Snakebite!

I was bitten by a snake on Saturday and lived to tell about it. I actually had no idea I was even bitten. It happened early during a hike in the woods. I remember feeling something in my leg but nothing intense. I shook it off thinking I stepped on a stick or something and kept on. I went about my way though the day hiking though the woods up to a waterfall. Much later in the evening as I was eating Tikka Masala at Carpe Diem I noticed my sock was caked with blood I looked and saw the bite. I had no idea what it was. It didn’t hurt even when I poked it. I thought I must have been bitten by a spider or something (which wouldn’t have been out of the question). I sat around joking about it a bit with some travelers who were with me.

I realized that I probably should get it checked out, paid my bill and called the “the guy” I’m supposed to call in an emergency. He sent a taxi that took a half hour to get there and about a half hour more to get me to the hospital. The monsoon has started and the infrastructure has gone to shit. The roads are falling apart. The first hospital I was taken to had no doctors. The nurse looked at my bite with a dire expression then gave me the Indian head wobble which means like three hundred things that only another Indian can truly understand. I understood it to be “Sorry buddy, you’re fucked.”

Panic was slowly creeping up on me, mostly due to the road conditions adding so much time to the journey then it was exacerbated by the nurse at the first hospital. Next I was taken to the government hospital. I was still calm and feeling no pain though I was thinking that it must be some slow acting poison that would kick in any moment. The government hospital was something out of a horror movie. It was dark and wet and smelled nothing like a hospital should. I was taken to a room with a doctor, an assistant and some other random people who’s function was unclear. The doctor shined a flashlight on my leg, and everyone came to look. Ahhs and Oohs and Hindi were exchanged by the people in the room. “Snakebite” the doctor tells me. Then he said “if you’re walking and talking you’re OK. If not then it wouldn’t matter”. He didn’t even bother to clean it or anything. His assistant gave me two shots of something and sent me home with some pills.

I guess the snake either gave me a dry bite or didn’t have time to inject the venom. Everyone who’s seen it tells me I’m very lucky. I think I’m Deathproof :) The fang marks are intense. It looks like it should hurt a whole lot but it doesn’t. There’s a very slight itch right now but that’s it. I hope it leaves a wicked scar!

Actually it did keep me up all night thinking about my mortality. Had the snake injected its venom I’d not be here to write this. It happened deep in the woods in the middle of nowhere during a rainstorm. The doctor told me I would have had fifteen minutes to get help at the most. The various motorcycle incidents I’ve been in haven’t come close to this. I still think “holy shit!” when I think about it. Wow...





The next entry was supposed to have been posted Saturday before I left on the hike but as I said the infrastructure is shit now that we’re in monsoon. Right now dry doesn’t exist. There are varying states of wet. I’m going to stop using my MacBook because I’m afraid the air might be too wet for it so, most likely from now until I return, my blog posting and email reading will be erratic.

I’m back on June 29th late. See you guys soon...