I love Nepal. Seriously, it's awesome.

One of the first things I noticed after crossing the border was the relative silence - there's no cacophony of noise on the roads! The horn here is used appropriately - not as a substitute for indicators, or as a greeting, or to move a cow out of the way. The air is cleaner, the rules of the road apply, and the people far less aggressive.

We had lunch at a cafe in a tiny village up a mountain, on a terrace with fantastic views over the rainforest below us. Then we headed to the village of Barauli, which is a 'homestay' setup - meaning we live as part of the village whilst we're here. As we arrived, they stood in a line, clapped, painted a bindi on our foreheads and placed a ring of real flowers around our necks in turn. It was slightly odd, but very welcoming!

We hired some bikes and cycles from the village to a river. I was pretty scared of getting on a bike for the first time since the crash, but I did it, and I was so glad I did. Sunset over the river was absolutely beautiful, and made so much more stunning by three elephants playing in the water.

Definitely my favourite moment of the trip so far!

Love Emily x