I almost died

August 27th, 2018
15th month, 1st week
Thailand, Bangkok, Minburi Ward

samuel.montague@myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you)

We have taken some of the responsibilities of the assistant to the president. So this past week has been many times with my companion and I going out with President and Sister Hammond doing training in and around Bangkok. We leave in the early morning and return in the afternoon. Even though we had planned out the training (we have an outline) and we follow the outline for each of the meetings, it's still so different every time. It's been interesting to see how things are different in each of the areas.

You think our area would be dying then, as we don't have much time to work in it, and it is probably a little bit. But we're also seeing a lot of miracles from the time that we do have. We are very productive contacting while on the MRT (subway) when we're coming back through. We are teaching when we find and finding when we teach.

Another miracle was saw was in the push our district leader made to switch off with both companionships in our area. I was a little hesitant at first, because we didn't have any time to set up appointments nor did we have many investigators to actually go and meet with. I was concerned with how both companionships would be able to effectively fill the day. But it turned out that both companionships wouldn't need the day filled! Because I was in the hospital all day.

This entire week I haven't been feeling very good. I felt it slowly build up, with a bit of a sore throats and some headache. I was doing my best to take some preventive measures, drinking lots of water, using the few resources I had.  But it still came and hit me. On Thursday it really came at me, and I wasn't feeling super great. I felt good enough to go and do everything for the day, but I also took some medicine. Friday evening and Saturday morning it was just not great at all. Because of the congestion or pressure in my ears at some points during the morning, I couldn't hear. So I ended up going to the hospital to get some decongestant and they gave me some other kinds of medicines also which I thought I would take and be on my way.  It was just going to be way convenient.

 Until it wasn't. Apparently, I am allergic to Cravit. This is not something that was known to me before I took that pill. About an hour after I took it I started notice an issue, but I had taken another medicine at about the same time. Well I started reacting to it, and my throat started swelling, I lost my voice, and my chest was tightening a little bit. All these symptoms came at me within 10 seconds. I was a little concerned. At this point I did not realize it was an allergic reaction. I talked to the nurse, she explained what it was, she thought it was the other medicine I had taken. So as we are walking to a nearby pharmacy to grab an antihistamine, the nurse starts conveying her concern with how quickly and severely I was reacting and that if I took another dose or got worse I could die. Well, it had gotten a little worse and I thought I took another dose. So I popped an anti allergy pill and headed to the hospital again as the pill seem to have nothing for me.  .

There I just sat around and waited a ton. I made the mistake of not going to the emergency room at first because I was like, well I can still breathe. The nurses also were less than helpful.  It seemed all they did was listened to my lungs and took my temperature and blood pressure and whatnot and were like, well you're okay. When did you take the pills? I'm kept explaining that I just took them and NO I'm not okay. There was one point where I had to repeat myself 4 times, yelling, because the doctor couldn't hear me- right after saying I was okay. I'm like dang it people. I feel like someone is sitting on my throat. They gave me 2 medicines (not what our nurse said), and after waiting an hour and calling them twice I finally forced their hand and got moved to the ER. 

Not that that solved anything. I sat waiting there and I ended up calling the nurse again. The doctor came in again (they did this about everytime I called) and were like, you're all good right? I'm like NO. They say, "what?"  because they can't hear me and I just ask for epinephrine, what the nurse said I should get. It finally came and was administered. It just took so long with so much effort. 

It was an interesting experience. When she injected it, I felt like she had a concentrated dementor sucking my soul out through the needle (shout out to my mom for Harry Potter). Then my thigh was sore. Then I felt a little faint. Then I shook. I felt like I was uncontrollably cold with how much my body just shivered up and down. It was very weird. I went home, switched back (shout out to Elder Despain for the wild switchoff), then ended up going to sleep around midnight. 

Sunday was interesting with meeting people and dealing with investigators.

Because a member wanted to take us to Ganchanaburi, we were going to wake up very early.  I asked to push our time back by 30 minutes because I needed a little extra sleep and he seemed a little put out by it.  Of course then I got a little irritated when he showed up 1.5 hours late - thinking of my missed sleep time.  But in the end it was worth it.  Ganchanaburi was a beautiful area with a series of waterfalls. The water was so beautiful. I wanted to swim but didn't. 

Favorite eating place during my first transfer