I could’ve died because island life > treating a worsening and potentially life-threatening infection.

I had a very minor motorbike accident which caused some superficial abrasions on my knees. I fell into muddy water so I was concerned about infection but I cleaned it thoroughly when I got back, and all was good for a bit. I think two days later I went off to an island in a developing country with extremely limited infrastructure (basically food and shelter only) and noticed after the first day or two that my knees were starting to look kind of bad. They continued to get progressively worse each day.

After a week I was getting severe pain through my legs whenever I stood up, I was starting to feel unwell, and my knees looked honestly really disgusting. There were no medical facilities on the island, and although I very obviously had a staph infection, for some reason I just didn’t recognise it and so I chose to stay! I am a healthcare professional so I have seen so many staph infections before; I don’t know why I was being so dense!!

I blamed the mud for the infection for ages until I found out that they pump all the islands sewerage into the ocean not far from where we had been swimming. Could’ve been either, but given the timing of it my bet is on the human shit.

I think I stayed for about 10 days before finally deciding to head back to the mainland. I got into the city at nighttime and couldn’t find any open pharmacy’s so I had to wait until the next day. I found an international pharmacy but the pharmacist couldn’t speak my languages and I couldn’t speak her languages. I’m allergic to two common types of antibiotics so it was all a bit sketchy. Anyway I got some, they didn’t kill me and the infection dried up within 24 hours! I then happily continued in with my travels.