A little over a week ago I had the joy of welcoming six wonderful girls into my home and showing them around my lovely city. Kinda.
These World Racers were looking to experience a little Belgrade during their month long stay in Serbia. They showed up on Friday and we immediately went fortressing and did bus passes and had an authentic Serbian meal with a ton of meat. We had plans to get up the next morning and explore more of the city. Except my body took a bit of an exception to said plan. I figured I'd let you in on the events of that week. Actually over a week now, they came two fridays ago. Its gross and long, so if you don't want to hear it you should skip this post. I won't be offended.
Friday night: After eating copious amounts of meat, we return to my flat. The girls camp out in the living room and Nina and I spend some time talking in my room. She was here maybe an hour and during that time my congestion flared up (I had been experiencing cold symptoms since the previous week) and my ear started to hurt. So in the midst of our serious conversation, I got a little whiny. Nina headed home about 11 or so. I made sure to corral the cats and headed off to bed myself. Not twenty minutes into this "going to bed" my ear starts to hurt. Like super bad. It was like having a migraine in your inner ear. Those of you that get migraines know what I'm saying. The rest of you: I totally understood why Van Gogh cut off his own ear.
After a few hours of this, I begin to get a little desperate. I've taken tylenol and I've held heat to it. Nothing is working. My astute mother decides its an ear infection and that "you just have to wait these things out". Not happening. I could be dead. I tell her that. She tells me to call a doctor.
So here I am at 4:30 in the morning, in Serbia, in need of a doctor I obviously can't get. So I lay down to wait. I decide that 7-8 is a good range before I start making desperate calls to the wives on my team. About 6 or so, things change. The pain lets up and before I can get too excited my ear starts leaking. Now I'm in panic mode. My ear is leaking/draining yellowish fluid, I'm starting to lose my hearing and I'm still in pain. I shoot off a quick text asking Jen to call me when she gets up and then I wallow with a napkin attached to my ear.
Saturday: Jen calls somewhat in a panic. I'm not known for being awake at 6, much less sending lucid texts. She gives me the number for the doctor and tells me to call stat. Fluid leaking isn't a good thing. I call the doctor. At this point I can barely hold the phone to my ear because the sound is so painful. They have an appointment at 1:30. Super. How many more hours to go?
At this point its pretty obvious that I'm going to be unable to sight see. The dripping ear kinda sealed that deal. So I go out to tell the girls. I'm sure I looked a mess. They were concerned, but being the intrepid adventurers they are they headed out on their own. I waited till about 1 and then decided to get ready. As I was standing in the bathroom attempting to brush my teeth I was hit with a wave of nausea. Ten minutes later I was sitting on the bathroom floor making the decision that the doctor would just have to forgive my bad breath because no way was I going to manage to clean myself up that much. Randi came by to give me a ride to the hospital.
At this point I'm running on adrenaline. I haven't slept in at least 24 hours and I'm leaking fluid and I can't hear anything out of my left side. We headed off to the "fit for a tea party" hospital to see what was wrong. The doctor visit took all of ten minutes, maybe. She basically asked for my symptoms and then looked in my ear. OH and then she's all like, "Do you mind if I take a swab of your nose and ear?" And I'm all like, "Sure kind doctor. I totally trust you." AND WHAT DOES SHE DO? She shoves the longest q tip I have ever seen straight up my nose and into my brain. She had to hold my head with quite a bit of force because I tried to get away from the thing jammed into my nose. This is not what I imagined. AND THEN she stuck it in the other nostril. I'm still reeling from the shock of the first nasal intrusion and she just jams it up the second nostril. I almost threw up on her right there. Anyway, I man up and walk out with a handful of prescriptions.
On the way to the Apoteka, we sit next to a lovely young man at the intersection with the loudest bone shaking bass I have ever heard in Serbia. Yes, it was painful. Almost as painful as when I went inside to get my prescriptions and they cut the power. This not only delayed my transaction but it also set off the screeching alarm system. It just wasn't my day obviously. That afternoon the ear continued to drain. I would lay on my side and I could actually hear and feel it gurgling around and then I could feel the liquid drip out of my ear. Somewhere around late afternoon it began to drain blood. Which is obviously more distressing than pus, but still a normal symptom of a ruptured ear drum. Oh and that pain? Intense. Still.
