"Darnit Jonathan, I'm a Doctor not a Surfer"

Or at least I think that's what she said... but my spanish is not so great.

After spending 40 hours in bed writhing and wiggling around trying to relieve my hips and lower back of their constant discomfort; pushing and pulling the covers on and off as I oscillated between frigid and boiling; not eating (the thought was sickening)... I thought I'd best go to the doctor.

Now, it's one thing to be sick. It's another thing to be sick when you're alone. It's another to be sick when you're alone in a foreign country. And a _totally_ different thing to be sick when you're alone in a foreign country where nobody including the doctor's speak your language.

Normally, nodding and smling your way through a conversation when you don't understand all of the words is completely acceptable. But let's see what happens when you do that at the doctor's office:

Doctor: "Are you allergic to any medications?"

Jonathan: *smile, head slightly nodding, eyes with that doe-in-the-headlights thing going on*, thinking, "Can't you see I'm frickin' dying here... gimme something or I'll pass out on your desk."

Doctor: *eyes light up* Really? What ones?

Jonthan: "I'm 27."

Doctor: "27!?"

Jonathan: *still smiling and nodding* --What, am I going to lie about my age? Come on... you've
got about 15 seconds until I'm face down on your floor here.

Doctor: "Allergies?!"

Jonathan: "None." --Why didn't she just ask, no need to get all riled up about it, sheesh.


So this went on for a while, then she took my blood pressure and pressed on my belly and somehow determined that I had a stomach infection and a throat infection. I wasn´t so sure about this assessment, as it didn´t explain the extreme dizziness, complete lack of energy, or aching body, but I figured that she was the doctor, and I filled the prescription.

I had to force myself to eat, because a few of the pills were to be taken with food. But to get food, I had to get out of bed. This was a huge challenge.

The next day, I dizzily wandered to the market to buy some fruit. I must´ve looked like a drunk, weaving back and forth across the sidewalk. On the way home, I just got too tired to continue (it´s about a 7 minute walk normally), so I sat down at an orange juice vendor and got a freshly-squeezed orange juice. Well, I passed out on their counter, and awoke to them prodding at me, saying something that I couldn´t understand and pointing at the ambulance across the way. The vendor lady kindly went and got the ambulance attendants, who came and took my blood pressure, and decided I should go to the hospital.

Thankfully I did. At the hospital, I slept for 2.5 hours while waiting for the doctor. When the doctor came, I explained, in a combination of spanish and sherades, my symptoms. They took my temperature: 39.3 degrees celcius (approx. 103). That doctor gave me a fever reducer, and told me I had pharyngitis.

That night, I sweat profusely during the night. But the next morning, I felt like my fever had broken and I could stand up on the first try without falling over or holding onto the walls for support. I was on the mend. How the first doctor failed to notice that I was burning up, is beyond me.

So here I am, 7 days later, almost recovered. Only have a sore throat and tonnes of stuffiness left. I am spending a whole lot of time sleeping, about 14 hours a night. Other than that, I´m just being bored, recovering. I´m really trying to just chill so that the end of this can be killed off before heading to the beach. Eating fruit and bread. Listening to music.

I remember at some point while thinking about physical sickness, it occurring to me that physical illnesses are usually rooted in some kind of psychological illness. You know, a good old case of the crazies causes you a lot of stress-imbalance, and weakens your immune system. The vulnerable points of your body are then suseptable to infection, and next thing you know, you're down for the count.


Of course, there are other factors too that can wear you down -- lack of proper nutrition & sleep, and introducing yourself into a foreign climate with new bacteria/disease come to mind immediately.


Well, I can't guarantee which one it was, but holy cow -