Day 15: Still kind of sick, Doctor

Didn’t sleep well again last night. It seems to be a recurring thing. It’s frustrating when all you went to do is pass out wake up healthy. However, it would not be so. Rich knocked on my door at about 830 to wake me up, but I told him I was going to try and sleep some more, and would go to Cresp if I felt any better. Alas, I couldn’t fall back asleep, but managed to get myself moving and out of the house by 11. By that point, the sun was almost directly overhead, and the sun was extremely hot. Being dehydrated malnourished and who knows what else, I trudged on towards the Shell station. I bought some water and some crackers, and then went to Cresp. (note: the Cresp annex that we attend class in is located on the 3 floor above 2 floors of apartments) I barely made it up the stairs, but somehow managed. I drank some, but the crackers didn’t taste very good, so I couldn’t really eat. After discussing with Marian what I should do, we decided that I should just rest in her apartment upstairs until about 1430, when I would go to my Dr. app that she had scheduled the day before. (I was not the only one who was sick, but two other people, Katie and Deb, were feeling much better today, while I was just mediocre.) After lounging for a while and even managing to eat some plain rice that Sophie (a program assistant) had made, I set off for the Dr. with Fatou Lo.

While my stomach problems had subsided, I was still feeling a pain in my upper chest, every time I swallowed anything. We thought it could be an infection or something, so it should definitely be checked out by a Dr. Anyway, Fatou and I took a taxi to the doctor’s office, where we waited a little while. I was very relieved to meet the doctor, an Iranian man who studied at McGill and the U. of Toronto, who spoke very good English, and seemed to be extremely competent. I described all of my symptoms etc to him, and after an examination, he concluded that the pain in my chest was a side effect of my malaria medication. In case you want detail…if you don’t take the pills with enough water, the get stuck in your esophagus and corrode the tissue there…It seems bad, but he said it was just short term, and gave me some oral liquid stuff to take. It was good to know that the problem wasn’t anything more serious.

Let me pause to say that together, Fatou Lo had quite a good time going to the doctor. Fatou Lo is Senegalese, has worked with Marian for over 10 years, speaks very good English, and in general is an extremely kind and caring person. Over the past few days, we’ve really become friends.

Anyway, after the doc, I didn’t really feel up for class, so I went home and read for a while. Last night, I even managed to eat dinner, which was very satisfying. After two and a half days without a meal, I guess that would be kind of obvious. Went to sleep early…