Tick It Before You Kick It

My Most Traumatic Travel Story Yet

• Alexandra Lauren | The Bucket List Mermaid • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Everyone always asks me...what is your worst travel story? You ask, I deliver. 

Look at all of the pictures in the show notes 👉 here. 

🩺Join me on a wild ride through Vietnam, where a picture-perfect vacation in Hoi An turned into a medical nightmare. 

👂You'll hear how a diving mishap dislodged my still-healing helix piercing, leading to a dramatic hospital visit abroad. Trust me, this is one travel tale you won't forget.

🤣Despite the chaos, I found humor and resilience, and I have some hard-learned lessons and lighthearted anecdotes to share. 

Tune in to hear about this unforgettable experience and get some cautionary advice for your own adventures....

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Alexandra:

my ears said come here, I'm gonna just absorb you. That's so gross. This is the grossest podcast ever. I am so sorry, but this story needs to be told. I need to be heard. Hey there, adventurers, welcome to Take it Before you Kick at the podcast where we talk about all of the amazing adventures that you can add to your bucket list, and then also some adventure travel stories.

Alexandra:

On this week's episode, we are going to be talking about one of my more dramatic travel stories, and by dramatic I mean it's probably the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me while traveling. In fact, it was so weird that I would just kind of wake up in the middle of the night after it happened and be like did that happen, or was that a nightmare of that happening? So this is definitely going to be a travel story that is not super great. However, we need to talk about it and it is quite entertaining. So let's get started and let's talk about the time that I had ear surgery in Vietnam. So I'm gonna start out this story.

Alexandra:

I was traveling in Vietnam, I went to college in the UK and then I ended up doing a backpacking trip after I graduated college or university, and one of my stops was Vietnam and, honestly, surprisingly, I loved Vietnam. I mean, not surprisingly. I knew it was going to be cool. I was very excited to go. However, it wasn't the one where I was like, yes, I'm so pumped to go. However, it was amazing. I thought that there was so much to do. I thought that there were amazing activities. I went caving and diving and I saw Ha Long Bay, and so Vietnam just took me by surprise and I absolutely loved traveling there. However, there was a certain incident that happened when I was in Vietnam and it all started when I was in Hoi An. So Hoi An was one of my favorite cities that I traveled to. There were so many lanterns. I got this coat made because there's a lot of seamstresses there, for some reason, that make clothing for super cheap. So I ended up getting a coat made and, after exploring the city, I decided that I wanted to go diving because, if you don't know already or you haven't been to my website, the bucket list mermaid. I am a mermaid and my parents got married underwater. I've been diving for a while now, so I really wanted to go diving in Vietnam because how cool. So ended up going. It was a pretty big boat and there were a lot of divers there so we all had to split up into different groups. I ended up going with another group. I was traveling solo at this point so I needed to be paired off with a buddy.

Alexandra:

Now, a year and a half ago, I had gotten my helix pierced. So this is basically the top portion of your ear. It's made out of cartilage and it's in like the pinna or pinna of the ear. Definitely hurt and especially getting two done at the same time, and I just always had issues healing it. As I said, it was a year and a half, but even when I was still living in Cambridge I just had some issues healing it. But it was pretty much fine by the time that I went and I ended up jumping into the water here in Vietnam.

Alexandra:

Fast forward, a year and a half later I'm in Vietnam scuba diving and I hit the water at kind of a weird angle to where my mask came off a little bit. Now I didn't think a thing of this at all. I was totally fine. I laughed it off, put back on my mask, but I think it did jostle my ear around a bit as in it hit the piercing. So I went.

Alexandra:

We ended up doing a drift dive around these rocks. So if you're not a diver here, drift diving, you basically just go with the current I it was my first time drift diving so I was a little bit hesitant to go. But you know, I'm always down for a new adventure. I probably should have had some more training on it. But don't be like me, do as I say, not as I do in this situation. So anyway, we're on this drift dive and we're not too far down, maybe 40, 50 feet and I look down and I see this clownfish and he has this tiny little baby and he's about an inch away from my face and it is just so magical to watch this little tiny clownfish just come up to my face. And then I look up and everybody is gone. My buddy is gone, the rest of our group is gone, I am completely alone. So I do my whole protocols of I look around, you know.

