Further life and times of *liltayinchina*

I’m writing to you during a break in flu-like symptoms; a break caused by some Robitussin my mother sent me after witnessing a nasty, nasty cough during her stay over Christmas. I ache all over. I’ve never experienced aching like this. I’ve tried looking up potential illnesses based on my symptoms, but that whole internet self-diagnosing thing leaves much to be desired since symptoms described are totally vague and overlap in a variety of illnesses. What I can tell you, is that something is inside of me and it isn’t happy. I’ve got serious fever, serious body aches and chills, an intense headache that is camped out behind my eyes, and a throat-drying, yet mucous-pulling cough that shatters my head every time I have to clear my throat. Not to mention, my typing speed and usual lack of mistakes has been replaced by the blunderings of thick, shaky fingers.

This morning, I had a dream that I was tossing and turning in bed with all of the above-mentioned pains and then I woke up to a brain-splitting headache. I took two Excedrin Extra Strength pills and then, when I finally got out of bed and took a shower, I was sweating and coughing the beginnings of another bad hack. So, I took some long-acting Robitussin and started to feel nauseous, dizzy and fuzzy in general. I know you shouldn’t mix medicines and, in fact, just finished reading a chapter in a book about the BS of daily life (I’m too ill to try and explain that any further and will let you look up the book if your interested: Your Call Is Important To Us by Laura Penny…) and this particular chapter illuminated some of the falsities involved in the Pharmacopia (I think that’s Penny’s word) world…falsities that, unless you’re feeling HORRIBLE, would scare you into paying closer attention to the pills you are a’poppin’ to cure all those terrible aches and pains.

I digress.

Anyway, I got to school and was feeling really, really horrible. A lot of my pins reminded me of a terrible headache, but I was feeling like I would pass out at any minutes. Classes started getting cancelled left and right – only two more days of school left now – and I spent most of the morning with my head on my desk.

I guess I shouldn’t continue to sidestep the point of this entry since who knows when I’ll start feeling horrible again…Basically I’m getting pretty scared. I feel like I’ve been sick since September and it doesn’t look like my “illness” is going to let up any time soon. I’m about to go on a no small trek down south and am feeling like my health is going to seriously affect that trip. But, my alternatives are just as frightening. I completely trust Chinese doctors with their own population and with the situations that drive them to prescribe the regimens they do, but in terms of me and my body, I really don’t like the idea of being a pin cushion every time I feel ill like this. And, since I have no idea what I’m suffering from and can’t seem to explain it in as much detail is needed, if I did go to the hospital tonight for some sweet, sweet relief, the nurse would sit me in a chair in a room of forty other patients, most of them smoking in the closed, hot confines of the room, and they’d stick an IV into my arm full of an antibiotic cocktail.

Both Eileen and Colin have had pretty bad experiences with this antibiotic cocktail – bubbles in the tubes, blood flooding into the bag, track marks from seven and even nine recurrences of the regimen – the list goes on and on.

All I’m trying to say is that the population is suffering from a variety of terrible illnesses and the best way to treat them all quickly is to keep the antibiotics flowing in the blood stream. Who knows, maybe one visit would cure me for the rest of my stay in Wuhan. Or, what’s more likely, I could start suffering from worse and stronger bugs and not have any relief when I really, most need it.

Obviously, I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m blissfully grateful for a moment of respite. I just really, really want to get better before February 3rd. I also should mention that I might be suffering from food poisoning. I ate some green onions in my noodles last night and read that flu-like symptoms often accompany food poisoning. The one problem with this theory is that I’ve got this blasted cough also. ACK!

I guess I should finish off with the promise that I’m fine, really. I just am tired of these constant aches and pains. I felt like my legs were being pulled apart as I tossed and turned about three hours ago. It took me five minutes – seriously – to get out of bed when I finally felt sane enough to read the backs of the medicine to chose the best one for my current symptoms.

Some of you might understand the graveness of the situation with this one fact: I’m actually watching the Lord of The Rings – voluntarily – RIGHT NOW! Now you know that there’s something SERIOUSLY wrong with me!!!!

Anyway, like I said before, I’m venting. I’m tired and ill and wanting to be better and seeing no end in site. I’m sure I’ll be better tomorrow and so don’t worry, just tell me whether I should research Tuberculosis any further. As we know, I’m impressionable in all of the wrong ways so it might be a bad, bad idea.

I should go pass out now.

Blorg.