After I fell, I got myself up and checked out the damage. Other than a sore knee, I seemed to be okay. I carried on with my day, but by the time I got home my knee was arching. I put an ice pack on it and went to bed, partially scared about what could happen next. The next morning everything seemed to be fine. My knee ached a little, but not nearly as much as it should have. We had planned to spend the day in town but the other volunteers weren't feeling well, so we just hung out at home, playing games and chatting. I helped my host clean the house and felt pretty energized. That evening my throat began to hurt a little, but I didn't think too much of it. I was excited about our plans for the next day. We were going to go to a village to bring watermelon to poor families, some of whom I was going to interview for my research. We were also going to visit some famous monasteries and have a picnic in the forest. I was excited to do the interviews. I had already done two and was only planning on doing six total. We had plans to do four or five in the village and I was excited to finish the interviews in order to look back on them and see if I needed anything else for my research.
In the middle of the night, in a sleepy daze, I noticed I was freezing and part of my mind thought, "this isn't good". In the morning my throat was killing me, I had a horrible headache, and I knew I was not in a good condition. I also knew I needed to do these interviews. I just need to get through this, I thought and pushed myself to get ready. I mentioned I wasn't feeling well to the others but tried to force myself to get my act together. We first stopped at a monastery, and I felt okay wandering around. I had taken some dayquil and hoped that would help. I rested my eyes as we drove to the village. We stopped at a house and I interviewed the mother. I had a list of questions already written out and followed them. Perhaps, if I had been feeling better I would've been able to ask her more questions but I felt comfortable with what I did. The second house was the same but this time I tripped on my way up the stairs and I really knew I was in trouble. I've gotten pneumonia many times in my life. Although it seems I have a pretty good immune system against viruses and rarely get colds, bacterial infections are another matter. My lymphedema directly effects my immune system and so I think I am less able to fight off bacterial infections. Therefore, when I get sick, I go big. One time, in undergrad, when I was really sick with pneumonia, I tripped while walking to class and for some reason I knew I needed to see a doctor. I trip easily anyway, but when I trip while sick it feels as if the world is falling away from me and I know something is not right in my head.
At the second house, I fought hard to stay cognizant of the interview. Once again, I followed the questions. After we left, I knew we had two or three more to do and just kept fighting to keep it together. My hosts asked if I would like to continue and I said yes but then the others said they were hungry and because they had to wait for me during my interviews we decided to just drop off some food for some families and then eat lunch. My host told me she knew of other people to interview and we didn't need to get it all done in one day. At that I let myself relax. I curled up in a ball and closed my eyes.
We continued to another monastery to eat lunch. I got out because I had to go to the bathroom but after trying to eat a piece of bread, I went back to the car and laid down. I stayed that way for the rest of the day. After the monastery we headed back to my host's mom's house to eat dinner and pick up the kids. I laid on her couch but was able to manage some soup and felt a bit better. When we got home I got into bed and fell asleep. In the middle of the night I woke up to an extremely swollen throat and a very high temperature. I knew I needed to see a doctor. I waited until the morning and asked my host to call a doctor. In Moldova, you can call an ambulance and a nurse will come to your house to check on you. However, my host suggested actually going to the doctor instead. So I waited until they were ready to take me. At the doctor I was ushered into a room where a nurse checked my vitals. She handed me a thermometer and I instinctively started to put in my mouth. No, she said, and for a minute my heart stopped. Then she gestured to my armpit. I felt a little bit better knowing the instrument that had just touched my tongue had been in other people's armpits and not somewhere worse, but not by much. However, I was too sick to care much about it either way. I had a temperature of 100.5 (38). The nurse then took us to another room to wait for the doctor. The doctor diagnosed me with angina. Luckily for me, angina is not the same in Moldova as it is in America. When I first arrived to Moldova, my host told me her 1 1/2 year old daughter had angina. I was a bit startled until she mentioned her throat hurt and then I thought, in America angina is the constriction of the arteries in the heart, in Moldova it must be the constriction of the throat. When I was diagnosed with angina, I knew it must be some kind of throat infection. My host suggested that I got angina from drinking cold water on a hot day. Since I live in Florida and I drink ice cold water every day of my life, I doubt this is how I got the infection. It did come on rather quickly but my bet is I picked up the bacteria from the orphanage somehow (I'm usually covered in snot and vomit) and maybe the damage to my leg left me susceptable to an infection. The doctor wrote out a bunch of prescriptions and we stopped by the pharmacy on the way out. I had given my host 200 lei ($20) which was all the lei I had left (I needed to exchange more) and I think, I was bit out of it to pay close attention, the total doctor bill and medication came to around $40. When we got home, I went straight to bed and have moved little since.
Yesterday I woke up and my throat was still killing me, this time with the added fun of a swollen and distended uvula. I never thought I'd be able to say that my uvula was touching my angina but it felt like my throat was swollen, on fire, and had something caught in it. I kept on my regiment of medications which included: aspirin, anit-biotics, a throat spray, and a gargling solution. By mid-day yesterday I woke up from a nap and my throat felt numb, a relief from the pain I had been feeling the past three days. I could still feel my uvula but at least I could swallow again. Today I am feeling much better. I still have a headache and there is a lot of drainage in my throat, but I my brain is beginning to work again and I am able to eat solid food. For a while I thought I might have tonsillitis and wondered if I'd lose my tonsils to Moldova. My appendix is in Korea and it wouldn't surprise me if I need to undergo major surgery in every country I visit. Luckily, I am on the mend. I have three and a half weeks left in Moldova and, since this week will be spent mostly in bed, I have a lot to do in a little time.
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