Alexandra:

And then I did decide that it was probably best for me to surface because I had no clue where everybody was. So I ended up surfacing and I blew up my little rescue. It's basically like this little red inflatable tube and you just kind of put some air in there from your BCD and it's like a little rescue. So what happened was I drifted away from my buddies and they just didn't realize that I wasn't still there, so they just kind of left without me. I was in the water waiting there for about 45 minutes, which sounds kind of terrifying, but honestly, I just knew in my head that I was going to be okay. You know, I was fine. However, what kind of sucked was that? There were sea lice in the water. So the whole time it kind of just felt like I was getting these little tiny stings everywhere or like my whole body was kind of on fire. But it wasn't that bad. So anyway, it wasn't the best experience ever, but they made it up to me because they went and grabbed me and then took me to this luxurious beach afterwards and gave me some incredible Vietnamese food. So I was overall a very happy adventurer.

Alexandra:

This didn't dampen my trip at all. I still would have gone diving 100%. I'm laying there on this beach, it's all good. And then I go back to the hostel and I realize that my ear is inflamed. Something in my piercing is not good and it's just red and it's swollen. So washed it really well and rejoined my group.

Alexandra:

I was actually I was still traveling solo, but I was traveling with a group at this point, so they were all kind of helping me clean it, and then we were headed to Ho Chi Minh right afterwards. So we're in this tiny little airport and I'm actually messaging my piercer saying, hey, it's angry, I don't know what to do. She's telling me that I need to go take it out, which I'm not sure was the correct advice. But here we are so you can just imagine me crying, unfortunately in the bathroom of this tiny little Vietnamese airport, and this girl comes up and says oh my gosh, I'm gonna like go get you some help.

Alexandra:

And the entire infirmary or hospital was literally just a dude in a bag. He just brought his bag over and I was trying to take it out. It was kind of bleeding, which that part of your ear, the cartilage, is not vascular, it is not going to bleed, but so the fact that it was bleeding was just not great and we just couldn't get the back off. And he told me that I needed to go to the emergency room the second that I landed in Ho Chi Minh. So I'm panicking because I've never gone to a foreign number. Actually, that's a lie. I had gone to a foreign emergency room back in India. Oh, that's gonna have to be another episode for later. Basically, I got cellulitis in my foot and then all the doctors were on strike. It was great.

Alexandra:

Anyway, I was scared. You just never want to hear that you're gonna have to go to a foreign hospital when you're on vacation and you're exploring and you're adventuring. So that was definitely not the best feeling in the world, especially when you had to get on a flight. Luckily, my other travel companions were very, very nice. One guy actually just like held my hand. The whole flight was like it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine.

Alexandra:

And so we landed in Ho Chi Minh and I ended up going and trying to see a doctor and I found out that all of their doctors sometimes just take Sundays off and of course they have a pager for life-threatening emergencies, which, my ear being have a pager for life-threatening emergencies, which, my ear being inflamed, was not a life-threatening emergency, even though I felt like it was, so they didn't feel the need to call in a doctor. After that I ended up going to a more local hospital and it was just such a different experience than America. I don't know what the healthcare is like in your country. Feel free to comment. I don't know what the healthcare is like in your country. Feel free to comment on the show notes what the healthcare is like or what the emergency situation is like in your country. But this one and it's funny because I would actually go along after this to work in an emergency room However, this one was just very interesting to me.

