So let me tell you about the past 2 weeks.... being sick in a foreign country is just as awful as I remember it. When I was in sevilla four years ago, and I lived with Manoli, my friend Amir and Manoli both got bronchitis within like 2 weeks of each other. And those being 2 principal people I spent my time with, it was a big deal - maybe a few weeks later, I got some form of upper respiratory infection which turned into walking pneumonia because I waited 3 weeks to go to the doctor. It was totally not fun at all and quite miserable. I literally laid in bed for weeks, so sick, but dragged myself to school everyday because we had a super strict attendance policy at UPO. Ana claudio (one of my favorite UPO professors) sent me home from school one day and told me not to come back until I had gone to the doctor. Manoli also took really good care of me when I was sick so it made it better as well. I'm telling you this because that experience was pretty awful.
So fast foward to the present... and about 2.5 weeks ago, my friends, Elli and Brittani both had tonsilitis, so I knew it was coming to me soon because if you know me really well, you know that I get sick super easily. It's been better since I had surgery in May, but without allergy shots, I knew it was coming. I was really trying to avoid being sick by drinking a liter of orange juice a day. Orange juice can only do so much though...
So that Friday morning, I woke up and my throat was scratchy, like a cold/sore throat/need antibiotics because something is coming on scratchy. So after school on Friday, I went to the doctor and he looked at my throat and said I had pharngyitis (like tonsilitis, but I don't really have tonsils since my adenoid/tonsil reduction). He gave me antibiotics and all was well. I went out for dinner that night and wine on the terrace of Mercado de San Antón, but I didn't stay out late or get crazy or anything that night. I didn't really do anything of importance on Saturday, but Sunday I woke up and was super awful - congested and coughing and I didn't sleep through the night on Saturday and I just had this feeling I was getting worse. So I dragged myself back to the urgencia (which is like urgent care, because regular doctors don't work on weekends, including Friday) and the doctor listened to my chest and my cough and in 5 minutes told me that I had bronchitis. I stayed home Monday and Tuesday but was still pretty sick on later in the week and not sleeping still (because of coughing through the night and being on steriods) so the teachers at my school sent me home early on both Wednesday and Thursday. It was lucky that I had Friday off of school so I could rest because it was our patron saint day. Basically, I rested most of the weekend again, except going to our friendsgiving/spainsgiving Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Kristin's house on Saturday night. I was feeling much better on Monday of last week BUT THEN... on Monday night, I felt super flush and scratchy throat-ish so I went to bed early. On Tuesday, I woke up fully congested and coughing horribly again (mind you, my cough never really went away). I lasted one class on Tuesday morning and at recess, I told them that I was going home to go to the doctor.
I went to the doctor Tuesday afternoon, and they took this lovely photo of my lungs to make sure I didn't have pneumonia. Which, tells you how sick I was but I didn't have it. Yay, there is some victory in this story!! But the doctor just said I had a bad cough still, caused by drainage and congestion. It got super bad on Tuesday night and I was literally crying because my eyes were watering so bad and because I was pissed that I was still so sick. I called my dad and I was super sad and wanted to be home. I stayed in bed from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday night, which was nice because I slept like over 10-14 hours a day which is what my body really needed to heal. OH and I took TamiFlu that I brought from the US, and it worked wonders, so that helped me heal this past week too.
It's just so hard to shake a cold or an infection here because you have to walk everywhere when you are sick. So I've been sick and walking to the doctor in 30 degree weather (and sometimes high 20s at night) and walking to the pharmacy, and walking to get my groceries still. When its so cold out, it just exacerbates whatever you are fighting. But even so, I still love all that fresh air.
Also - one of the things that I will never understand is: my wonderful caring Spanish teachers told me I got sick from not wearing a scarf, so Javier (my head teacher) brought me a scarf as a gift (and so I wouldn't get sick). Spanish people saying I got sick from not wearing mittens or a hat. And I do wear scarves and mittens here, I just didn't happen to be wearing them on that day. Oh but something that I do love -- was that one of the teachers told me to drink hot milk with honey for my throat. Yes it sounds gross, but when I had walking pneumonia in Sevilla, Manoli gave me hot milk with honey all the time.
I'm finally finally better after essentially two weeks of being in bed. I still have the remnants of a cough, but no where near as bad as it was. I was so sick I was even debating not going to Sevilla this past weekend, but I'm so glad that I did. It was so much warmer in Sevilla (in the high 60s), which helped a lot. And that city heals me in every way possible, so I am just so much better after having been there this past weekend. I need to go to sleep but I will blog about Manoli and Sevilla later this week. :)
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