Dysentery Diet: Day 4

I amazes me that after four days without eating, the body still has stuff to spew forth. Yet it is so, as I, intrepid adventurer Jones, can, rather unfortunately detest.

On Day 3 I had enough energy to venture out of my house to see a doctor, who informed me that I had, "many things in my intestines." Those "things" are not food, that is all I can say, but the happy purple antibiotics she gave me seem to be working. I can now eat half a bowl of rice porridge a day and walk down the street.

I know, I know, my bowel movements are not exactly your preferred reading or the most exciting topic for a blog, however, they have been the center of my life for the past four days. Since Thursday when I ran out of the class I was teaching to throw up, my entire life has consisted of my sleeping and running to the toilet.

Sounds fascinating, doesn't it? Actually, what's more interesting, is what I MISSED as a consequence of this sudden illness.

1. A big party in Bangkok. I had a bus ticket already bought to go down to the big city on Thursday night for a party on Friday for my old neighbor's photo exhibition opening at the foreign correspondent's Club. While in Bangkok, I planned to visit the dentist, the pharmacist and maybe go out dancing Saturday night.

2. A visit from the Prime Minister of Thailand and 24 foreign dignitaries on Saturday in Mae Sot. I found out about this last minute pleasure from an only slightly harassed UN official I ran into while sweaty and completely disgusting at the local 7-11 where I was stocking up on my oral hydration powder, tylenol and rice porridge supplies.

3. The riots against the Prime Minister (from which he is hiding in Mae Sot) in Bangkok (where I would have been if not for the party in my intestines) of over 100 000 people. The email warning I just read from the embassy warns of impending violence, to stay away from the very area where my proposed dentist is located.

So, on day 4, still existing mainly on a diet of rehydration salts and the occasional spoonful of rice soup, sweaty, but with a fever no longer, I think, dysentery is not the worst thing that could have happened to me this weekend.