Adventures of the medical kind

I’m not worried about my health, but I’m curious, and getting annoyed that it is messing up my plans. I’ve had to miss out on seeing Bokor National Park, it’s views and abandoned buildings and walking around the old hotel pretending I’m in The Shining. And I’ve only got another two days before I leave Cambodia, and there’s plenty of sites I want to see in Phnom Penh!

I’ve just come back from my third doctor’s visit in a week. Third doctor and third place.
Let’s start from the beginning, as usual I’ll try and keep it short and will fail.
It started with a fever and a headache. After 36hours and the strong chance it could be malaria, I decided to visit the hospital in Siem Reap. I called my insurance and was recommended to go to Royal Angkor International Hospital. I have not heard good things about medical care in Cambodia. Generally for anything serious you are advised to go to Bangkok. And I’d heard they wash their needles with hot water here.
This hospital was new, clean and expensive. The doctor spoke enough english for me to understand him. A nurse took blood and in half an hour I had results that indicated no malaria, but maybe dengue fever or something else viral. My white blood cell count was low. If I still had a fever in two days, I should get tested for dengue again.
The next few days I was up and down with mainly fever. I even travelled to Sihanoukville, didn’t like it, so moved on to Kampot the next day. Usually I felt worse at night. In Kampot I also had diarrhea one day.
My insurance couldn’t recommend a doctor in Kampot, so I asked a tuk-tuk driver to take me to an english speaking doctor. He spoke a bit of english, but am not sure about his doctor status. Looked like one of the many pharmacies around town. There was a …. bed, but it was next to the car in the ‘garage’ and visible from the street. He took measured my blood pressure, listened to my stomach, asked a few questions, disappeared and came back with a needle for my headache. I refused that, so he gave me paracetamol, antibiotics and charged me $10.
No improvement the next day, and overnight I gained another symptom: itchy skin, and what occasionally looks like a mild rash. I was quite happy, convinced it was Dengue Fever now, as I’d read about a rash.
Took a bus to Phnom Penh (I was expecting it to be 2hrs, took 5.5hrs of course…), where I had to be anyway and where there are more doctors.
There happened to be an English doctor next to my guesthouse, so I visited him this afternoon. He also thinks probably dengue fever (mild), but the rash/itchiness could be an allergy to the antibiotic I was given, and he also mentioned salmonella as a possibility.

EDIT: After Sonja’s comment below about Salmonella Typhii/Typhoid Fever, I realised that’s also what the doctor suggested. But I was vaccinated for it just 4 months ago! (and took the oral tablets properly and on time, unlike my second hepatitis A+B injection(and haven’t even had the third one).

Have given another blood sample, and he’ll compare the results with my earlier blood test. He didn’t rule out malaria either, and explained some things to me, and why that other doctor mostly did the right tests, but could have interpreted them wrong (or really, it needs comparison with one or two other blood tests over several days).
He’s going to email me the results tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, as he’s closed saturday afternoons, but that’s when he’ll get them.
It wasn’t a cheap visit (US$110), but cheaper than the hospital in Siem Reap (US$300), and I can tack those bills onto each other and claim from my insurance.

I also developed a lump behind my ear (under the skin) a day or two ago, but he thinks it’s just an infected gland, probably because of my earring stud, haha.