What you really need to know at this point is that I'm draining blood, the girls are camped in my living room, I'm now partially deaf and still sensitive to sound, oh and I tested positive for pneumonia. The pneumonia was/still is apparently building a little bacteria colony in my sinus cavity. Super.
The entire weekend I am a dripping, mostly bed ridden mess. They were such troopers though. They went out and saw the city, put up with my nastiness, and were incredibly sweet and accommodating. I, on the other hand, was unable to troop. I was on copious drugs and under orders (from the doctors and my Serbian moms) to stay at home.
So I did. All week. I didn't stop draining blood until tuesday. I didn't eat until wednesday. I mostly slept when I could and watched tv on mute the rest of the time. The pain didn't subside until today really and I'm still sick. I'm going on three weeks now. One of general cold symptoms, one of oozing ear and sinus issues, and now I'm pushing on in to week three of congestion and healing. I'm slowly getting my hearing back after being deaf all last week. I'm slowly getting back out into the world, first for Africa night and then for a work meeting this morning.
I went to the doctor this morning too. Not only was she 45 minutes late to an 8:30 appointment, but I almost threw up on her again. The antibiotic regimen makes me sickly in the mornings. This was compounded by the fact that she was slightly panicked over the fact I was still mostly deaf in my ear. Not a good sign when your doctor is panicked. After digging around in it for 20 minutes, she couldn't really say anything other than "be patient" and "I think it'll be fine". Super. She was also incredibly concerned over the bacteria lurking in my nose. I walked out with a handful of brand new prescriptions (including nose drops) that should combat the bacteria and orders to come back in 7-10 days.
So here we are. I'm alive, which is pretty darn good considering the alternative. I have some hearing in my left ear. I'm not longer draining yellow pus and blood from my ear. I have drugs to put in my nose and kill my little bacteria friends. Oh and the doctor "thinks" it'll all be alright. Super.
These World Racers were looking to experience a little Belgrade during their month long stay in Serbia. They showed up on Friday and we immediately went fortressing and did bus passes and had an authentic Serbian meal with a ton of meat. We had plans to get up the next morning and explore more of the city. Except my body took a bit of an exception to said plan. I figured I'd let you in on the events of that week. Actually over a week now, they came two fridays ago. Its gross and long, so if you don't want to hear it you should skip this post. I won't be offended.
Friday night: After eating copious amounts of meat, we return to my flat. The girls camp out in the living room and Nina and I spend some time talking in my room. She was here maybe an hour and during that time my congestion flared up (I had been experiencing cold symptoms since the previous week) and my ear started to hurt. So in the midst of our serious conversation, I got a little whiny. Nina headed home about 11 or so. I made sure to corral the cats and headed off to bed myself. Not twenty minutes into this "going to bed" my ear starts to hurt. Like super bad. It was like having a migraine in your inner ear. Those of you that get migraines know what I'm saying. The rest of you: I totally understood why Van Gogh cut off his own ear.
After a few hours of this, I begin to get a little desperate. I've taken tylenol and I've held heat to it. Nothing is working. My astute mother decides its an ear infection and that "you just have to wait these things out". Not happening. I could be dead. I tell her that. She tells me to call a doctor.
So here I am at 4:30 in the morning, in Serbia, in need of a doctor I obviously can't get. So I lay down to wait. I decide that 7-8 is a good range before I start making desperate calls to the wives on my team. About 6 or so, things change. The pain lets up and before I can get too excited my ear starts leaking. Now I'm in panic mode. My ear is leaking/draining yellowish fluid, I'm starting to lose my hearing and I'm still in pain. I shoot off a quick text asking Jen to call me when she gets up and then I wallow with a napkin attached to my ear.
Saturday: Jen calls somewhat in a panic. I'm not known for being awake at 6, much less sending lucid texts. She gives me the number for the doctor and tells me to call stat. Fluid leaking isn't a good thing. I call the doctor. At this point I can barely hold the phone to my ear because the sound is so painful. They have an appointment at 1:30. Super. How many more hours to go?