Alexandra:

There was a lot of people laying in the hallways, there was some power outages at one point and then, once I did see a doctor, it was in a communal room. So I went in with a bunch of other people, mainly Vietnamese people, and we were all just in the same room and luckily I had a translator with me so he could translate everything. Same room, and luckily I had a translator with me so he could translate everything. And he ended up telling me that I needed to be hospitalized for several weeks on an antibiotic drip. Luckily, I had also had an insurance where I could talk to a doctor and I was able to contact my doctor back home because the time zones were now lining up, and they said that obviously it was up to my discretion, but they didn't think that I needed to be hospitalized for weeks and weeks on end in a foreign emergency room with an antibiotic drip. It was kind of nearing the end of my Vietnamese journey because we were crossing into the Cambodian border, so I would have needed to be hospitalized and then refly to Cambodia later. It just would have been an absolute mess. So I'm panicking at this point because I really want to go to Cambodia and I don't want to be hospitalized. That was definitely interesting and I ended up saying no, thank you, which is so weird. And so I went back to the hostel.

Alexandra:

I was in a co-ed dorm room in this hospital and those poor people in there were probably like what is this girl going through right now? Because at this point my ear was so inflamed that it had grown over the earring, which sounds so nasty and so gross. But here we are, it's fine. And I actually ended up going to the Ho Chi Minh tunnels because I really wanted to see it and I have this crippling FOMO or fear of missing out. So I was literally in the tunnels, hunched over, just crying because it hurt so bad too, like my ear was just burning and I couldn't touch it and I you could just looked at it and it was oozing. It was so disgusting and people were looking at me like what is wrong with her ear? So anyway, that was not the best time on the planet. I definitely had better times in Vietnam than in that moment.

Alexandra:

Next morning it was Monday more of the doctor's offices showed up and I could actually see a specialist. So I went back with my guide and translator, ended up seeing a very, very nice female doctor who specialized in this kind of stuff. And here is where it gets just a little bit dicey. If you're still with me, I'm proud of you for that, since I'm talking about my oozing ear. However, I do have to say a disclaimer. From this point on, it's a little gnarly. So if you do get squeamish, I would definitely recommend not listening to the rest of this episode.

Alexandra:

Go on to a different episode. It's about to get a little hairy. So here's what happened. So I went into the hospital and by this time my ear was so angry at me I couldn't see the back of the earring. It was just like this bloody pussy mess. Again. I'm gonna be talking frankly here. If you get grossed out, don't come at me, I've warned you.

Alexandra:

And basically I ended up getting an x-ray done because they wanted to make sure that the back of the earring it was basically the top earring that was infected. So the back of the earring was completely gone and they wanted to make sure that it hadn't just fallen off or if it was actually enveloped in my ear. So they did the x-rays and it was still in my body. I just enveloped it. My ear said come here, I'm gonna just absorb you. That's so gross, that's so disgusting, oh god.

Alexandra:

And she basically gave me the hard discussion that she was going to have to surgically remove the earrings. So I really said I don't really have a choice in this really at this point, because I don't want to have to take off a part of my ear if it gets worse and it's not getting better. So I gave the go-ahead, I said yes and I also talked to my doctors. They said, yeah, I think you should do that one. So we ended up proceeding with surgery and I went into the room and I was like you know what? Breathe, alex, this is going to be fine. I see the tools. It's going to numb it up a little bit and just cut it out of there and it'll be five minutes and you'll be on your merry way just enjoying Vietnam and getting ready to go into Cambodia. Wrong, absolutely wrong. I was so wrong.

Alexandra:

So she came in with another nurse and again, I can't say disclaimers enough, but this is going to get a little bit rough. But here's what happened. The nurse came in, she put her forearm on my head and basically pinned me down to the hospital table and the doctor cut the earring out. And it took about 45 minutes to cut the earring out of my head. It was so gross and so painful. There was actually like there was blood in my hair. There was blood dripping down my neck.

Alexandra:

Throughout this whole thing I was screaming, I was crying and they were just talking Vietnamese at each other and then every once in a while they would look at me and go, you push through the pain, you are so strong and honestly, that entire phrase has become such a joke for my family. Anytime something bad happens, we all just look at each other and go, you push through pain, you're so strong, because I was not being strong in that moment at all. So she takes the earring out and shows me like the bloodied mess of the earring and it's like, oh, look at this. And I'm like, okay. And then she's like, okay, you're done. And I was like where, where's the other earring? Cause I had two. She's like, well, that one's not infected. And I was like you get that earring out of my ear right now. And she just cut it out and I was like, girl, you can take off the back. I think the back is still showing on that. Nope, she just cut it out the whole thing, just cut out both earrings.

