Sunday, March 23, 2014

Health Is Not Valued Until Sickness Comes

A short list of the various illnesses I have suffered since coming to SVG. Oddly enough I have not gotten dengue....
  1. Bronchitis
  2. Numerous colds
  3. Weird bush rash

  4. Busted lip
  5. Loose tooth
  6. Root canal
  7. Gastrointestinal issues
  8. Fillings (my first)
  9. Infected tooth
  10. Crown
  11. Infected finger
  12. Staph infection
  13. Eye sty
  14. Skin boils
  15. Weird fever 
I feel like I have been sick more times in the last 3 years than I have been in all my life. Granted, most of it has been “flu” (colds), presumably from walking in the rain; I never have my umbrella. I also never thought that you could get sick from walking in the rain, but I think its true, based on first hand experience. 
Also, most of my doctors’ visits, and subsequent reasons for taking antibiotics (which I loathe and try to avoid at all costs) have been related to my rugby injury when my tooth was knocked out L.  The dentist and I were on a first name basis, as I was going to see her about once a week for a month, and then once a month for about a year afterwards.
I’ve also had some strange illnesses that have not been explained.  My brother and I got a weird rash that covered our entire body.  I think we got it from swimming in the waterfalls. But still not really sure.  It was incredibly itchy and made me miserable.
For a couple months I had some pretty serious gastrointestinal issues.  Went so far as taking 3 stool samples, which needed to be stored in my fridge until I could make the hour trip to town to get them to the lab.  Oddly enough everything came back normal.  That was fun.
Most recently, I had a pretty high fever for about 5 days, with hardly any other symptoms.  Not sure what that was about, but it sure put a damper on my New Years and Birthday celebrations.
Ahh the joys of living in a tropical climate.  Wounds fester. Infections spread. It’s a wonderful experience.  Really.
Luckily, knock on wood, I have been relatively healthy lately. Here’s to keeping healthy.


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