It WILL impact your trip but you can hopefully mitigate the effects.
I’ve always prided myself on my iron stomach, and the ability to eat pretty much anything. Over the years, developing an allergy to gluten, dairy, and tree nuts put a dent in that theory, but I’ve still eaten hot dogs wrapped in bacon from a street cart in Mexico, eaten street food in India, spent 2 weeks eating street food in Thailand on a daily basis, and eaten a variety of fried bugs in Mexico and Thailand.
It took eating a steak from the restaurant in a 5-star hotel in Bali to completely upend the vacation that I had in my head for a few years, and then spent nearly a year to plan. Within 5-hours of eating the steak (which tasted ok at time), I was basically living my life sitting on the toilet multiple times per hour in what felt like I was expelling my soul. It was not only miserable on its face, but I ended up missing out on things that I had looked forward to for so long.
Does this story sound familiar to other travelers?
Planning a vacation for a family of 5 is never easy. Trying to make sure everyone is happy is no small feat, and there are always several variables at play (weather, quality of excursions, kids getting along, quality of accommodations, etc…). We’ve been lucky that other than Wendie getting a sinus infection in Australia, health hasn’t been a limiting factor for us.
I work a ton. Yes, I love my career, company, and the work itself, but I easily work 60-70 hours per week, which includes travel, sometimes on international trips lasting 7-12 days (and a recent 3 week trip). If you average it out, I’m probably gone an average of 7 nights per month. I know a lot of people who do much more, but that seems like a good amount of time to my family and I. I don’t take many days off during the year, and then mostly shut down during the last 2 weeks of the year for a big trip with the family. Thanks to the ability to maximize points and miles, we have been able to take some incredible trips that we look forward to all year long. For me, it is the time that I shut off from work and give my total attention to enjoying time with my family.
Where did this all go wrong?
There were multiple choices in which I let my guard down and relied on my (perceived but not actual) invincibility. Even though I read up on “Bali Belly”, I fell into the trap of “it won’t happen to me.” So, I made several mistakes:
I was prescribed Cipro (read more here) for work related travel in India in case something like this happened. It never did, but I have taken it with me on every work trip outside of the US or UK for the past 2 years. Of course, the one time I didn’t bring it (this trip), I had a problem and needed it. (Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, but the use of Cipro was on the advice of my doctor, and I was given the prescription for it).
I didn’t bring any anti-diarrhea over the counter medicine with me
I didn’t eat much on the day in question, and therefore opted for the big steak at the restaurant in the hotel as opposed to going for something lighter.
Once I did get sick, I focused on drinking water only instead of finding Gatorade or other drinks with electrolytes. As a result, I got more and more dehydrated, compounding the problem and feeling even more lousy.
Making the rest of the trip tolerable
After the first couple of days, I had to figure out a way to deal with the remaining 9+ days of the trip and try to salvage as much fun as possible. A big part of this was getting to a point where I didn’t need to run to the bathroom multiple times an hour, so I did the following:
When we got to Singapore, I found a pharmacy, and picked up Activated Charcoal and a Probiotic based on the advice of the pharmacist.
I also picked up sports drinks with electrolytes
I was really focused on only consuming certain foods, especially for the first 5 days post infection. This included chicken broth, tea, a couple of hard boiled eggs, and bananas.
Once we got to the Maldives, I was able to open up my diet a little more to include proteins and even a few alcoholic beverages at the pool. They key though was to keep portions small (my appetite was lacking anyway) or I ran into problems again.
When you get back, get things checked out
A week after my trip, I still felt like things were not right. I wasn’t back to normal and by this time I had dropped around 15 pounds (almost 7kg) over 2 weeks. As much as I prefer to stay away from the doctor, I listened to my body, got some tests done, and still had a bacterial infection going on (campylobacter still present in my gut).
After getting antibiotics and another round of illness a couple of weeks later, my system was finally clear around a month after the initial infection. Plenty of lessons learned for the next trip. Although I’ll still enjoy food in each country we visit, I’ll be a little more careful, have meds with me just in case, and have a clear contingency plan in case any of us get sick.
Do you have similar stories? Let us know any of your tips.