Delhi Belly

In between Ranthambore and Corbett National Parks, I passed through Delhi, the capital of India. I was only planning on spending two days there but as things would go, I'd end up there for five.
The city is divided into two very different parts. The older, pre colonial, Old Delhi that still has narrow road and alleyways and the newer, modern New Delhi.
New Delhi is not just a contrast to Old Dehli, it's a stark contrast to Kolkata and the rest of what I had seen in India. New Delhi is a modern city with all of the amenities. It does have its poor and slum areas but they are nowhere near the amount of what I saw in Kolkata. New Delhi is full of fancy restaurants and hip fashionable people. It's also quite a bit more expensive than Kolkata. My average meal went from about100 rupees to about 250-300 rupees. People in New Delhi wear sunglasses. Very fashionable sunglasses, you don't see any sunglasses in Kolkata. New Delhi has wide, European inspired boulevards and architecture. New Delhi has large green parks and colonial architecture to look at. There are high rise buildings and massive shopping malls. The disparity between rich and poor really comes out in New Delhi. The metro in Delhi is unbelievable. It is brand spanking new and blows away anything I've seen in the US, Europe or China. If you go to New Delhi, you need to ride the metro, even if you're not going anywhere, just get on, go and come back. It's a bit futuristic and you can see people who have traveled from a village into Delhi and are riding a subway for the first time in their lives. It's funny but endearing at the same time. I'm not kidding when I say that I had Indians asking me how to work the turnstiles or which direction the trains went in.
Old Delhi, as the name suggests, is the older part of the city and is of course more worn and run down. Old Delhi has alot of old mosques, forts and temples. In Old Delhi, you can still find cattle in the street. Not a chance in Delhi.
On my second day in Delhi I woke and decided that it was a special day. I decided that for my 22nd day of consecutive abdominal pain and full on diarrhea, that I would go and see another one of New Delhi's attractions, the Apollo Hospital.
I will admit that I was a little nervous going to a hospital in India. I've seen the kitchens in Indian restaurants so I can only imagine how bad the hospitals must be. I think that's probably why I waited so long. I was surprised at how modern Apollo hospital was. Now keep in mind, I didn't go to just any hospital so this may not be the norm. Apollo hospital is not only considered one of the best in India, it's the only hospital in India that is accredited by other countries. So that made me feel a little bit better. If not a little elitist, especially after having worked for a month with people who wouldn't have been allowed to lay on Apollo's freshly mowed lawn.
That being said, I went and felt a better about my guilt when I got there because it wasn't filled with rich foreigners, it was full of Indians. Wealthy Indians, but Indians nonetheless. The hospital was as modern as most hospitals I've been in in the US. Not the best but far from the worst. Though there were a ton of people in it, I was shocked at how quickly I got through it all. I was seen, diagnosed, given a prescription and out the door in about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Try and walk into a US emergency room get out that quickly.
One of things I found interesting while I was there was that on the admitting paperwork it asks for all your info, including the name of your husband and father if you are a woman, but not for your wife and mother's name if you are a man. Another interesting things is that the paperwork asks what your religion is. Another interesting paperwork thing is that you have to pay for everything up front, there is no insurance and there is no pay as you go. I said I had a gastro intestinal issue, they said it will be this much for the doctor, this much for the tests, pay now. I paid and they led me into the doctor's office.
The routine was the same as the times I'd gone through it in the US. No, this wasn't the first time I got the Ghangida and it certainly wouldn't be the last. The doctor was a nice guy and lucky for me spoke perfect English. He was a gastroenterologist, not just a general MD. Try and get that at a US emergency room too. He asked me a bunch of questions, I told him what I knew and he said, "I think you've got Delhi Belly." I gave blood and stool samples and he told me to come back tomorrow for the results. He, as well as I, felt that the problem was caused by the antibiotics I had taken when I had the Ghangida a month before. We both figured that the antibiotics, which I took a full course of, had killed off everything in me, good and bad and my insides were still trying to bounce back from that.
I will also tell you that in the sample giving session, there was one difference between US and India. In the US they give you this plastic, hat like tray that you put over the toilet to catch the sample. From there you use the poo-spoon (or poon as it is sometimes called in my sick mind) to fill a small container for submission. In India, you only get the container. I asked the lab guy how I was suppose to get it into the container. He said just go right in it. OK, this is going to be like catching water from a fire hose in a dixie cup. Surprisingly it all turned out well.
The next day I returned for the results. I went to the lab, picked up the results and opened them up as I was in the elevator going to the doctor's office. The blood test all showed normal, but not the stool sample. I opened it up and heard the drum roll. And the winner is...Giardia! Yea, and then cheering. Wait, giardia? I got giardia? I was hoping for something a little more exotic at least. I could have stayed home and got giardia.
So I got a bunch of prescriptions and off I went. It's now been about 3 weeks since and fortunately the ship is holding steady.