Alexandra:

I could feel the entire thing right there and I don't know, it was just very terrifying having the nurse hold down my head during this. I don't know, it was just like this complete lack of control and, yeah, it was just not a super good experience. Um, so then the nurse left after I was done and I said, hey, where's my good friend going over there? And she said, oh well, she's going to go get some anesthesia for the sutures. Um, for those of you who don't know medical and don't speak medical, that means that she's going to go get some numbing agents so that she can give my ear stitches. A, why did you cut open my ear so bad that I need stitches and B? Where was the anesthesia when I first went into this procedure? Anyway, it was fine, it was okay.

Alexandra:

I'm sure there was a perfectly good and reasonable explanation on why I had to go through 45 minutes of excruciating pain, of them cutting my ear open, but I survived. I'm still here. And I got out of the bed and she said oh my gosh, honey, like I'm sure you're in so much pain right now. And I said yes, I really am, I'm in a lot of pain right now. She goes oh, let me go get you something for that. And she gives me an acetaminophen, which is like a paracetamol or a Tylenol, like something I take for a headache, which is not like I needed more pain medication, but it was just very funny, but it was just very funny. So, yeah, that was fun.

Alexandra:

And then we couldn't find my antibiotics. So we had to go down to this like seedy area to get the antibiotics and all the while I'm on my phone with my best friend just crying, just going. I didn't use any anesthesia and I felt it all and it took like 45 minutes and I'm traumatized and she's just sitting there going. I don't even know what to say to you. Right now I'm just trying to buy these antibiotics that aren't available, but I did get the antibiotics, so that was good. And if you think that this story ends here, you're surely mistaken, because there's more.

Alexandra:

So the day after I go on a 16-hour coach ride to Cambodia, cross into Cambodia, all while I have this huge head bandage on my head, and I luckily. I am so grateful for the doctor because she was really nice. She gave me her personal phone number and she just said okay, text me with any questions. Here's what I'm going to need you to do. She told my guide. Luckily, I was with a Vietnamese guide who was so helpful. I don't even know what my life would have been like without this man, so he was helping me. We finally got to our place. Luckily it wasn't a hostel, but we were still in shared rooms. It was right after we got into the border of Cambodia.

Alexandra:

When she was patching up my ear. She didn't use non-stick gauze, she just used normal gauze, which means that as my blood dried from the wound, it stuck to the gauze. So when we took it off, she said, okay, wait, you know, 24 hours and then get the bandage off and clean it. We couldn't get the bandage off because it had stuck to my ear wound. This is the grossest podcast ever. I am so sorry, but this story needs to be told. I need to be heard. I need some sympathy. We got very, very fine scissors. I went to go buy them from the local market and tried to sterilize them the best that I could and it ended up taking about an hour for my guide to cut the gauze out of the wound and he was so close to it and I could feel the scissors going so close to the incision site. It was so uncomfortable and after this I was done with everything I was. I wanted to go home. I just turned 21.

Alexandra:

At this point I was absolutely done and I I had just reached my limit. So I talked to my mom and you know, as every 20 year old who just had a traumatic procedure done to her in a foreign country does, and she's just trying to make me feel better at this point, cause I'm like I'm done and all this stuff has happened and I just can't believe. This just feels like a traveling nightmare. And she finally gets me calmed down and I go back into my room and I think, oh my gosh, I'm just so lucky to be here, I'm so lucky to be in Vietnam and Cambodia and to have this experience. I need to just make the best of it. And there you go.

Alexandra:

So I go in and my roommate, who I'm sharing the room with, is puking Something she ate. She got a bug somewhere along the lines there. And I think, no, no, no, stay on the positive focus track. I'm so happy to be here, I'm so happy to have these experiences. This is character building. Okay, character building. That's what I have to keep telling myself.

