Sitting in a street cafe over my copy of the The Himalayan Times, I am treating myself to the customary milky tea and a deep fried doughnut. My breakfast is not likely to cost more than 50 cent, a mere fortune compared to the 5 rupees ( 4 cent) I had paid for the newspaper….
The day hadn’t started well. I had struggled to find some sleep and when looking into the mirror in the morning , my face was lopsided due to a painful swelling below my left eye.
The most likely cause for this was a molar abscess and with the help of my local contacts and following the advice of my dentist friends Angela and Graham in the UK, I had no other choice than checking myself in with one of the dental clinics in Kathmandu.
Bad timing ….. the probably most serious health issue I had for the last ten years, had struck me just a day before meeting up before a three week hiking trek, that is due to take me to some of the remotest parts of the Himalaya, where even the most basic medical care will be several day marches away…..
Fast forward three hours and I have made the aquaintance of Luna, my local dentist in Kathmandu. After popping the abscess with her dental probe (which seemed to give her more pleasure than me….) and taking an X-Ray, to my surprise, Luna declared that I could keep my tooth. After having three root canals drilled out and the abscess flushed, I felt much better. To make the most of the still lasting local anaesthesia, I headed straight for the Kaiser Cafe in the Garden of Dreams, one of the few green spaces in the city, and enjoyed a slice of cheese cake and a latte before the pain was due to set in….
Even better, I was joined by my colleague Pranav from the neighboring city of Baktarpur, who had seen a few cases at his branch in Kathmandu.
Buoyant and still completely painfree the next morning, I was confident that I could start on my trip the next day and with a swing in my step I saw Dr Luna for a follow up check. What I had expected to be a brief procedure, lasted another 45 minutes with a lot of probing and prodding, with the result that in the evening, at the meeting with my team, I was , despite the antibiotics I was already taking, in agony…..
With the help of some painkillers, I managed to survive the evening, but it didn’t help, that we all had to sign a declaration that we were aware, that an emergency airlift from the mountains would cost at least 7000 $, and that we ultimately would have to pay for it.
With me already on medication even before the trip, I wasn’t very confident that my travel insurance would bail me out if it would come to this…..
Another sleepless night and serious doubts if I should start this new adventure…..
The Blue Vet Diary 