Tuesday, December 9, 2008

uhm... not so good...

For the past 2 days I had a very bad bone/joints pain, I felt drowsy and continuously thirsty (any doctor out there reading this? Ideas?)… that made me think about a year ago just before I felt sick with Dengue Fever… well, if this is the case again (there is a Dengue outbreak on the island right now), this is not so good, as I am leaving the island in 2 days for holiday!
So I am trying to take these days easy, resting as much as possible, encouraging my body to fight any possible virus at the starting point!
In search for help, this morning I went to the clinic seeking advise from a “specialist”. Maybe there is come special medicine cocktail I can take, like the one they give us once a year to fight the Filarosis; everybody on island is supposed to take this cocktail (about 8 pills of different shape and color), even if not even the nurses know what they are… “the pills come from off-island” (like if any other medicine, aside from tea leaves for cold and breast milk for pink eye disease, would be produced here), but this statement is good enough for most people to think “ahh, well then, they must be good…”.
Taking the cocktail is for me always a transcended experience as they always make me very sick and I soon collapse: it is like being in the movie “the matrix” just before taking the famous pill…
Anyway, I usually do not like taking medicines, neither going to hospitals (unless I am going to the hospital cafeteria, which serves one of the best food on island), so for me to go and consult a doctor about taking medicines was quite a step (well, last year when I had dengue, I hoped I could see a doctor, but I was way too much in a comatose status to walk by myself to the restroom, the idea to have to be in a car and then in a waiting room in the hospital was tiring enough to pass to the act! –thanks god I had Marine taking such a good care of me!!!).
I went to the Tafuna clinic because it is usually more quite than the hospital (no roosters, chickens or dogs), the A/C inside is not freezing and the queue is usually faster. But today, it was some special kids day, and they were everywhere. A kid about 6 decided to come and play with the Palagi (me). At first he was very cute, until he decided he was going to skin me. So as he was scraping skin off from my arm, and I was holding him head as far as possible from me, I was desperately looking around for sign of a mother. Finally she came, took him away, set him next to her and… pinched his balls! I swear!! I think the punishment worked quite well because for the next 20 minutes he did not try to attach me anymore, but… wow… that was quite impressive!
Finally the doctor saw me. He told me I look very good. “well, thanks, but… is there any medicine I can take?”. Well, apparently all you can take is Tylenol, but the doctor also stressed on the fact that if I start bleeding I would probably need a blood transfusion.
I left the hospital bleeding from my arm and feeling a bit disoriented… no, no, hospitals are not places for me… I am going to look for some tealeaves to rap around my neck now…

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