First off, I feel I need to apologize for the interruption
in my normal posting pattern. I’ve been sick.
Either Yandee or I have been sick most of the time we’ve
been here – new country, close quarters with two roommates, and of course the
sudden switch from hot to cold are all likely contributors to a near constant
flow of the collective nose. I woke up last Sunday with a tickle in my throat,
and after a small disapproving meditation, moved my mind to other things, sure
I would be fine by the next day.
I wasn’t. But I went to class anyway, not about to let a
virus destroy my attendance record on the second week of school. I had planned
to go to the lab afterward, but my supervisor took one look at my face and sent
me home. I promised I’d be back the next day.
I spent Tuesday on the phone with my dad, who is a doctor,
asking for any advice or recommendations for cures I could get over the
counter. And Wednesday, Yandee had to take me to the hospital, where through
the magic of modern medicine I was set back on the happy, productive path to
health!
It’s really hard to be sick in a foreign country. Spending
hours in a waiting room is bad enough when you know what to expect (and can
understand the language – combating the infection had caused a Copper Curtain
to shut in my brain, partitioning away all the Spanish), but there was no way
around it. We had thought that antibiotics might be available over the counter
here, like they are in Mexico, but fortunately (and unfortunately) they are
not. Antibiotics are great when you need them, but it’s incredibly important
that they be used exactly according
to doctor’s instructions – otherwise, the infecting bacteria can build up a
resistance, putting the patient in much greater danger and eventually making
drug-resistant strains that can get into the population and put public health
back a hundred years. This sounds a little melodramatic, but it’s a serious
concern we face and that I consider often as a student of microbiology, with
MRSA infections becoming common in the United States and really scary bacteria
developing in countries with more lax antibiotic regulations, such as reports
of Totally Drug-Resistent tuberculosis coming out of India. So it would have
been nice to just walk to the drug store and start zapping the alien invaders, but
I would’ve been a little more nervous the rest of my year here!
In the end, the ER in Valparaíso was very much the same as
in the US – I wasn’t actively bleeding or otherwise dying rapidly, so I had to
wait a while, but eventually I saw the doctor and from there got a penicillin
injection in about 20 minutes. Apart from being a magical, specific killer of
bacterial cells among all the cells in my person, this penicillin was modified
so that it could stay in my bloodstream for three weeks – meaning I didn’t need
any further injections or pills to confuse with all my other painkillers and
decongestants. How cool is that??
But man, what I would've given for some Blue Box mac'n'cheese.
I will forego the pictures today, because they’re all gross.
Next time I plan, and hope, to have some beautiful things to show you!
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