Straight Male / 24
I Almost Died
As part of my college education I went abroad for a semester. In my case I joined an expedition in the Peruvian Amazon. I was a lab technician, putting into practice what I learned at school. During my stay I developed a very bad case of diarrhea, with intestinal bleeding. I was very scared, I went all night, with very bloody discharge. By morning I was too weak to stand. One of the expedition members came looking for me and I was evacuated by helicopter to Iquitos. Once stable I returned home.
The whole experience was terrible, not only being so sick, but facing just how helpless I was, my self esteem went way down, the care in Peru by men and women I didn't know, being naked under a sheet. I was embarrassed on a level that I can't quite explain.
Back at school I got in a conversation with a grad student and somehow I felt that I needed to tell him about my experience. He was familiar with my dysentery, told me I was lucky, but I needed to follow up with a tropical disease clinic because the parasites could well still be with me. He was right, it took months of treatment before I was cleared.
I wanted to tell people about my experience, the jungle is nice, but it's the little things that will kill you. As for me, I'm not going back to the jungle, anywhere. Not even to the beach in Costa Rica.
The whole experience was terrible, not only being so sick, but facing just how helpless I was, my self esteem went way down, the care in Peru by men and women I didn't know, being naked under a sheet. I was embarrassed on a level that I can't quite explain.
Back at school I got in a conversation with a grad student and somehow I felt that I needed to tell him about my experience. He was familiar with my dysentery, told me I was lucky, but I needed to follow up with a tropical disease clinic because the parasites could well still be with me. He was right, it took months of treatment before I was cleared.
I wanted to tell people about my experience, the jungle is nice, but it's the little things that will kill you. As for me, I'm not going back to the jungle, anywhere. Not even to the beach in Costa Rica.
