Hospitals, Mangoes & Parasites, Oh My!

Well…what to say? What. to. say. 

Post-Op Thumbs Up!

I’ve had a few false starts with this entry simply because I am struggling between telling it like it is and also retaining some decorum for the public stage. There’s a fine line it seems in the craft of “being real” without crossing into “sensationalism” or “artistic liberties.” I’ll try to keep it between the ditches.

This Summer has been challenging on a few fronts for me personally. I had major surgery in June and then returned to our desert abode prepared to recuperate without much ado. I imagined doing things like visiting neighbors and eating mangoes. One was great with good results. The other caused my face to swell, turn bumpy red and itch like crazy for about a week. I’ll let you guess which one is which. 

Feeling de-swelled enough to rejoin the public, I went with some friends to a beach area along the Nile on the 4th of July. I was still not completely recovered from surgery so I chose to sit ankle deep in the water and take it easy. A few days later, I noticed that I was nauseated, head pounding and stomach bloating. What in the world?!

Can you call it a beach if everything
is made of sand?

A few other symptoms appeared and soon I was bedridden watching my stomach get bigger while my appetite decreased (THAT is a sure sign that I am nearing the Gloryland…).  I began to Google my symptoms and discovered that I could be dying of any number of terrible diseases. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all.

We finally spoke to a doctor here in town and he thought that it might be giardiasis. Look it up. If I start to describe it here, it’ll make me queasy all over again and I’ll go screaming into the desert yelling, “GET THEM OUT! GET THEM ALL OUT!” 

It’s pretty common here, but since I hadn’t had it before I didn’t know just how terrible it could make a person feel. The doctor gave me 4 giant pills to take at once and said that that should take care of it. That was on Sunday of this week. Monday I felt great. Tuesday my stomach began pooching out again and by Wednesday I was given 4 more giant pills to finish off the last of the resistant trouble in my system. Today is Friday and I am feeling human again…around 90% which has been the highest percentage since maybe January. Woot!

I’m telling you all this for a few reasons:

1) It explains the gaps between blog entries. (Remember my rule that I never write while using prescription drugs?)
2) I want to report the highs AND the lows. There are plenty of good things to tell you, but it wouldn’t be an honest chronicle if none of the challenges were mentioned.
3) You’re my friend and getting to share all of my life makes the separation by an ocean easier…even if that includes parasitic discussions.
4) I don’t have a “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Desert Edition” to cheer myself up.

I’ll have another entry about some of the great things that have happened this Summer running parallel to the challenges, but alas I grow weak in my typing. Ha. Not really. It’s actually a bit late in the day and I forgot that I have chicken thawing…I’d like to avoid salmonella poisoning for at least a week.

Shopping for beads helps me heal quicker.