Watching TV with me

I've been sick with a cold or sinus infection for seven days already. A few days, I was stuck in bed, watching TV. But I wasn't lonely, because Mimi the wonder dog was also there watching TV with me. She's eyeing DiNozzo on NCIS.

Quiet holiday

I look forward to Chinese New Year. I have my own traditions, many of which involve photography, eating out, soaking in the culture, and chatting with minority groups (for instance, Tibetans or Muslims) that mill around town because they don't celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

But this year, I missed the holiday. The flu bug bit hard. Instead of running around town, I stayed indoors with the heaters running full blast and a fuzzy doggy warming my feet while I laid on the sofa. I finally had to go out a few times: to get medicine, to buy some veggies when I could find a market that finally re-opened, and to pay my phone bill. The roads seemed deserted. I'd never seen the city like this before. With the ban on fireworks in the city limits, it was eerily quiet. No one is scaring off evil spirits as they re-open their shops after the holidays. No one is inviting the "money god" to bring him riches by setting off the loudest pyrotechnics. I really don't know what everyone did this year. I missed it completely.

Hopefully I'll get another chance to celebrate next year.

I've got the flu (and a Facebook rant)

Burning fever, chills, aches and congestion started Friday night. These led me to believe I had the flu. But because I'd had a flu shot on December 22nd, the doctor thought perhaps this was some other type of virus instead. The nurse did a blood test and a nose swab this morning, and it has now been confirmed. I have the flu.

Do they give refunds for defective flu shots?

The flu is rough on anyone, but they are especially concerned for me because my immune system has been through the wringer in the past couple of years.

I saw the doctor in time to benefit from taking Tamiflu pills. Have you ever had those? Rather quickly after taking my first pill, I developed nausea and then uncharacteristic incessant belching. Nice, huh? I hope this five-day round of medication does the trick. I have a trip to the U.S. coming up in less than three weeks. I need to get well fast.

While waiting for my lab work to come back at the doctor's office, I scrolled through my Facebook account and unfollowed anyone who had a political post. I didn't unfriend anyone, I just stopped following them, which means we're still friends, but my newsfeed won't show anything they post. I can change this at any time, and I can also still look on their Facebook home page to see what they've been up to.

Overall, this makes me sad, but I couldn't take the tension and negativity anymore. I'm halfway around the world and still it eats at me to read all of these online shouting matches that have escalated over the weekend. I do hope this is just a temporary thing and I can add people back little by little. I'm not opposed to people having or expressing opinions, I am just opposed to having unnecessary stress in my life and this is one small thing I can do to alleviate it without cutting myself off from the world completely.

I did not unfriend my mother though, of course.💗 She didn't have any political posts today, but even if she had, I wouldn't have unfriended her! Never. But everyone else was fair game.

Now all that's left on my Facebook feed are cat photos, how to make an old guitar into an overhead light fixture, recipes, quilts, baby announcements, and who has been Facebook friends with whom for the last 4 or 8 or 11 years (why does Facebook even do that...who cares)? I just want to see when people have babies, get married, pass through the pearly gates, have anniversaries, need prayer, and/or have something personal, interesting, fun or positive to talk about.

I'm in search of a better way to live, and although I'm not sure what I've done will help, it was worth a try.

And, now that I have better internet, I hope to spend more time on this blog anyway.

I hope this finds all of you doing well, and if you haven't gotten your flu shot yet, please consider doing so sooner rather than later!

Heated blanket

I've been sick with a cold since Wednesday. I would say I've been "sick in bed" since Wednesday, but the sofa is much better than the bed and I can watch TV. So I've been "sick on sofa" since Wednesday. 

There I was, laptop on lap, feet on coffee table, striped pillow propping me up, coffee on my right hand, when Mimi realized something important was missing. 

Her. 

She jumped up and squeezed herself in between my left leg/computer and the pillow, and took a long nap. She kept me warm and feeling loved on a cold spring day. 

She is awesome.

Welcome to spring!

