Sick

Hello everyone, as I mentioned in my blog update from Friday, I was feeling a little under the weather.  I was achy, fatigued, losing my voice, had a pounding headache, and was coughing up more mucus than the body has a right to produce in one day.  Sorry for the vivid imagery, but being sick is never pretty.

SPOILER ALERT:  the whole being sick thing (and the description) is gross.  It's up to you whether or not you want to continue reading this particular post.

The good thing is I felt a little better Saturday morning when I talked with Mom over Skype.  Around that time, we both agreed I had a mere summer cold, which I would soon get over.  I was coughing a little, still missing some of my voice, and was really tired.  Overall, though, it looked like I was getting better.  Throughout the day, I felt better and better.  I did my homework, washed my clothes, and went on my merry way being Little Miss Productivity.

That evening, we had all made plans to go out to eat with Han Laoshi--the agreement being (at our insistence) that we would all treat her to a nice dinner.  For a delicious change of pace, we selected a Turkish restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui (better known as TST).  Here's the picture from outside:

 

It was a great deal of fun and the food was delicious.  Not surprisingly, octopus was on the menu.  I'm not sure just how authentic that really is but, hey, it's Hong Kong.  America's not the only place in the world where ethnic cuisine gets a local makeover.  I kept it simple with Donar Kebob, ground lamb & beef stuffed pitas with lettuce, tomato, onion, and Greek yogurt.  The only real problem we had with the restaurant was that Falafel was not on the menu.  Other than that, it's worth returning to.  It's like a much larger version of Al-Amir's in Columbia.

But, truth be told, Al-Amir's doesn't offer as much in the way of entertainment.  As we were eating at a Turkish restaurant, there could be only one form of said entertainment.  That's right, a belly-dancer:

It's a little dark, but if you want to see her in action, just play the video below:

We all had a good time.  I was starting to feel a little worse again, but I merely attributed it to tiredness.  We took the MTR back to campus and the bus back to Shaw College.  I made it into bed around 12:30am and was very proud of myself.  Of course, I didn't sleep that well.  My nose kept running and my eyes had started to itch like crazy.  Just a cold, I thought, they suck but at least they're manageable.

I woke up at 9:00am this morning only to discover that my eyelids were completely stuck together.  After using my fingernails to tease out some of the crustiness from my eyelashes, I was finally able to open them with only minimal pain.  When I got to the bathroom mirror, I could tell "the sick" was back.  Still, who doesn't get a runny nose and itchy, leaky eyes during a cold.  I cleaned myself up, ate a light breakfast, and took some ibu-profen.

I got on the bus to go to church, enjoyed the sermon with only minor discomfort, and didn't actually sing the hymns because my throat still hurt.  As usual, I hung out with some members of the congregation after the service, and afterwards went to have lunch.  By then, my eyes were bothering me more than anything else.  I was beginning to wonder if it was allergies because that always makes my eyes itch.

Deciding to ignore it (because, seriously, what could I do about it?), I went to the Putonghua Bible Study at 2:00pm.  I enjoyed myself, but had a hard time paying attention because I felt bad.  I didn't have much trouble understanding the Putonghua, with the exception of the Chinese pronunciations of "Abram," "Lot," and "Ur."  Around 3:30pm, one of the group leaders asked if I was all right.  When I asked "Why?" she said my eyes didn't look too good.  I asked to be excused because, truth be told, I was already feeling a lot worse, and I went to the bathroom to have a look.

"Didn't look too good" was a vast understatement.  I knew what it was as soon as I saw it.  All the tell-tale signs were there:  bloodshot eyes, tears flowing all over the place, and sticky yellowish-green pus sticking to my eyelashes and creeping over my eyelids.  Was it disgusting?  Yes.  Was it uncomfortable?  Very.  Was it pink eye?  Without a doubt.

I quickly removed all the gunk I could and cleaned myself up.  After thoroughly soaping and scrubbing my hands (and my face), I went to the grocery store to buy sick-people food, determined not to touch my face until I was back in my dorm room.

Now I'm just hanging out here, cleaning out my eyes every hour or so.  They've gotten significantly worse, and I'd consider it inhumane to provide any pictures of that.  I've already emailed Han Laoshi to let her know that I will not be in class tomorrow, and that I'm sending my homework with a classmate.  And, yes, I wrote the email in Chinese.  The word for pink-eye is huoyan, meaning "fire eye."  I feel this description to be dead-on.

As for my plans tomorrow, I'm thankful that I have no homework due Tuesday because, as of now, my right-eye is swollen so badly you'd think someone punched me in the face.  I can't see out of it at all.  Hopefully, my left-eye continues to be of use so I can find my way to the Health Centre in the morning.  True, I already self-diagnosed the problem which is, admittedly, an easy one to recognize.  However, since pink-eye is a bacterial infection, I'm hoping the nurses can give me some antibiotics to get rid of it.  Other than that, I'm charging up my iPod so I'll have something to do in case I can't see anything--like read, or study, or watch TV.

So, yeah, I'm still loving Hong Kong, but being sick is a bummer.  I'm thankful that it's not something worse, but if there's one not-too-serious ailment that's always freaked me out to an unreasonable degree, it's pink-eye.  Lucky, huh?  I think, assuming I can sleep tonight, I'm going to have nightmares.  Pray for me, please.