Doctor, Doctor Give Me The News

Well, I had an absolutely horrible night last night. As mentioned yesterday, I seem to have come down with a cold. Turns out the cold symptoms (cloudy head, general miserablness) were just a hangover, but some little germ stuck in my throat and now it feels like I’m downing big chunks of glass every time I swallow. As might be imagined, this makes it difficult to sleep, especially after napping all day.

So, what I can only guess was about 2 a.m., I got the good sense not to subject Maggie to my tossing, turning and near tears and I went out to the couch to watch T.V., figuring that if anything could put me to sleep it was CCTV9, the only English channel on Chinese TV.

After finally beginning to doze off at about 5:30, I jumped back into bed and drifted off for about 30 minutes before Maggie’s alarm went off to get her up to go get a health licence (more on that in a minute). I asked her to grab me some medicine on her way home because there was no way I wanted to endure another night of this (she, oddly, seemed to feel the same).

She came back a few hours later with a box of Azithromycin. I love how most prescription drugs are just over the counter here. I mean, I’m not one for self-medicating and it all makes me a bit ansy to be honest, but I trust Chinese doctors as much as I trust Chinese police. I’ve heard horror stories of an English teacher that broke his arm here and went to the doctor and the doctor calmly explained to him that it just has to come off. He promptly got a second opinion and cast in Korea.

Fortunately after a quick search of the Internet I discovered that Azithromycin is exactly what I need to cure my throat as well as to cure my foot. Yeah, so yesterday also brought with it a soft-tissue infection in my foot. To be honest, I wasn’t (am not) certain that’s what it is, as Maggie has informed me that in the walk up the steps to my apartment I took a tumble the night before (I did mention I had consumed far too much alcohol right?) and it could have been a sprain (they feel the same). But today there’s no swelling, and just a lot more pain… I’m pretty sure that it’s exactly what it is.

Let this be a lesson to you, should you finally find a pair of new shoes for your average (in the West) but huge (in the East) feet, and said shoes give you blisters… don’t forget you have a band-aid on it for several days.

So yeah, damnit, the summer made me forget how sickly I get in China. It was nice having a bit of a holiday from always feeling like crap.

Well, not being able to sleep last night did afford me loads of time to consider a topic for my novel. Perhaps it’s the toxicity in my foot, the blinding pain in my throat or the late hour at which I was putting my mind to it… but it looks like it’s going to be a harrowing tale involving pirates and aliens. Yeah!

7 Responses

  1. Hey, my friend, it seems not a pleasant trip for you here,huh? I do understand what you mean, and I’m sorry for the miserable night you had the other day as now it’s the flu season in Dalian. Unfornately I got one too. didn’t know you liked writing, so keep up with it. I’m here looking forward to more news from you.

    Converse

  2. Sigh… don’t get me wrong, I love getting comments (and had I known that posting about fish death and my maladies would spark some, I would have written about it more often…

    However… I just have no idea who this is. You sound like you know me, which means I likely know you too.. but other than as a shoe and a form of communication, Converse means nothing to me.

  3. Haha, didn’t expect your response so quickly. I just came back to say that your words are really helping for a sneezing girl at this moment, and surprisely you are also working in Future.

    Converse

  4. Yeah, I’m laid-up, so I’m taking the opportunity to learn about the overly-long (cradle of civilization and all that) history of the Middle East. I’m up to the Hittites.

    A Future School girl… that narrows it down a bit… can I get another clue?

  5. Your quick response’s really scraching me back here, and I read some of your other articles, really liked them, Well, you seem really wanna know my true status, hmmmm, shall I tell you here? But anyways I swear I didn’t know a thing when I saved your blog into my Pc with only your location, the same city as where I’m living now, and actually it’s my first time opened your page since then, well I’m sure it’s a long time ago, and did get a lot of new staff.
    I have to step out.
    [email protected]

    Converse (I’m wondering why I chose this name, Weird!)

    Converse

  6. Pingback: Life In Suzhou China Blog | Adventures of the Humanaught » Blog Archive » You’re Never Gonna Stick Me

  7. Pingback: Why self-medicating is an essential China expat skill | A China Blog on Suzhou Expat Life | The Humanaught

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