Backpacking in Taiwan led to expensive medical bills

Hi everyone, so to make things short, my name is Josh from Ireland. I`m a backpacker for a few years, I have set myself a life mission to try and visit the world and get to see every country at least once. On my mission I ended up in Taiwan, this was prior to me making my way to Japan. I had a great time in Taiwan, but when I arrived back to Japan, I began to feel sick.

It first began with confusion and tiredness along with a sore throat, I just expected this was the illness that cme from the drastic changes in temperatures, extreme heat to cold. But, these symptoms were the beginning of a series of bad events. It began to get worse. My body began to give up, i was experiencing fevers up to 40 degrees, hot and cold sweats and my body began to ache. The worst thing to come from these fevers were the sleepless nights and the hallucintions, the hallucinations that became worse from the confusion were awful, I remember still hallucinating writing death notes and experiencing awful dreams when i could sleep.

So, after going to the doctor, I was prescribed medicine to help, butm it didn`t do much. After a few short days, I went to another hospital, hoping for an answer. This time, through my little understanding of japanese, the doctor was speaking to a translator for me, but he had mentioned, that I need to be courageous and that I`m not facing death. Now, I just took it on the chin, he prescribed stronger painkillers and antibiotics and I went again. The next few days became worse with the symptoms, until it got so bad with hallucinations and being non stop uncomfrotable that my friend had to call an ambulance.

Over the course of the night, I got diagnosed eventually with what was a tick bite, this tick bite that I had gotten from grasslands in Taiwan. Again, to make things short, the tick bite led to many complications. After being diagnosed with the disease of tsutsumagushi from the tick bite that entered my blood, I was emitted to the hospital for a total of two weeks. Everyday was a recovery, endless IV bags, medicine etc. and I was getting better until one day I began to get this awful pain across my abdomen, after a cat scan, it was shown that a part of my spleen had died because of poor circulation of blood in my body. It just became an awful situation as I felt I was getting better.

Here I am now, back at my friends place recovering. I know the state of the world doesn`t allow the majority of us to strive financially, and I am also one of these people. I`m just financially struggling now with a loss of 5000euro in medical expenses, there`s so much to say about the situation, but I don`t even think I have fully accepted what had happened. ending 2024 with the aspect of a near death experience was definitely not in my expectations for my travel plans for the next few years, but here I am.

Again, I hate to be the person to ask for help, especially when it comes to financial situations, I normally thank myself for my independence, but this is something I cannot finacially achieve myself... and hopefully with some help from my friends and other kind strangers I can get back on my feet again. Thank you.

as i mentioned, I feel like asking for finacial help holds so much audacity, but I`m hoping anyone can help, even if its sharing my link, asking friends, all of it is appreciated. Again, thanks so much,

Josh