On Being Sick While Abroad
To be straightforward, it stinks a whole lot. I don't know what the heck happened, but starting during the last half-hour of class on Monday, my stomach became less and less happy. I drank more water, and I ate the lunch that Mama Tica set out for me, but neither of those things were really helping. I decided to take it easy that afternoon. Shortly, Hannah came home, and we chatted while she put away her things, but I could not eat more than the little bit of salad that Mama Tica had put on my plate for dinner (which frustrated me, because she had made a favorite chicken dish of mine).
One thing that concerns a Mama Tica above almost anything else is when you don't eat the food. She knew this was something that I like, and she asked me what was going on. Having to explain illness in a second language is rough. With my throat back in January, it was easy, because it was kind of a seasonal thing that happens. Since I don't get sick to my stomach that often, I didn't know if I really had the vocabulary that I wanted (and needed) to use. I told her that my stomach didn't feel quite right, and Hannah helped me explain that this was not normal for me. We agreed that I would find the directors to let them know that I felt like this, and I was asleep (more or less, because of waking up every few hours sweating, dizzy, and running for the bathroom) before 8:30.
This continued through the week, and my appetite definitely diminished. Today I had the idea of throwing out the water bottles that I had been using, thinking that maybe they were making me sick by drinking out of them. I had been using my primary one since we got back from Punta Mona, and the secondary one since my first trip to Manuel Antonio after all. So I got a new water bottle today, and I can already tell that it was definitely a factor. I feel more like myself, but I can still tell that I'm still a little bit from completely okay.
I wished that I could have missed class, stayed in bed, and just try and find a comfortable position where I could ignore my pounding headache. I have never been this kind of person, even when I am sick, so having it cross my mind that I might need to use one of my 2 absences threw me for a loop. While I know that I maybe should have looked harder for the directors when I couldn't find them, and I could have gone to the doctor, I'm just happy that I feel better now. Not perfect, but better.