Spring is here (yea!) and I caught a cold (drats!) -- I hadn't caught a cold in a really long time, so I didn't see it coming. I would spend my days resting in bed, but I can't breathe if I'm lying down. Plus there's no T.V. in my bedroom. So I'm spending my days lounging on the sofa, feet on the coffee table, drinking coffee all day, watching NCIS and Sell This House. Hopefully this won't last long so I can get out and enjoy the good weather.

New Year Update

I went on a train trip the week after Christmas and got back before the end of 2012. 

The January 1st new year is not such a big deal here, but people do shoot off firecrackers at midnight for about 15 minutes. I was awakened by them at midnight this year. (What, are you kidding? I'm not staying up for midnight! The new year comes whether you are awake or asleep, and I love my sleep.)

I'm expecting a great year in 2013, but it has been a rocky start. I had a migraine on New Year's Day. In the three days since then I have been fighting a very, very bad sore throat, the kind that hurts to swallow and feels like your throat is almost swollen shut. Yesterday I could do nothing except lie on the sofa and entertain myself with another NCIS marathon (on DVD, with no commercials). Gibbs, DiNozzo, Ziva, McGee, Abby and Ducky are starting to feel like old friends.

During the day I took small breaks from the TV marathon and googled all kinds of sore throat home remedies. I even tried some old Amish remedy of sucking/chewing on garlic. I also tried dry cinnamon; all kinds of gargling solutions; honey; lemon; ginger in tea, and even over-the-counter medicines. Nothing helped.

This morning, I gave in. The doc says it is a bad infection, and I started antibiotics. 

My body apparently serves as a 5-star hotel as far as bacteria are concerned, a cozy place to live. As soon as they get kicked out of one area of my body, they switch rooms and go to another part. I'm so familiar with them that, in my mind, I picture what they look like (the three ringleaders look like brown M&M's with legs and arms, in case you want to know) and have given a few of them names.

No one is more shocked and annoyed as me that when one infection ends, another begins. It is absolutely unbelievable. It feels like the enemy is involved. 

Prayer and penicillin keeps me going.

A good friend

During the past two weeks that I've been fighting my lung infection, Mimi may have not gotten as much attention as usual. A few days I forgot to change her drinking water so she had a fresh bowl. Her walks outside were fewer and much, much shorter than usual. She must be tired of eating the same thing over and over. And now that I've lost my voice, I can't even talk to her.

I realize she doesn't have a lot of choices as to what to do in this situation, but she has been a really good sport. She knows something is wrong and she doesn't whine or demand too much out of me. She snuggles up close to me when I sit on the sofa, and she's a big fan of the long frequent naps I've been taking. Unafraid of my germs, curious over the nebulizer (that now is in my apartment), and patient when I walk into the other room to feed her and forget by the time I get there why I have gone, my Mimi has shown a lot of patience and love. Ah, if only I could teach her to cook and clean! That would alleviate her boredom!

In about six weeks, she'll turn eight years old. My how time flies. She's by far the best thing I ever picked up out of a cardboard box on a street in China. She's a keeper.

And, yes, I thought it was time for another post about my dog (the one about Doritos doesn't count), as it has been awhile now. :-) If you'd ever had a dog like mine, you would understand.

By the way, I'm better, but still not well. I am still homebound, except for doctor's visits.

Black Friday

Friday, I finished my abbreviated nebulizer treatments at noon. I decided that since I hadn't had turkey for Thanksgiving, I would go to Subway sandwich shop and have a turkey sandwich. 

So that's what I did. While sitting there having lunch, it dawned upon me that I was in a mall, a really nice one, and it was Black Friday. So although I needed to be in bed, I decided a walk around the mall might just lift my spirits. It did! 

Since neither Christmas, Thanksgiving, nor therefore Black Friday are celebrated in this country, the mall was pretty empty. I looked around, bought a few items, and returned home. 

The only super-crowded place at the mall on this cold, rainy day was Starbucks, so I gave it a pass just this once.

I was so happy to be out and about on Black Friday. It's a much safer thing to do here than in America!

P.S. I have no idea what a ship has to do with Christmas. See the anchors mixed in with the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling? Anyway, it was pretty.

Thanksgiving

Due to illness, all Thanksgiving fun would be cancelled for this year. I told myself, "let's just get to breathing normally again, and then we'll have something to be thankful for later." I don't often talk to myself, but this week it just seemed like the thing to do.

