Blog # 224 I talked about when Zappos creates the offer during NHT. In this blog I want to talk about My night in a Chinese Hospital.

I mentioned In the last blog I was going to go to my favorite restaurant in the hotel even though I was by myself. I went to the Teppanyaki restaurant where they cook in front of you at the table. I had been there countless times so was looking forward to some nice lamb and shrimp cooked at the table.

I had a nice conversation with the cook while she was cooking my meal for me. It was a slow night for them so there was no rush. Very relaxing. The food was put on my plate and even though it looked a little rare it tasted delicious…  China is famous for under cooking meat and usually I send the steaks back to cook a little longer to be on the safe side. Since Lamb is best medium rare, I didn’t think twice about it.

After dinner I went to the bar and had a few drinks, but it also was a slow night there too, so I decided to go to bed early around 10pm. It must have been 3am and I woke up in a cold sweat. I mean I was freezing but my temperature was boiling. I was so sweaty the sheets were all wet.

Then I started getting sick to my stomach. I raced to the bathroom and threw up nonstop for at least an hour. I decided to just stay by the toilet because it wouldn’t stop. Then the other end started. I know, too much information but this was brutally pathetic. I didn’t know what to do so I called the front desk and said I needed to go to the hospital because I thought I had food poisoning. They arranged a car to take me. On the way I called the factory guy I was to meet with around 7am to say I wasn’t going to make it.

They took me to a local hospital nearby. When I got there the doctor was smoking in the hallway. They checked me out and decided I needed to go on an IV since I lost so many fluids. I counted 5 bags. The factory guy sent one of his workers to stay with me. She didn’t speak a whole lot of English but understood enough to help me communicate to the hospital. It was embarrassing because I was still getting sick to my stomach in front of her. I was glad she was there though it gave me a little since of security for some reason.

After I started feeling a little better, I felt I had enough strength to go to the bathroom on my own. It was outside and basically an open latrine. I had to throw the IV bag up to a pole so it would have some sense of support and then squat in the hole that was the toilet. It was definitely a low point of my life. The first few hours I was wondering if I was going to survive this. I checked the needles were from a sealed bag when they put in the IV so that was at least a little comforting. At this point I knew I was going to be ok just didn’t want to get stuff all over me. It was disgusting.

It’s funny I have eaten some of the weirdest things in China. Pigeon brains, Duck tongue, Goose intestines, Turtle feet, Chicken feet and who knows what was in some of the dishes. Never got sick…I get deathly sick off lamb which I love. I was worried I would hate lamb after this experience, but I bounced back to it, just not in China…

It’s funny the things you think of when this is happening to you. The guy next to me was also very sick. I kept thinking, is he worse off than me or am I worse off than him? Seriously? Still competitive in a hospital on who is the sickest? Or at the very least who is better?What did the girl think? Can I catch something from the needle that was sealed? Crazy thoughts…

My factory guy came back later in the day to check on me and ended up driving me to my hotel. What an experience…