Monday, October 1

better

Well, I'm finally smiling again.

It's been an amusing day, I'll tell you.  I was giggling during a guitar lesson (or as Prakash says, gee-thar) while Peter picked away at some classically arranged piece of classic rock and Prakash (naked) strummed on his guitar in perfect rhythm and in no key whatsoever, when perfectly at the climax of the song, a 6' inflated swimming pool came shooting out of the kids' room into the common area where i'm sitting. Maybe that's not as comical when I write it down, but it just made me want to sit down and document a few amusing things about my day for you.

This morning after enduring quite a bit of nausea, among many other things, I woke up with a calorie total of probably around 1,500 stretched over four days. I was hardly keeping my mind in my situation, basically... I was feeling exceedingly weak and very, very strange. Peter and Heather had decided that if I was not feeling better by morning they would take me to a doctor, so by 9:45 we were on our way to rule out anything serious, just to be safe. We had an appointment with a specific doctor, and we even called to say we'd be about 20 minutes late, but by the time we arrived, after checking in and noticing some problems in reception we found out he had not. He was unreachable by phone, and what's worse, there were NO OTHER doctors there to be seen in the hospital. After 10 in the morning, and not one had showed up for work yet. I'll tell you, Heather was livid. She made sure the staff knew this was unacceptable behavior and atrocious customer service. Consequently, she marched me right to the Emergency Room, where there was a doctor on call and a bed where I could lay. Unwittingly, it actually saved us 1,000 rupees, as making the effort to call up and make an appointment and then waiting two hours for a doctor to show costs money, where waltzing into the E.R. and getting a speedy assessment and prescriptions for meds is FREE. After all of the hassles of the day, Heather was still actually praising the Indian medical system, and I'm starting to see why - things are more up front and less tied up in litigation... basically you have overall less wait for an appointment, less paperwork, and lower costs. I don't know how that's not better.
Anyway, so I was in the E.R. for about 15-20 minutes, was assessed, and was sent home. No big issues, just the diagnosis of gastritis and a warning not to eat the street food. The meds they gave me seem to be helping a lot - i was able to eat two meals today, which felt wonderful, and I am feeling so much stronger. I stayed in a lot anyway, and watched the Indian version of "What Not To Wear" (the female hostess LOOKS like Stacy and the male host SOUNDS like Clinton. uncanny.) which was seriously strange, but another amusing part of my day.

I skyped with Andrew, who woke up at 6 just to chat with me on our  [MONUMENTAL] 9-month anniversary :) It's really good when I get to feel like I'm with him, and it means a lot that he makes sacrifices like that for me.

It was great to have an amusing day after so many discouraging ones. I'm hoping so hard that this is really the end of the road for the sickness, and not another fake-out -- i'm feeling great tonight, and i have one more day to recover before PMI gets in full swing again.
Crossing my fingers for an easy tomorrow!
Oh, and it's Gandhi's birthday tomorrow, too - so there's that.

Here's to being better.

Love from Delhi,
medstuffed Julie

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