Alexandra:

So I sit down on the bed and, no joke, a cockroach crawls across my leg in my bed and so, naturally, I call back my mother and I just say you're wrong, this sucks, I don't know what to do at this point. And she uses one of those filters that you have on Snapchat to superimpose her face on a hot dog and she sent it to me and said don't be a wiener, because that's all she could think of to say to me at that point. And, honestly, it worked. And again it's her still, to this day, her contact photo is her on a hot dog saying don't be a wiener. And again, if something bad happens, we always just say you push through pain, you're so strong, and then we send the wiener photo of her on a hot dog saying don't be a wiener, but see, this is my family. We just have to turn a joke into everything. And I honestly love it, because that's exactly what I needed at that point and it gave me a good laugh and it got me out of my funk.

Alexandra:

The story continues. You thought it was over, no, no, no, this story is still, is still going. So a couple days later, I have been to Cambodia. I've seen some amazing things. I've tried not to let this ear fiasco get in the way of anything and I had a great time. But then it got to the point where I needed to get the sutures removed and I didn't really know what to do. So I contacted a person who could help me and they directed me to this one hospital. So I ended up going to the hospital and they said that they didn't have any sterile tools and he would bike down to the next village to get the sterile tools.

Alexandra:

Waited for a little bit, left for a little bit, came back for a little bit it was a long time ended up making friends with the nurse and he said I feel so bad that you have to sit here for this whole time. He actually spoke amazing english. I was very, very impressed because unfortunately, I didn't speak any cambodian and I really wish I did. But no, he was very accommodating, spoke English and he said hey, do you want a snack from my village? And I said, yeah, sure, let's do it. Give me a snack from your village. And he hands me a tarantula.

Alexandra:

At this point I'm like okay, jokes, jokes on the dumb American. Like is there a TV show that's gonna come in and be like ha ha ha, we've been filming you, jokes on you. This whole thing is going to be a gag for you know a reality TV show? No, okay, like what is going on here. So, anyway, I ate the tarantula. Kind of tasted like beef jerky was not my favorite. I actually ended up going to a village as a part of the excursion with the group later and got to eat a plethora of bugs. I'm not a traveling foodie, so it was not my favorite time. However, I'm glad I did it and there you go.

Alexandra:

So, overall, definitely an interesting story. I promise it's done. That's it. However, she did say that I couldn't get my ear wet for three months and I was traveling for those three months. So there's a bunch of pictures of joke pictures of me at these beautiful Balinese waterfalls and in champagne tubing cruises in Fiji and I have like a plastic bag over my head. So that made for some very interesting photos and honestly, it's just such a laugh now and it's definitely one of those stories that I will always cherish because it definitely made me stronger and it proved to me that if I could handle that as a 21-year-old girl, I can handle anything. So definitely increased my confidence a little bit.

Alexandra:

But I want to hear your thoughts on this story. What would you do if you were in my position? Do you think that all of this was handled well? Do you think that this is pretty standard for what an ear surgery external ear surgery in Vietnam should have been? Definitely let me know in the comments.

Alexandra:

I'm going to also be linking all of my photos on the show notes now I have to put out there. They're not for the week. You can actually see what my x-rays looked like. You can see what my ear looked like before and after. You can see the earring post-op and the whole shebang, and I'll also throw in those hilarious pictures of me in granny caps and trash bags on my head in these beautiful places. So definitely go and check out those show notes. I also have a full article on this and a full video on this on YouTube.

Alexandra:

All my social media is at the bucket list mermaid and my website is the bucket list mermaid comm, so definitely check it out. If you are into that kind of stuff and are just morbidly curious, which I would be Like, I would go check out my gross photos. No shame at all, I totally would. If not, I understand that too. Here is me wishing you all of the luck and good vibes on your next adventure and be careful while scuba diving those clownfish Deadly, deadly, deadly clownfish and sea lice. Thank you, guys, so much for watching. If you did enjoy this episode of my ear surgery in Vietnam, don't forget to give a review on your favorite podcasting platform. Subscribe. It would mean the world to this traveling mermaid and we will see you next week for the next episode of Ticket Before you Kick it. Thank you so much, guys. Happy adventuring and we will see you next time.