I’ve been having some medical issues ever since my last
holiday. I could probably blame it
on a lot of things: the heat, lack of clean water, or never knowing when or if
I am ingesting gluten. The thing
is, and many people may know this already, I am a little skeptical of
doctors. After having spent hours,
days, and years going from doctor to doctor about brain tumors, chronic
headaches, and gluten intolerance, I’ve heard and seen a lot. I’ve even experienced my fair share of
types of doctors: neurologist, neurosurgeons, orthopedists, plastic surgeons, and
holistic doctors. To sum it all
up, I’ve spent a lot of time in medical facilities, which has led me to only go
when I feel things are very serious.
Fast forward to the present date. I’m currently facing some nausea and other intestinal
problems, which at home I would just brush off and continue on with my
day. Here however, it is harder to
ignore because of lack of cleanliness, air conditioned relaxation, and over the
counter medicines. There has been
this silly thought of “oh my gosh, I’m gonna die before I get home”
continuously playing in my head.
Dramatic, of course, but I live alone 75% of the time! Therefore, I had to finally take
action.
After missing work on Monday and still feeling a little “weird”
throughout the week, I decided to head to Ongwediva to meet with a doctor. Another volunteer who also does not
have running water contracted a parasite, so I wanted to get that checked out
before it was too late. When I
arrived in Diva, I waited a nice two hours at the doctor. I’m still not 100% sure how the system
works since it was first come first serve, but people were definitely going in
before me that were not there before me.
Either way, when I finally met with the doctor, my skepticism flared up
more than usual. As far as doctors
go, he was nice and comforting, but he was lacking a sort of assertiveness in
his position. The doctor sat
behind his nice desk, asked me questions, and I shared my concerns…yes,
self-diagnosing myself, which is every medical professional’s favorite thing. This doctor did not seem to mind though
because he gave me a thermometer and then filled out lab work for me to
complete for exactly what I told him I thought could be wrong. FYI over share: some nice blood work
and a stool sample…GREAT I thought, I just took something to make me stop going! Needless to say, I will be making a
trip back on Tuesday because some things did not go according to plan. Hopefully the lab results come back
quickly and then everything goes well from there. With this constant sauna surrounding me, feeling sick or under the weather is far from enjoyable.
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