Sick Monday

Saturday night was heaps of fun. I was invited by Coutney's boyfriend, Mike, to go to a Cameroon gathering. Sadly, there were apparently way fewer people that unusual, and also much less food, but I still enjoyed it. They had a really formal meeting before hand, and I felt totally anthropologist-y for being there and watching. I felt like I was sitting in a chapter of 'Mama Lola', only with no Voudou. I honestly did find it interesting, but it did only add to my ideas that one of the major things wrong with the world today is poorly functioning committees and overly democratic leadership. Nothing every gets done and everything gets nit-picked to death. And this meeting was no different, which meant we didn't get to eat until 10.30 at night.

When we were able to eat dinner, it was delicious! It was rice and a chicken dish in a creamy, spicy sauce. It actually tasted very much like a spicier version of my mum's baked cream tarragon chicken. I enjoyed it a lot. However, I though there were going to be vegetable options, so I could avoid eating grains, but there weren't so I just ate the rice. Not the end of the world, and I enjoyed the food a lot!

However, I started to develop a sore throat over the evening, and a funny, mild chest flutter. It got worse over Sunday. I was so sore and achy (even my skin hurt) that I had trouble sleeping last night. I woke up this morning and I thought it was getting better, but once I got off the bus at school, I could barely walk up the hill, and my chest flutter came back quite persistently. I gave it over an hour to clear up, but it didn't, so I left school to go to the doctor. Mr B wanted to know if I'd come back to work after I'd seen the doctor. I said I didn't know, it's depend on what the doc said. Mr B said ok, I could have four hours leave, and to text him if I wasn't coming back. That's fine, but it was 11am, four hours would mean I'd get back to school at 3pm. Classes are over at 3pm, and I'm obviously sick and going to the doctor... why would I go back to work for two hours for no reason? 

Anywho, because of all his fussing, I missed the bus and had to wait over half an hour for the next one. Then I got to the doctors, waited a while, and got in. I told the doctor my symptoms and he goes "Oh, that's really not good". Haha, things you DON'T say to a patient who's worried about a fluttery chest, right? Anyway, he checked me out, and took one look at my throat and decided that it was so swollen it was causing a heap of my symptoms. He said I've got a bad virus, and that my throat swelling was making my lower oesophagus spasm lightly and giving me a stiff neck. He wrote me a note to get off work tomorrow and a prescription for some mystery drugs (though no antibiotics, I checked this time). 

So, I am very sore, achy, and swallowing is a bit uncomfortable, but at least I'm fairly confident I'm not about to have a heart attack or stroke. Also, it cost me under $4 to see the doctor and just over $2 for three days of assorted pills. No wonder everyone goes to the doctor for everything over here.

Luckily, I have a whole lot of food pre-cooked sitting in the fridge, so I don't have to try and convince myself to cook something healthy, it's all just there :) I am totally not exercising though!!!