by Christine Lorraine Morgan ~ March 27, 2022

A little bit of trivia about yours truly…When I was stationed in Thailand with the US Army at age 18, I was struck with something called “Bangkok Belly” within a week after my arrival. This is because I unknowingly ate street-sold cold-cuts and drank tap water. (Two big no-nos for GIs.)

Thus I ended up in a hospital in the inner city of Bangkok that had dogs randomly wandering around its open-air first floor. I was placed in a room on the 3rd floor for three days and had zero visitors because I had only just arrived and didn’t know anyone yet.

The place I worked, the Telecommunications Center, took up a collection to buy flowers for me but they quickly forgot because they had a sudden onslaught of work show up, so it was a very lonely time.

After the third day I was feeling better and they released me so that I could finally start my job and hopefully make some acquaintances. What a trip! And yes, I would do it all again and not change anything.

The doctors at the hospital referred to me as being “slightly obese.” I weighed 140 at 5′ 7″! This photo, which was taken at the JUSMAG compound in Bangkok, shows just how obese I was.

Present weight is 157. Geez, I wonder what those doctors would say about me now!