Thursday 7th April 2005

Well, I’ve been a very sick little bunny I’m afraid, so have not been in the best of spirits.

I had a bit of a cold last week, but had gotten better, and then on Monday had a sore throat. I went out with the girls, cos Tuesday was a public holiday so we had the day off. It ended up being a long old night of drinking and nori-banging (thats karaoke to you), so I crashed out at Suzie and Beth’s house. On Tuesday I woke up in agony, my glands were all swollen and painful, I couldn’t swallow anything, and getting up made me feel sick and dizzy. I was seriously considering going to the hospital, but I could barely get off the couch. i spent the whole day there, and the girls very kindly pumped me full of drugs. I went home that evening and went to bed.

Next morning I was in sooooo much pain it was unbelievable. I went and found the doctor (Sarah gave me directions – it turns out that there’s a medical center in the next building from my school), and he was so nice to me! He spoke good English, examined me and told me I have acute tonsillitus. He even took pictures of my tonsils with a fancy digital gadget and showed me on a big screen just how gross they are – they’re huge and slimy and covered in white spots. Anyway, the lovely doctor prescribed me some drugs, (a LOT of drugs!!), the pharmacist gave me a string of little packets each with about 5 different pills in, and then explained that I had to take one after each meal. I thought he meant one pill, but apparently he meant all five – I have to take 15 tablets a day!! This is no mean feat when swallowing a mouthful of water takes me ten minutes of agony!

Anyhow, I still had to teach my adult class, cos I couldn’t get hold of Jenny, but then after that I took the rest of the day off, and went home. I managed to eat a bit of rice, then my first batch of tablets, but 20 minutes later I was throwing it all back up again. So, sadly, I was unable to keep any of the tabets down long enough to have any effect, and spent the whole afternoon in excruciating pain. (by the way, I have figured out that 3 of the pills are painkillers, anti-inflammatories and anti-biotics, but have no clue what the other two are). I would also like to point out that throwing up wih tonsils the size of footballs is a whole new plateau of pain.

Thankfully, by dinner I was able to keep down some bread and more tablets, and went to bed (I also have a medicated mouthwash with very thoughtful instructions in English that I am to ‘gaggle’.) Woke up at 6am this morning with still lots of pain, so made a cup of tea (which totally counts as breakfast by the way), had some drugs and went back to bed. By the time I got up again, I managed a bit of lunch, and discovered that the vomiting phase is apparently over, but there was blood coming out of my nose (not at all pleasant!). I had to go to work this afternoon (I only have three sick days a year in my contract), but the kids were actually really good – instead of taking advantage of my weakened state and inability to yell by being super noisy, they were all unnaturally quiet and good, so we did coloring in and wordseaches all day. The swellings have gone down a bit, but the white spots have colonised so I now have completely white tonsils that look really, really disgusting (like I have large lumps of bread stuck in the back of my throat). Eeeewwww.

Sorry if I’m being too graphic for you, but if you don’t have to experience the agony, you really have nothing to complain about!!

On an upside though, I came out of my first class this afternoon, and discovered a parcel on my desk. My lovely friends Betty and Bryn have sent me a large box full of easter goodies, creme eggs and curry mix etc, so that totally cheered me up and arrived with impeccable timing (very well done guys!!)

So, I’m hoping that by tomorrow I’ll be recovered, cos the doc said if I’m not better in three days he’s gonna give me injections.

Wish me luck,

love super-sick-swollen-feeling-nasty-Maya