August 26th, 2005Enjoying the few days left despite being sick
I still have a few more days until I leave Mauritius for Shanghai. I’m taking the plane next Sunday (4th Sept) and will reach Shanghai on Monday. I’m really enjoying my holidays here. Some of my friends who are studying abroad are also on hols and are back to Mauritius. It felt great seeing them again and catching up on the good old times. I got to meet new people too. 
There are a few friends with whom I still haven’t met up yet but hopefully, I’ll be able to do so by next week. As much as I’m enjoying myself here, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to going back to Shanghai.
I’ve been sick since two weeks now but still going out almost everyday. Anything up to a few hours is fine with me.
I went to the beach with a few friends earlier this week. I had forgotten all about that plan to go to the beach and was reminded of it the night before. I almost said no because I wasn’t feeling well but one of my friends is going back to Canada soon and I was thinking that it would be our last outing together. I sure don’t regret going. I have some new pics but I’ll be posting them after getting the go-ahead from my friends first. Should be before the end of next week.
I’ve been to Caudan so many times last week; lunch, dinner, shopping for gifts, sitting at Sunset Café drinking ice tea and talking… I’m getting a bit sick of that place now. 
I didn’t go stay at CY’s place these last two weekends. I don’t want her to fall sick too. Also no camping for me. I was waiting to see if I got any better but in the end, the plan was cancelled. The last thing I’d want is make all my friends sick too.
The thing is, I’m not sure what’s the matter with me. I had a runny nose the first few days only and now, the only problem is that I’m coughing a lot.
Whenever I have my coughing fits (which is very often), all I need to do is pop a sweet into my mouth. If I don’t do that, I keep on coughing until I get a stomach ache, cannot breathe,or even worse,throw up. Yesterday, my dad was threatening to make me go see the doctor. My room is next to his and he can’t sleep well at night because I keep coughing. I hate medicine. I can’t even swallow pills. I’ve never been able to. I always have to break the pill into pieces or crush it to powder first. If I break the pills into small pieces, I still need like one litre of water to be able to swallow the small pieces, not to mention having to go to the toilet afterwards. How do people manage to swallow those pills? argh.. Anyway, I will go see the doctor today. yeah finally..
How not to? .. after being lectured for 40mins on MSN yesterday.. until I cried. A few exclamation marks when chatting on msn and it seemed to me that the person was yelling at me. I’m so weak… 
Somehow, he can reduce me to tears so easily. :weeping: Well now, I feel ashamed for not taking good care of myself.
Still, lecturing me like that must mean that he cares so I don’t feel that bad now. 
–edited after seeing the doctor–
The doctor said that my throat is all red and bla bla bla.. I didn’t catch the rest. He threw in a few medical terms here and there. He said something about a throat infection. Anyway, he told me that I should have gone to see a doctor earlier.
He said that I can continue drinking the cough medicine I already have at home and prescribed some antibiotics. The antibiotics are in capsule form.
OMG. How to swallow that thing? Each capsule is like 1.5 cm long. Since I cannot swallow it, all I can do is open the capsule , put the powder on a spoon, add some water and drink. It tastes awful so I drink more water afterwards to wash away that taste. 
I need to take one capsule three times a day for 5 days. Apparently, I need some vitamins too. I haven’t been eating enough fruits lately.
My mum was with me and she told the doctor that I was dieting and not eating rice,etc. All I did was stop eating rice. I still occasionally eat things like pizza. It seems that for the Chinese people, rice is important. The doctor then proceeded to tell me that I need to have a healthy diet and that there’s nothing wrong with eating some rice. He talked to me like I was some naughty kid. He also made a comment about my navel piercing which he saw when doing the examination. (I had to lift my t-shirt up a little bit.) He said something about how dangerous it was to have a piercing done and that there are risks of infections. Well I told him that I have my piercing since years already and that there have been no problems at all. The old doctor ignored what I said and just talked to my mum. bah..
Anyway I’ll be taking my cough medicines (a Chinese & a Western one), the antibiotics and also drink more water. The last part is going to be the hardest. I don’t usually drink a lot of water.
ah..I nearly forgot. I also ‘have’ to drink this orange+ginger tea at night. It is a very concentrated tea and tastes bad.
I think I’ve done too many things this hols, gone out too much. Friends are important but I shouldn’t neglect my health too. No going out for a day or two I guess. I need rest more.
spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam...
Well, you can do one of the two things I do, when I start getting the “Mad Chinese SARS cough”…
I first try concentrated licorice pills (they have them everywhere here).
If that does not work, I break out the Contreau (French alcohol). That clears up most everything, and knocks you right out. (And tastes better than that gasoline they sell here.)
And, are you telling me a few exclamation marks online makes you think someone cares about you???
Ok…
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Now… GET BETTER!
:worried: Oh I am sorry your not feeling well sweetie. I hope you get better soon. :love:
I posted that doggie movie on my blog.
Seems like you are indeed making the most out of your stay in Mauritus, apart from the sneezing.
Like you, I couldn’t swallow pills in the past, but now I pretty much have minimal problems. The trick is to pretend that the pill is not there and just swallowing your water like you normally would. The pill will just go along with the flow of the water down your throat!
Of course, there are times when the tablet melts in my mouth and I get thus “urgh!” feeling. :X
do take care and get well before you go back to Shanghai. it definately won’t be as comfy as getting sick at home. i hate drinking water too. never managed to overcome that prob. haha. so instead of drinking water, i switched to chinese tea, which i totally love. drank lots of it too.
btw, thanks for all those lovely feedbacks to my entries.:flowers:
aww you’re sick. hmm prevention is better than cute. try multi-vits .. i pop is a few pills daily, so far i’m fine
no more pics from your hols outing? … well have a safe trip back to shanghai!
awww… get well soon aline. :faint: i hate it when its vacation and you catch something. tsk tsk.
you know, it’s one of the nice things when you study abroad. you get to go home every vacation and have reunions with friends. here, my friends and i live really close by but we still don’t have time to get together
anyways, tc okay?
/pat
Here you go
feel better? Stay home, read some stuffs, eat, sleep and spend time with ur family.
Aww I’m sorry you’re sick. I hope you feel better!
Take good care of yourself!!
Hi aline,
thanks for your comments on my blog, and advice on my chinese! i’ll have a read of more of your articles when i have a chance.
re. your cough – be careful if you’re not a big drinker of water. your throat sounds inflamed from the coughing. keeping it ’soothed’ will help you. that probably means avoiding dusty areas, drinking water regularly, and perhaps taking spoons of honey, or honey in hot water to soothe your throat.
be careful that your ginger tea drink at night isn’t so strong that it lets your throat dry overnight. sleep with your air conditioner on ‘fan’ if you think it might be drying out your room too much.
you’re welcome to take or leave my suggestions, it’s just the things that i would think of myself. i come from a family of doctors. my mother always has a very bad cough when she visits hong kong, we never know why, but think it has something to do with the air conditioning – we don’t use a/c in England.
Get better soon!