Thanksgiving would be the longest day at the doctor's office. I'm sure my doctor had no idea it was Thanksgiving, seeing as how he is not an American and studied in the UK. He did two nebulizer treatments and an IV treatment before lunch, and asked me to come back mid-afternoon for another before I returned to my home across town (in the cold rain).

So for lunch, I walked a few doors down and had Thanksgiving lunch. Seeing as how I had plans to microwave a frozen burrito for Thanksgiving lunch, this was definitely a step up. I had pan-fried salmon with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies, washed down with an ice-cold Coke. 

Three Chinese men were at one table, with the boss loudly reaming out two of his silent employees.

Four European men sat at another table, cussing like sailors. I wanted to ask them to quit using that four-letter word that was ruining my holiday. But their food came, they started eating, and their conversation slowed down enough to spare my ears.

Apparently all the Americans in town were at home today.

With time to kill, and with a need to get into a place that was slightly less drafty than the restaurant, I went a few more doors down to Starbucks. I was about to sit down with my soy latte when I realized that I should really celebrate and get a manicure! The manicure place is right next door to the doctor's office, in one of the most beautiful nail salons I have ever seen in my life. (It is like a spa, decorated zen-style, with bamboo, stones, sandalwood aromatherapy, and more.) I took my coffee with me and got a manicure.

Then it was time for my 3rd nebulization of the day. After it ended, I told my doctor that it was an unusual but memorable Thanksgiving, and I was thankful for their clinic.

Because if not for their clinic, the Chinese hospital was the only other option, and if that didn't work, emergency air lift to another place would have been the only other option. And this is the fear that people who live in more remote places than me live with. (If this had happened when I lived in Bedrock, it would have been a nightmare.)

So, dear doctor, I don't know much about you or why God brought you young Singaporean doctors here when your own country is so nice. I don't know what you believe, although I heard at least one of you is a Buddhist. But I think you are tools in the hands of God, and I hope someday soon He blesses you with a relationship with Him.

The good doctor - Tuesday

I spent Monday hoping that the antibiotics would kick in, but I just got worse. Whatever medicine I got at the Chinese hospital wasn't helping. 

So I went across town to a medical clinic run by Singaporean doctors who have studied at western universities (i.e., in America or the UK).

My doctor told me to throw away the medicine I got at the Chinese hospital, and that he'd do everything in his power to make sure that I didn't end up with pneumonia.  

He said, "I'm going to put you on a nebulizer."

I have never had this bronchitis before, and if I have ever heard the word "nebulizer" before, I didn't pay attention. What's a nebulizer?

So, I'm standing there, trying to look cool. But a sci-fi image enters my head, maybe a Darth Vader-like character pointing a space-age weapon at me -- a nebulizer. (Please say that slowly with a low voice for the full effect. NEB-YOO-LYE-ZERRRRR)

I chided myself for being so melodramatic, so I substituted this mental image for another, what I imagine to be John Grisham's latest book -- "The Nebulizer." 

All this happens in my brain in a split second, and I hope my cool doctor isn't able to see the images that have just splashed across my brain. Fortunately, mind reading is not one of his gifts. I am safe. I pull myself together, go to another room, and get nebulized.

For the next four days, I spent most of every day traveling to or being at the doctor's office. It's cold and rains every single day, which is great for someone trying to fight the onset of pneumonia. 

Bad Hospital - Last Sunday

I got back from Thailand last Thursday (over a week ago), and by Friday night I had come down with what appeared, at the time, to be a bad cold. Over the weekend, it became the most miserable of colds. Then Sunday evening around dusk, I came down with severe chills followed by burning fever. If I could only make it until Monday morning, I could make it to a pretty good clinic run by young, western-trained Singaporean doctors. 

The thought of waiting another 15 hours to get relief was more than my sick body could bear though. So I did the unthinkable. I decided to go to a Chinese hospital.

I called some Chinese friends to see if they could go with me, but they were out-of-town or otherwise unable to assist. 

