This week’s Travelsonabike2 bicycle touring on this day post comes from the 11th-October-2016, and I’m in Dhule, India. Not feeling particularly well.
Tuesday 11th October. Dhule.
I woke up at about 5 am this morning by a very strange noise. It was a bit like something scratching or dripping, so I put the light on to see. Nothing was dripping, and I couldn’t see anything, so I turned the light off and rolled over. Then I started to wonder if it was a rat in the room and it was inside the drawer on the underside of the other bed in the room! Not wanting to share my room with a rat, I decided to investigate more and turned the light back on. It was a cockroach doing its dying swan song. It was on its back but kept jumping up as if to right itself but just kept landing on its back. Anyway, it fell silent after about ten more minutes, and I found it dead on the floor when I later got up!
I set off as usual this morning and only got a short distance down the road when I started to feel unwell again. I was hot, sweat was pouring off me, and I was very short of breath. Struggling on, I continued for a bit more, but it was no good; I really wasn’t feeling good. Deciding that I needed to stop I stopped at one of the many street stalls that sell food and have a bite to eat whilst I decided what to do.
Decisions decisions!
Do I carry on and try to ride it off? But then, I’ve not been feeling good since I left Mumbai. And it seems to be getting worse rather than better. Maybe I could take it easy and do even fewer miles each day than I’ve already done. Or should I go back to last night’s hotel? At least it was a pleasant place, reasonably modern with good wifi, and I knew my bike was safe. (We moved it into reception in the end last night) And if I was going to be ill, I could have a bit of comfort. Also, I’m sure that they would be able to get a doctor if I needed one. Decisions decisions!
It’s No Good
I continued for another half mile, but in the end, I turned around and returned to the hotel, thinking it was probably the best idea. When I got back, reception called a doctor out for me.
The doctor came out a few hours later, along with the hotel owner, the hotel manager, a junior doctor, and somebody else I didn’t know. It was probably somebody passing by wanting to look at the poorly English man! The main doctor listened to my chest, felt my forehead and felt my pulse, asked me a few questions and then asked the junior doctor to give me an injection in my bum. He told me what it was, but I didn’t catch what he said. Next, somebody else came into the room and took some blood from me to take away for tests.
The Results
An hour or so later, the blood tests came back with the hotel manager, not the doctor as you’d maybe expect. They’re not sure what’s a matter with me, but they’ve given me some antibiotics and some other tablets and told me to rest. I spent the rest of the day sleeping on and off. I think I may still be here tomorrow.
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