Back from the [jet-lagged] dead.
I have not been neglecting this on purpose. Trust me, if I could update this on thought alone I would. But I've had a number of things keeping my fingers away from the keys. I'm going to have a wave of updates here soon and I have a weeks worth of desk-warming ahead of me to help open the flood gates.So much has happened since my last post. I can't believe my last entry was still talking about Christmas! And here, it's already February. My lovely vacation month of January is already over... Sadness. I feel like I should have a small ceremony and bury something across the street in the park. I'd say maybe my 'care-free, disregard, for what day and time it is' but that was alive and well during my entire vacation. I was too busy for it not to be!
But here's what happened since my last post in a nutshell:
-I had a successful and fulfilling Winter Camp. (I don't know why I worked myself up over it. It really wasn't that bad..!)
-I went on a life changing trip to Thailand and Cambodia. (Both of which will have their own, novel-length, posts.)
-And I survived/in the process of surviving my first real health scare in Korea.
I guess I can talk about that one right now (I'll save talking about my trip for later since a great deal of it would be talking about food. And, I definitely would not do any descriptive justice at the moment...).
My friend and I returned from Cambodia early Sunday morning around 5:30am and took the shuttle bus home to Daejeon making my final arrival time around 10:00am. At first I was feeling fine. Sure I was jet-lagged but I was just happy to have both feet back inside my frigid apartment after X-hours of travel. So I managed to go grocery shopping and began editing travel photos on my laptop in bed...when all of a sudden it hit me. A wave of unexplainable fatigue. I closed my computer, put it on the ground, and woke up 8 hours later in a daze. I remember waking up prior to that time in brief, incohearant, blurps -sheilding my eyes from the setting sun or taking off a layer of clothing because I was sweating, ect. And for some reason, everytime I woke up, I thought a day had passed. So, when I awoke at 7:30pm Sunday I thought it was Tuesday night and had a little freak out. My body was extremely weak and my mind wasn't far behind. I had some strange dreams and a couple nightmares, so my sleep wasn't as helpful as it should've been. So Sunday night I was in a daze, Monday and Tuesday I got a little worse, and then Wednesday I felt like I was dying. I had absolutely no energy. Making it to the bathroom to attempt a shower felt like an Iron Man Challenge. And eating was out of the question. I was extremely thirsty and dehydrated but it came to a point where I was actually throwing up water. Lovely. Family and friends back home were urging me to go to the doctor and, honestly, I didn't need to be urged more than once. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate going to the doctors. And I especially hate hospitals. Surprise! Going to the doctor in Korea means going to the hospital! But I didn't care. Wednesday night I decided I was facing my fear and taking my sick self to the emergency room the next day.
Thursday morning I asked my coteacher for the Korean name of a local hospital that I could show a cab driver. Another reason I post-poned going to the hospital: I had to take a cab. Like I said, walking to the bathroom inside my apartment was trying enough...so the thought of walking down the street looking for a cab seemed impossible. But I made it. Made it into the emergency room. And was whisked away to a hospital bed where I immediately had an IV stuck in my hand. The next couple hours can only be described as..surrendering. Thankfully everyone that worked on me was extremely nice and gentle because I just let them do whatever they thought they needed to do. Not that I had much fight in me anyway...sitting up to go get an xray felt like quite the accomplishment.
There was a definite language barrier, but all of the important things got across. I was there for the better part of four hours and, as I explained to my boyfriend, I felt like a Nascar being worked on by it's pit crew. (Never again will I make a Nascar reference. Can't tell if it's overlap from being sick or if it's the fact that I typed that word twice that my stomach did a little flip. haha) Everyone was very attentive as I was given test after test. I think their main concern was getting my fever down. They made me take off my blanket and lay with a couple frozen water bottles...for two hours! Awful! haha But eventually my main doctor came back and told me they thought I had a viral infection throughout 20% of my body. I went home with some antibiotics and have been taking them (correctly now that my coteachers helped me!) ever since. (Oh yeah, and health care here is exceptional. So I got great care at an emergency room and a prescription for hardly anything. Thank you Korean government!) Oh yeah, and I got a shot in my butt. Awesome.
I still haven't been able to eat much and I'm still pretty weak. I'm still a little shakey walking down stairs and all I really want to do is lay down. Ahh yes. Laying down...mmmm, that's my big plan for tonight. Tea, X-files, and a bed. I'm a woman of simple tastes. Maybe a dessert too...uhoh, I must be getting better. I'll enjoy this sick-body weight loss while I can...
What could've caused this you ask?? Well, it could have been a number of things... contaminated food or water, animal encounters, my tattoo..not really sure. My travel partner didn't get sick soooo I know, I know: blame the tattoo! I'm sticking to my guns (no pun intended) and have faith in the cleanliness of my tattoo shop. But we will never know!
Is it bad that I'm thinking about going to India on my next vacation...? Is that pushing my luck? haha
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