My American friends across town probably would have taken an hour and a half to get here, and most of the ones in town right now don't know the local language. Knowing what I know now, I should have requested their help even without the language advantage.

Maybe it was because of the fever, but every muscle and bone in my body ached. If I had been much sicker, I couldn't have done this. I grabbed Mimi's dog blanket for warmth, and headed outside to find a taxi. I stood there, leaning up against a tree, for about 20 minutes before a taxi stopped for me. I told him to go to the K hospital, because they are supposed to speak English there. It's a 30-minute ride away. My driver immediately knew I was sick, and he was really nice to me.

He took me to the emergency room.

I stood in line to pay, the first of three times. This is where non-Chinese speakers could have helped me. I didn't feel like standing in line. I didn't feel like standing at all. They don't help you at the hospital until you pay though.

The nurse, standing at a counter that looked like a bank teller's counter, gave me a thermometer and told me to place it under my tongue. I told her it wasn't clean. She told me it had been disinfected. I told her, with my eyes, that I wasn't born yesterday. She smiled (because I was right) and told me I could put it in my armpit. No telling where that thing has been previously. Even at home I use disposable thermometer covers on my thermometer. 

Then at the lab counter, they took my blood to test it. I asked the guy if he could please change out of his dirty rubber gloves and put on new ones for my sake before he drew blood. He cheerfully agreed. I don't think most people ask him to change.

Then with his new gloves on, he rummaged through files and instruments before he took my blood. 

While he was working on this, a guy with bodily fluid resembling creamed corn, in a paper cup, came up and stood shoulder to shoulder with me. He and the lab technician used a little spoon to stir it, presumably in preparation to test it. It was inches away from me, and they had no concern for keeping the diseased fluid from spilling. 

There were two "internal medicine" doctors in the same room with each other. Each had 3 people waiting to talk to them. They were all crowded around the doctor's desks while waiting. Privacy is not valued here.

The bathrooms were filthy, especially the floors, and there was no soap. No telling what diseases were in there. I disinfected my shoes with Lysol spray when I got home.

I got an IV that took over two hours. They don't let you lie down to get IV's. You have to sit in a chair in a room with dozens of other people who are getting IV'S. The girl who put the IV in me didn't use gloves. And I know from looking in the bathroom that if she bothered to wash her hands at all, she hadn't used soap.

I don't even know what was in the IV. I did get a Chinese friend to translate over the phone, but all I know was that it was to bring down my fever.

I also got an injection in my hip.

Did I mention that no one in the emergency room spoke English? I should have gone to another dirty hospital closer to where I live.

After two hours of the IV, I still had a fever. I got a taxi and returned home. During the night I broke into a sweat which I am told was my fever breaking.

But I was still sick.

Weathering a storm

I'm sick with bronchitis. I must have never had it before, because I've never heard weird noises coming from my lungs before. I'll tell you more about it later, but suffice it to say that it has stopped my regular life since it came along last Friday. There's no cooking going on at my place this week, so the Meems and I are just eating whatever packaged food we can find. Mimi picked up some tortilla chips and ate about seven of them this afternoon. I'm considering heating a burrito in the microwave for Thanskgiving dinner. I know! I was so excited to see that the import grocery store had some, otherwise I'd have to eat something boring like cereal.

(I was invited to a gathering of American friends, but the only place I am fit to go to in this condition is the doctor's office.) 

It's also cold and raining non-stop, great weather for bronchitis. Mimi and I are couch potatoes, having a NCIS marathon.

I would really appreciate your prayers, because I need this lung problem to go away soon. I've got things to do, places to go, people to see!

No fan of the fan

The dog days of summer have ended, so to save electricity, I ran the fan at night instead of the air-conditioner. All my local friends say to never sleep with a fan on, because it will cause colds. But in America I slept with a fan on me all the time and never got a cold. So it just doesn't make sense that it could happen in one country and not another.


But every single time I try to disprove this "fan will make you sick" theory in Asia, I only prove them to be correct. I slept with a fan on me last weekend and now I have a bad cold. They may have to tear down another forest to replace all the tissues I've used in the past week.


I don't understand the fan thing, but I believe it. I'm done with sleeping with a fan on me. In Asia anyway.