Location: Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

UNFORTUNATE CHANGE OF PLANS.

I slept maybe 1 hour all night, as it turns out I have a double ear infection and couldn’t lay down cause of the pain. I can’t hear very well either. S*** just got way more difficult. I think it must have been all the water during canyoneering I was exposed to. In and out of water all day and cliff jumping? I can’t imagine that’s great for your ears.

I was supposed to swim with whale sharks today (the reason I came to Leyte island in the first place). I could barely think, let alone swim. I couldn’t stand one more second so I hopped on the first bus back towards Hilongos (about 3 hours) and caught the first ferry I could back to Cebu (6 hours). I learned my lesson with the last ferry so this time I booked an air conditioned cabin with real beds and managed to sleep sitting up for another couple of hours.

I wanted to get to a real hospital and a place where they would have more facilities, as the island only had one small nursing station with no capacity to deal with what was going on. Initially this didn’t seem to make much of a difference though. The first hospital turned me away, so I walked to the second hospital a few blocks away.

At first an EMT told me they couldn’t help me here, but I wasn’t leaving without seeing an ENT (ear nose throat) doctor. I think they were just trying to turn people away because it was busy. I was in tears by this point and having crazy vertigo. There’s no way I could fly to another country! Where else was I supposed to go if not a hospital? I barely made it here in one piece! I ignored the EMT and marched right up to the admissions counter, and thank god I did because he gave me papers, sent me straight to TRIAGE and 10 minutes later I was seeing a nurse.

They were packed full so I ended up in a diagnostics chair in what seemed to be a break area for nurses, along with 3 other people who were having ear issues. 3 examinations, 5 hours and 2 doctors later and they sent me out with a prescription and some pain meds. Their machine to clean our ears was broken so I also had instructions for where to go in the morning to have that done.

The whole ordeal was really scary to be honest. There were barely any signs telling me where to go, most people didn’t speak english, it was unbearably hot and people were crying everywhere. Nurses walked around bare handed with bloody rags, sharps and biohazardous material were put into empty water bottles, and three different people went into cardiac arrest nearby to wherever I happened to be sitting. The power shut off a few times, halting everything and making it even hotter. There was a giant line all the way out the door just for people with Dengue fever, and the security guards couldn’t keep track of who was going in and out, and didn’t really seem to care all that much. On top of all this when doctors and nurses did speak to me I could barely hear them as my ears feel like they’re under water.

Finding a pharmacy was frustrating, as it was 10 pm and pitch black outside. The first two I found couldn’t fill my prescription, but luckily the 3rd did. I grabbed a chocolate bar (emotional treatment) and more pain medication. Small children followed me around asking for food or money, and I had to ignore them for over 10 minutes which was really hard.

Despite all of this I did get medical care, and it’s unrealistic of me to expect first world medical treatment in a developing country. The entire ordeal, medication included cost me $10 CAD. I was expecting a lot more. I’ll be going back to the outpatient department tomorrow and I hope it’s a smoother experience. I imagine not being in as much pain will help me handle the whole thing a lot better.

I can’t fly until this is sorted out, so I will be stuck in Cebu for a few days. More updates tomorrow!

Sav

P.S. when I was in the pharmacy I saw ‘whitening soap’ which makes your skin whiter… I didn’t know this was a thing so I looked it up online and it’s big here I guess. I found it sort of perplexing that people here want whiter skin, while people back home spend lots of time or money to have more tanned skin…