than getting a terrible cold, complete with little chills, 2 days before your 40th birthday. Good times all the way. What make sit EVEN BETTER is I also got my period today. Yee ha!
I've had a cough for about 5 days, and coughs just won't let go until I throw doctor-prescribed meds at it. Today, Anna the head teacher was a dear and came with me to see the Asian medicine doctor on the floor below the school. At this point, I only had a cough that kept me up on Tuesday night (so it was primed to get worse today). I shocked Anna when I told her that I'd had acupuncture before, that you can get it quite easily in the US, which was the doc's recommendation. He left some needles in while resting a smoking little ring of herbs or something on my stomach-- like a car cigarette lighter, but it takes about 15 minute before you feel a little warmth, at which point I summoned him back. He gave me a packet of something I have to drink EVERY BIT OF, leaving none behind, 3 times a day. He suggested taking it like a shot, though it tastes just fine. It was not long after that the cough morphed into a terrible sore throat, some chills, a bit of aching, and left my voice a raspy, croaking whisper (which I blamed on 2 of my favorite students, who giggled when I told them they had done this to me).
Luckily the pharmacies here are even less useful than in the US-- everything over the counter is herbal and or/totally ineffective, plus they have nothing for helping you sleep. Because besides the cold, I've had insomnia for a week, and even some melatonin hasn't been helping. I'm going to take 1 of the last pills I have here with some wine, in the hopes it'll help me get a LITTLE better tomorrow. I'm also going to volunteer to be shoved around to the appropriate non-English-speaking doctors that are just down the street, thanks to the symptoms I have written in Korean from one of the teachers, plus plenty of charades and showing them what exactly we're all up against. Nathalie told me when she went to a doctor he gave her a pill that had her coughing up massive amounts of unpleasantness.
Would be interesting if the herbs were just that good and have started pushing me through the worsening before it gets better part, though I know that's not likely what we have here.
Nothing, though, will stop me from my birthday celebration, which will be: cocktails at a lovely little cocktail place, followed by dinner in another lovely European restaurant with 13 or so of my friends (including Nathalie, whose birthday is the day after mine), followed by more drinks at a nearby pub (though I plan on keeping it WAYYYY down. Really. No joke) with everyone ALL dressed up, which the Brits in the group naturally took to, because I was definitely born in the wrong country, and even with Brexit I'd rather have that mess to deal with than Dictator Cheeto.
I'd love for all of you reading and the hordes who DON'T read it to come, but it's rather too far. Hopefully the pics won't feature a very wan guest of honor.
Ok, time for some bone broth, mysterious powder, and trying my damnedest to fail at sleeping well tonight anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment