hi--here is a 'travel advisory' for fellow k-pouchers: dehydration can be dangerous.  my travels in myanmar and thailand, for the past three week, went without incident until my last day in bangkok.  as precautions  i irrigated with bottled or boiled water and was very attentive to hydrating.  (last summer, upon my return from china, i had a harsh lesson in dehydration's severity when hospitalized for kidney failure.)  even stopped eating street food, after some friends living there said they don't.  however, the last meal triggered a gi bug.  interesting k poucher form of diarrhea--within 2 hours excessive bloating, output was both liquidy, as if i had just irrigated, and 4 Xs normal (so say 2-3Xs.)  sorry to be gross, but the gut juices hadn't 'processed' my well chewed chicken lunch, which required multiply intubating.  drank lots, went to airport, evacuated again and felt ok to fly.  crew gave me two 1.5 l bottles of water to which i added my electrolyte powder.

at qatar airport's ER i presented my symptoms (dizzy, cramps, lack of acuity, history of kidney failure) and asked for iv fluids, but doc claimed only a gi upset, so no need for me to get blood test, and besides they didn't have iv fluids there.  absolutely NO problem with my flying next leg.  will only mention once, and to none of you a surprise, over the next 48 hours each of the 10 + docs said the same: knows what a k-pouch is, but none did.  hung around for 7 hours until boarding time, when advised airline personnel that i shouldn't fly.  they called a nurse in states who said: get blood tested, get iv fluids and you might have kidney failure.....  then back to the airport er, where a new doc hooked me up to iv fluids.  (just my opinion, but if they had done this 7 hours before--when they supposedly didn't have set up--i would have been denied medical adventure tourism.  pity.)

ambulance to some hospital, somewhere in doha, with no luggage and no passport (airline kept it.)   the cramps developed into pain beyond the worst tendentious i've every experienced, and simultaneously in both the shins and calfs, to extent i couldn't flex ankles nor walk.  lasted 5-10 min, then relief, then another attack.  same nauseous cycle with trigger finger in every finger.  first hospital doc wanted to administer a pain killer through my iv.  as i didn't know what it was i declined on the basis of retaining what acuity i had (was traveling by myself.)  that was a half hour argument, which was the general theme of my stay: argue for test results and to be part of treatment plan, and then negotiate.  blood test indicated kidney functions off, sodium low and potassium only slightly up.  more fluids and finally that night to room.   i improved, although arguments got worse the next day, culminating with negotiating down from at hospital stay of several days for tests and observation!  who knew franz kafka has been reincarnated as a hospital administrator in qatar and they train their docs with reruns of 'clockwork orange' and 'catch-22'?  got out very late that night/early sunday am, even though sodium was still abnormal. checked into hotel and did my own r&r the next day.  hadn't eaten, save some crackers and hard boiled egg, for a day and no sleep for two, so figured it was better to recoup for a full day and two nights before a 13 1/2 h flight home.  (i admit, went to the i.m. pei/islam art museum and market.)  flight home was dreadful and am now nursing a cold, drinking lots of fluids, sleeping.

as if this post isn't long enough, sorry.  nurses and food staff were fantastic, food was unrecognizable and inedible, entire staff from indian sub-continent and philippines, no hand sanitizer on hall or in rooms, no hand washing, iv ports swabbed down only with my request.  but it was all free!  got passport back when airline picked me up at hospital and took me to a hotel.  although i paid for the hotel, qatar airlines was beyond exceptional and didn't charge me for the flight change nor sending luggage to hospital.

bottom line: tropics and air flights dehydrate so drink lots of water; don't irrigate with tap water, if locals don't drink it; and carefully choose restaurants (even though i was careful this trip, it still happened.)  happy trails to you!!  any other similar experiences?  janet