At this point its pretty obvious that I'm going to be unable to sight see. The dripping ear kinda sealed that deal. So I go out to tell the girls. I'm sure I looked a mess. They were concerned, but being the intrepid adventurers they are they headed out on their own. I waited till about 1 and then decided to get ready. As I was standing in the bathroom attempting to brush my teeth I was hit with a wave of nausea. Ten minutes later I was sitting on the bathroom floor making the decision that the doctor would just have to forgive my bad breath because no way was I going to manage to clean myself up that much. Randi came by to give me a ride to the hospital.
At this point I'm running on adrenaline. I haven't slept in at least 24 hours and I'm leaking fluid and I can't hear anything out of my left side. We headed off to the "fit for a tea party" hospital to see what was wrong. The doctor visit took all of ten minutes, maybe. She basically asked for my symptoms and then looked in my ear. OH and then she's all like, "Do you mind if I take a swab of your nose and ear?" And I'm all like, "Sure kind doctor. I totally trust you." AND WHAT DOES SHE DO? She shoves the longest q tip I have ever seen straight up my nose and into my brain. She had to hold my head with quite a bit of force because I tried to get away from the thing jammed into my nose. This is not what I imagined. AND THEN she stuck it in the other nostril. I'm still reeling from the shock of the first nasal intrusion and she just jams it up the second nostril. I almost threw up on her right there. Anyway, I man up and walk out with a handful of prescriptions.
On the way to the Apoteka, we sit next to a lovely young man at the intersection with the loudest bone shaking bass I have ever heard in Serbia. Yes, it was painful. Almost as painful as when I went inside to get my prescriptions and they cut the power. This not only delayed my transaction but it also set off the screeching alarm system. It just wasn't my day obviously. That afternoon the ear continued to drain. I would lay on my side and I could actually hear and feel it gurgling around and then I could feel the liquid drip out of my ear. Somewhere around late afternoon it began to drain blood. Which is obviously more distressing than pus, but still a normal symptom of a ruptured ear drum. Oh and that pain? Intense. Still.
What you really need to know at this point is that I'm draining blood, the girls are camped in my living room, I'm now partially deaf and still sensitive to sound, oh and I tested positive for pneumonia. The pneumonia was/still is apparently building a little bacteria colony in my sinus cavity. Super.
The entire weekend I am a dripping, mostly bed ridden mess. They were such troopers though. They went out and saw the city, put up with my nastiness, and were incredibly sweet and accommodating. I, on the other hand, was unable to troop. I was on copious drugs and under orders (from the doctors and my Serbian moms) to stay at home.
So I did. All week. I didn't stop draining blood until tuesday. I didn't eat until wednesday. I mostly slept when I could and watched tv on mute the rest of the time. The pain didn't subside until today really and I'm still sick. I'm going on three weeks now. One of general cold symptoms, one of oozing ear and sinus issues, and now I'm pushing on in to week three of congestion and healing. I'm slowly getting my hearing back after being deaf all last week. I'm slowly getting back out into the world, first for Africa night and then for a work meeting this morning.
I went to the doctor this morning too. Not only was she 45 minutes late to an 8:30 appointment, but I almost threw up on her again. The antibiotic regimen makes me sickly in the mornings. This was compounded by the fact that she was slightly panicked over the fact I was still mostly deaf in my ear. Not a good sign when your doctor is panicked. After digging around in it for 20 minutes, she couldn't really say anything other than "be patient" and "I think it'll be fine". Super. She was also incredibly concerned over the bacteria lurking in my nose. I walked out with a handful of brand new prescriptions (including nose drops) that should combat the bacteria and orders to come back in 7-10 days.
So here we are. I'm alive, which is pretty darn good considering the alternative. I have some hearing in my left ear. I'm not longer draining yellow pus and blood from my ear. I have drugs to put in my nose and kill my little bacteria friends. Oh and the doctor "thinks" it'll all be alright. Super.
