Friday, September 10, 2010

Update

Dear friend,

I will spare you the details of charactising bowel motions, which for us medics doesn't seem to phase us, but yesterday I started having a more consistent (typical) presentation of bacterial intestinal infection. A real blessing in fact because I no longer had any hesitation in starting a course of antibiotics. Thank you! With that, and continuing to not eat much (i.e. soda, water... small banana), I was feeling a bit better by the afternoon. Even felt up for a (much needed) shower!

Showered up and dressed, I decided to go out to dinner with a group of the other students. I thought I would sit there, order some food, eat what I could then take the rest home with me. (Sounds sensible enough, right? From a commonsense point of view?) I still felt tired in general from the lack of sleep, rest and sustenance, but I ordered a small chicken sandwich with fries and could manage to eat some of the latter.

As everyone else cleared their plates, I started to feel... ill. Definitely not right. In general, not just my tummy. I tried to wait it out but after a few minutes headed for the bathroom. Despite being only fifteen metres away, it felt like the longest walk ever. Halfway there I was dizzy and, in an instant, covered all over by a cold sweat. This was not an unfamiliar feeling for me -- it has happened to be three times before in past three years: twice when I have forgotten to eat a meal before scrubbing into Surgery and again after not drinking enough water on the day of my half marathon.

I just crouched on the ground for a couple minutes then wobbled the rest of the way to the bathroom.
After we got home, I got straight into bed. And, praise be to God, slept eight hours.

I'm feeling better today, even managed a bit of that chicken sandwich and I haven't gotten that 'there's-a-ginormous-parasite-crawling-around-in-my-intestines' feeling... yet. LoL Hopefully the combination of Antibiotics and Time will put an end to this once and for all. The long-term effect though is, I fear, I may have lost my appetite completely. Not only do I not WANT to eat (a real first for me) but I am starting to fear it. I might be eating Frosted Flakes Cereal, canned peaches, and nutella for the rest of my time here -- all three of which I've never had much of a desire for up until now.

Thankfully it is a holiday today (Friday) marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting period, so it's quiet here at work. The end of Ramadan is a big deal in an Islamic nation and the people here having been preparing for it for a couple weeks now, getting new clothes made and storing up on food they will need for cooking up a huge meal (akin to to our Christmas dinner). Despite the holiday having little impact on me, I am excited for my Ethiopian Muslim friend (one of the other students here) -- so excited for him, that he can eat anytime he wants now! :)

Nothing much planned for this weekend other than trying to get over this tummy bug: keep hydrated, keep enough food down so that I don't come close to collapsing again. I also have a few papers I want to read (background for my project), and the final season of the TV Show 24 to keep me occupied. I really hope I do get better over the weekend though because I'm so excited to be starting my lab project on Monday. It will be nice to get into some actual work, into a routine and actually have something to do. This doing-nothing business was nice for a bit, but not surprisingly, there is a limit to the amount of doing nothing I can tolerate.

Always,
-A

Thought of the day: Two of the most basic forms of pleasure in life for me are restful sleep and enjoying food. If this trip has any long-term effect on either it would break my heart.

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