December_9

Hello everyone,

No wild and crazy travel stories to write about this
time. We have been in Nha Trang for exactly two
weeks, and frankly we are getting a bit bored. The
reason we are still here is Brad picked up a rather
nasty eye infection. The night we arrived we spoke a
friend, Martin from Denmark, who had an eye infection,
but he said his was clearing up. The next morning
Brad had the same infection. You might recall from
the last letter that we got some drops at the "get
what you want" pharmacy. Well the drops seemed to be
clearing things up when suddenly the infection took a
turn for the worse on late Saturday. We got some new
drops Sunday morning thinking maybe the newest bottle
of drops was contaminated (there are obviously not the
strictest controls on the meds.!). By Monday morning
the eye had swollen significantly and had become
painful. Key question: How do you find a decent
Doctor when you are on the road? Either you make
friends with a local real fast or you use IAMAT.
IAMAT is the International Association for Medical
Assistance to Travelers. That's a lot to say! We
learned about this from Doctor Forgey back home who
prepared us for the trip. He is a member and does
trainings all over the world for IAMAT. The
organization only asks for a donation to join and will
connect you with western trained, english speaking
Doctors through out the world. We have a directory
listing all the contacts world wide in virtually every
country. In this case, the closest contact was
Saigon. We called there and they directed the phone
call to a local Doctor here in Nha Trang. We had an
appointment in less than an hour! The Doctor took one
look and said "Conjunctivitus with infection...ooh".
He left and came back with 4 different kinds of pills
and drops (some without labels) and said come back in
four days. As an after thought, he asked Brad's last
name and wrote it on a blank calendar. They really
don't do things by appointment here. When we asked
how much, he said "pay me next time". Either he
trusts we will be coming back, or he is going to give
a whammy of a bill. Really it is just that you do not
pay for things until the treatment is complete. And
this infection was apparently a whopper! The eye
slowly healed durning the next week and Brad has a
final "appointment" for Monday afternoon. It has been
a bit scarey to have such an important part of the
body not heal very quickly. But we feel like we are
onthe road to recovery! It has been a bit of a boring
week for Jennifer as Brad tried to lay in a dark with
his open so he could heal (that is almost a sure fire
prescription for suicide).

Jennifer's boredom was relieved when our friends Pat
and Kassi from Minnesota got to town. They had always
toyed with the idea of big trip, and when we told them
last January of our plans, they decided to go for it
as well. They both quit their jobs as lawyers, Pat
sold his house and they were off. The only difference
is they are planning on getting married when they get
to Fiji! Jen had some new play friends. They went to
the beach and left Brad to the hotel room (He had the
longest solitaire losing streak ever). The beach has
a big break right at the shore, so it is fun to body
surf (or attempt to body surf). As the week went on,
Brad healed and joined in the fun, but stayed in the
shade. We sampled the excellent food of several
restaruantes, mailed postcards, and enjoyed the
company of familiar faces. A little background, Pat
attended college with Brad's brother Todd at good
ol'Saint Johns University. (Who lost their football
game on Saturday..oh well)

click here to go to page 2