For Crying Out Loud.... Disaster strikes

Coron island is very pretty, however that was lost on me. 24 hours after standing on the rusty nail I would have gladly paid anyone to cut my foot off such was the pain.

Not totally unexpected, standing on a nail on an old cargo boat swilling with with buffalo shit and piss I had got an infection. On reflection I should have gone to the hospital straight away and sought antibiotics but didn't. Such was the pain I had trouble putting any weight on the left foot at all so on Monday morning decided to seek medical advice and took the short tricycle ride to Coron District hospital. The driver suggested he waited for me which was kind and I hobbled into the small village hospital. I had to wait about 20 minutes and the doctor was young enough to be my son but he efficiently diagnosed the problem as a particularly nasty infection and prescribed a 7 day course of antibiotics of the excocet variety and some strong painkillers.

While I was waiting in the reception of the hospital a DHL delivery arrived. It was one of those old blood pressure machines in a long box with the mercury that gives the blood pressure reading. I don't think I have ever seen so much excitement, everyone wanted a go. Even the new patients that arrived were offered the service. It makes you grateful for the NHS.
The doctor did not charge me, just gave me a prescription. My tricycle driver was waiting and out of sheer gratitude I gave him a 50 peso tip. He was made up.

After exchanging my prescription I headed back to my room and took the first tablets. Then preceded to sleep for the next 30 hours experiencing high temperatures and hallucination.

Apart from the inconvenience of not been able to walk I had also missed a dive trip to the Japanese wrecks just off the coast. Andrew and Kipp had gone ahead diving and Jono was snorkling, by all accounts they had a great day but there was absolutely no way I could have joined them.
Throughout my first 24 hours I did take advantage of an online medical consultation. With Moo via text for which I was grateful. Thanks Moo. The antibiotics you suggested were exactly the ones prescribed.

Waking up on Tuesday I did feel infinitely better, the foot still hurt like fuck but the temperature was back to something like normal and I could put a bit of weight on the foot.

There is a certain irony in that the cost of the cargo fare together with the medication was exactly the same as the super cat ferry from El Nido.
The course of antibiotics lasts till 6th December. I have instructions to keep the wound clean with hydrogen peroxide, no swimming and certainly no alcohol. ' For crying out loud' as a certain Dutch flight attendant would say.

I leave Coron on 3rd December to fly to Koto Kinabalu in Malaysia via Manilla. Depending on how the foot is I may stay a night in KK and then get the 9 hour bus journey to Miri.



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Location:Coron,Philippines