The morning of leaving Gaarawee, our help, along with the other volunteers, was required by a Thai couple who owned a big plot of land nearby. They were performing a blessing on the site where they would be building a temple, and had prepared flower arrangements and food as an offering. The kids loved being part of it, and the owners and their guests were extremely grateful for our help; it was a nice way to end our stay in Khao Sok.

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Back on the road again; the island of Koh Samui the destination. We spent a fairly relaxed 10 days on the island, checking out a few of the beaches, night markets and temples. After spending a chilled few hours at the idyllic Crystal  beach we returned to our hire car to find the back window completely smashed….the perpetrator…a juvenile coconut. It didn’t even cross my mind to check out the space prior to parking. Thankfully  the damages were sorted out amicably with the hire company. 

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Two days prior to leaving the island, Rico complained about a sore knee. We had done a fair amount of walking in our time on Samui, so Becky and I ignored it and assumed it was just him being lazy and complaining. The following day he was still moaning about the pain and hobbling slightly but  later in the day his temperature started to spike. Despite the medicine given, Rico still wasn’t right and parental intuition told us that this needed to be checked out properly at the local hospital. Blood tests were done, and it was ascertained that Rico probably had a bacterial infection. Antibiotics were prescribed, and the Doctor said we’d be fine to travel to Bangkok the next day.

Rico seemed better and we embarked on our 17 hour ferry and overnight bus trip to Bangkok. Arriving at 6 in the morning, we just beat the crazy Bangkok rush hour traffic and caught a cab to our hostel. We dumped our bags, rested a bit, then explored our surroundings by foot. The following  day, after a trip to the famous reclining Buddha, Rico really started to complain about the pain, and after a night of undulating high temperatures, we took him to the nearby hospital.

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The whole process of registering at the hospital, seeing a doctor and getting blood tests was extremely efficient, and accomplished  with the minimal amount of stress. The results of the blood tests showed a high white blood cell count amongst other irregular readings and it was decided that Rico needed to be put on an IV drip to administer very specific antibiotics to target the bacterial infection. There was still some ambiguity to the exact cause.  Becky and I did our own research into the symptoms and timeframes in which they had occurred, and it pointed to septic arthritis. This was confirmed by the doctors who deemed it necessary for Rico to stay in hospital for 8 days to finish a course of IV antibiotics and have sporadic tests to see if his blood and other readings came back to acceptable levels.

As any parent can testify, seeing your child sick is the worst thing. For us, this was magnified as we were in unfamiliar surroundings with no support from anyone. It was a lonely  testing time. Being in this situation so far from home was so difficult, we had to dig deep to hold it together. Becky, Tiana and I all stayed at the hospital during the days and we managed to cover a good amount of schoolwork, and then Becky and I did alternate nights sleeping at the hospital.

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Rico had his own room, fully  equipped with a fridge, kettle, tv, shower and toilet. He was on the top floor with a great vista of the Bangkok skyline. There was a comfy sofa bed for Becky or I to sleep on, and to be fair, we had slept in far worse conditions thus far on our trip!

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When this situation arose it threw our whole trip up in the air; there was no short term  exit plan from this life changing journey,  as we wanted to complete our travels before deciding on where to settle. Everything had been sacrificed to make this once in a lifetime journey possible, and now we had been thrown a complete curve ball.  Naturally our children’s wellbeing and safety was the main concern in any of our endeavours, so if the situation worsened we would have to think about going home…wherever that was..

We consulted with the doctors and specialists everyday and they were happy with Rico’s progress and that his blood results were getting better. The specialist emphasised that this was a freak occurrence and if treated correctly should not be a problem and shouldn’t  hamper our onward plans. We would continue a course of antibiotics for a month and then return to Bangkok for follow up tests to check that the infection had gone and there was no residual damage to the knee joint. A massive relief.

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The care, communication, and standard of the hospital overall was absolutely outstanding, like nothing we’d every received before in any country we’d lived in. All things considered we were extremely fortunate and counted our lucky blessings. Whoever was up there had our back!