Monday, May 2, 6:14 p.m.
Warning: this is not a happy blog entry. If you want a happy blog entry, go elsewhere.
I'm starting to regret coming to Barcelona. Honestly, I think I might have rathered to have stayed home and not be this sick for this long. It's bordering on ridiculous, scary, and unhappy.
Today I woke up with a full-body rash that makes me look like a leper. I mean I look really, really bad. I have red splotches all over me, all over my face, neck, chest, back, and legs. Apparently I had an allergic reaction with the sun and the antibiotics.
I went to the Spanish clinic today after debating for a long time, because I'm not EU and didn't know how much I would have to pay, and I was treated by unfriendly nurses and an impatient, essentially mean doctor. I started to cry in the examination room. It's not my fault that I'm very sick and can't answer every question within one second in perfect Spanish; it's not my fault that I can't remember EXACTLY when I laid out in the sun; and it's not my fault that I can't understand everything he says because he's speaking fast, medical Spanish. YES, sometimes you're going to have to repeat things; that's just the way it is. Don't work with patients if you hate patients. Don't hate me just because I'm not Catalan.
I paid 270 euro today for my treatment and the tests they ran, which pretty much leaves me with no money. It's the equivalent of two weeks pay for me, plus I just quit my job. My mother points out that I can always earn more money - the point is that now, for the day, I am discouraged and unhappy that I had to spend so much. Honestly, I thought it would be less, but they ran tests. Luckily - and this point should be stressed because it makes the rest of my complaints totally irrelevant - everything is fine. All my tests were "perfect", according to the doctor so there's nothing majorly wrong with me. There is nothing majorly wrong with me. This is a good thing.
It was very scary to wake up in the middle of the night with big blotches of angry redness all over my legs when I went to the bathroom, and then to look in the mirror and see that they were all over my body. I really look *horrible*, I mean I'm sort of ashamed to go outside, and my skin feels hot and irritated. Hopefully the medication that I have will relieve the skin symptoms in three or four days; I'd really like this ordeal to be over soon.
I am now the proud owner of a cough and a very runny nose; Nicole says this might be a good thing because my body could be trying to get rid of all the crap that has accumulated, and once that happens, maybe I'll be better. I asked the doctor when I'd be better and he said it's hard to say - actually he said it's not the kind of thing you can say like, "Tomorrow at 3pm, you'll be fine." but that probably in a few days I'll be ok. Great. That's what I've been telling myself for two weeks. We'll see. My nose is red and raw from all the blowing; it would be worse if Nicole hadn't kindly donated ALL her tissues for me. Also, my arm really hurts from where they drew blood.
On my list of things I can't eat because of the new medication:
- strawberries
- kiwis
- tomatoes
- nuts
- chocolate
- "anything natural" (i think he meant other fruit?)
- vitamins
Not really sure why I can't eat these things, or for how long. I think it's funny that in the midst of trying to get better I am not allowed to have vitamins or any fruit. Also very unhappy about the no chocolate business; so far I've withstood the pressure well, no chocolate slip-ups, it just makes me sad because chocolate is such a fail-safe happy-maker for me.
So - to sum up, it really hasn't been my day but it hasn't been a total loss and it's not the end of the world. I had an icky morning but a pleasant afternoon with my friends (who live literally across the street from the clinic), watching DVDs of music videos and trying not to think about my poor skin. I am continuing to rest and "get better", although I'm not sure how long that will take. I am bored because I've finished the two John Grisham books that I had to read, and I am psyched to be better so that I can do simple things like walk up stairs without getting fatigued, enjoy food again, and clean my room. Wish me luck getting rid of this pesky illness; it's time for it to be gone. Please God, let it be over soon.
Language spot: taken from Nicole's adults' exam:
"I think what the exams are necessary because I put demonstratifs all I have studied. I think If I was a person very worked, is possible don't was necessary the exams but in general the persons don't were responssablis. It is possible if don't was exams more people if went at classe but there don't work at home, because the study is very boring and I can be think more interesting."
From "Blunders":
On his first assignment for a Chicago newspaper a rookie reporter drove a company car to a car-crushing plant, parked in the wrong spot, and returned from interviewing the manager in time to see the vehicle being compacted into scrap metal. It was his last assignment for the paper.
A postman in Le Havre, France, alerted bomb-disposal experts when he realized that the package he was about to deliver to the residence of a buxom blonde was ticking in a sinister fashion. The blushing woman brought the crisis to an abrupt end when she revealed that the parcel contained a battery-operated vibrator that had somehow switched itself on.
