sick sick sick

This post is slightly gross if you arent used to peace corps illnesses so if bowel movements gross you out then skip this post...

I am sitting in my hotel room bed laughing at the current situation I am in and I feel its definitely blogworthy. Around the time my bout of depression was ending, I became sick with something that prevented me from eating anything but a bowl of rice and water per day for an entire week. I came to learn that it was possibly giardia and soon enough I was able to eat again. Buuuut about 3-4 days later I was back to not eating anything, diarrhea everyday, and lots of horrible gas. So I am 5 days into this second bout of it and it is absolutely horrible. I took the medicine for giardia treatment yesterday and I was under the impression that I would be better within 24 hours but o how I was wrong. This medicine does wonders to the human body and some people actually do get better in a day. But the volunteers I have talked to have undergone some pretty bad bouts of diarrhea (or what we like to call peeing out the ass... really thats what it feels like but in much bigger quantities), vomiting, cramps, nausia, and gas. I feel like the medicine has multiplied all my symptoms by 100 and I am sitting here in my bed waiting for the next round of diarrhea to hit. Its coming every 20 minutes and in such large quantities... so yea... not my favorite moment of peace corps.

The next part to this story is the fact that I have a fractured bone in my foot from playing soccer. Around the time I started getting better from the first wave of giardia symptoms, when I was SUPPOSED to go to phnom penh, I was playing soccer and went to kick the ball the same time another person was kicking the ball in opposing directions at full force on the top of my foot. Immediately after we hit I felt something wasnt right. The pain was intense and I knew it wasnt a sprain. the foot swelled, was very painful, and I could definitely not walk on it. The villagers told me to rub tiger balm on it and it will be fine in 2-3 days. haha... they say that for everything. Well... it didnt get better and a week later I hobbled around the hospital to get an x-ray which confirmed a fracture. That was yesterday and now I'm sitting in my hotel bed, peeing out the wrong end with a foot that is less than useful at the moment. I feel hopeless but its almost to the point where its funny. I'm not sad or upset at the situation. The depression that was described in previous posts was much much worse, but as far as health goes I have seen better times. For now, I am trying to chug water faster than it comes out. Its almost like a battle. I am determined to win!

So this is a peace corps volunteer who is sick. Many volunteers have actually been much worse and many have never seen anything like this. Diarrhea is a normalcy for many of us. Its no longer gross and comes up during daily conversations between us. Much worse is discussed but I will leave that up to the people who actually suffered from them. Food poisoning is the normal cause of sickness for me. It feels pretty much like death. Something is coming out of every opening, cramps are debilitating, nausea is rediculous, and there is nothing you can do but replace the fluids and wait it out. Luckily those things dont last very long... maybe a day or two. This time around tho... unfortunately its a little worse and caused by something different. Heres to hoping my foot heals sooner rather than later, and I start peeing out of the right place!