Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Healthy Again, and Yet Not Quite

Yea! I’m cured! No more Hepatitis; no more Typhoid Fever! And only three more days of not being able to ride my motorbike or travel far, and then I am a free woman. Oh, and I'm also not allowed to eat anything spicy, fatty, or sour for the next month. My one friend said, have fun eating white rice for the next month. Yes, it's true, those orders do come in conflict with most Indonesian foods. However, I reiterate...Yea!

I went to the doctor today; I wanted to ask if I was all better, and also, why do I have this ongoing stomach pain? You know that feeling you get when your stomach tightens because you’re stressed out about something? It’s like that, only constant. So apparently, that’s a completely unrelated problem I picked up, a nice lifetime condition called maag. I looked up maag in the Indonesian-English language dictionary. According to John Echols and Hassan Shadily, maag means “stomach (as a source of sickness)” or to “suffer a stomach disorder…gastric problem.” So, after talking to the doctors, I think it's really a pesky little peptic ulcer, also bacteria related. It's hard to tell when you're dealing with Indonesian names for things. Anyway, if this is the case, then it's not really a now and forever thing. Although according to this doctor, it is, but the safeguards are: eat regularly, don’t get stressed out, and think happy thoughts. But the point is, I'm no longer disease-ridden! I left the house for the first time today! Yea!

P.S. Now it is time for an official apology. Sorry for bombarding you with all these blogs at once. I hope you read them, but I also hope not in one sitting! I wrote them from over the course of being ill and am just now getting to post them.

P.P.S. Don’t let my stories of getting sick scare you away from coming to Indonesia. It’s an awesome place. Instead, let it instill upon you the importance of getting your immunizations!

P.P.P.S. Happy way-belated Birthday sister Sheri, brother Keith, and cousin Freddy!

P.P.P.P.S. There, Dietrich, another unnecessary use of the P.S.; I wrote them all for you.

7 comments:

Deidra said...

The nursing student in me shakes her head sadly; the sister in me is thrilled to hear of your recovery! I waswondering what was up, since I follow your blog obsessively, lacking an interesting life of my own.

Stay healthy!!!!

Drekey Rodriguez said...

The whole time you were away from the blog, I was wondering "what the heck is she up to? how could she neglect her (alleged) loved ones like this?" And now I know that you had hepatitus and typhoid! Pretty good excuses, enough to make me feel like a tool.
-Dietrich

PS:I'm working on my application for USIndo's language program today!

sherijberi said...

Thanks for the birthday message. And calling me "sister". You don't know how much that means to me.

sherijberi said...

Also, my nephew - Noah was just diagnosed with a bacterial ulcer. Same remedy: stay stress-free and eat a healthy diet. You'd think that would be easy for a six year old but not with parents divorcing over the course of 2 years. Good luck with yours.

Drekey Rodriguez said...

PPS Are you really okay? Now I'm going to worry about you every time you don't post in a while!

sherijberi said...

Are you posting again? Have you read my blog too? www.thekidsaidwhat.blogspot.com


I'm also worried that you might've gotten water logged in the flooding or caught a swim during the ferry accident. Write soon please.

Deidra said...

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I talked to Dorcinda last week, and she was fine, but really busy. No worries, right?

Love, Deidra