The Ox Updates! Part Two

Thursday, December 16th

I have to say something about the Taurean fortitude. Us Taureans will generally run out of energy way after the bubbliest critter has given up the ghost - sick or healthy. We're usually built like some sort of a farm animal and have the stamina to boot. However, once we take a hit, we take it bad - and the next few entries will reflect that.

Morning found me half delirious (I dreamt I was pleading with the aircond unit to please ask permission before assaulting my poor body), head blistering and throat an unmanageable ball of hurt. I ran down to breakfast, swallowed some Panadols and hailed the first taxi out of JB. As we proceeded (and I had the good fortune to have gotten a sensible driver) I could feel my head getting lighter and lighter, and my voice disappearing.

I knew I was in trouble. When I finally wobbled into the college, I could barely speak. My head hurt so bad all I wanted to do was kill people (it kind of made sense then that by killing people the pain would go away) and the coordinator took one look at me before making up her mind: I was to be ferried to the doctor ASAP.

A warm thank you goes to the staff of SAL College in JB, for their wonderful hospitality to a person in dire need of medical attention. The first exam wasn't too bad - the Panadols were taking effect, and I was coping. But then the weather turned hot as hell, and I could feel myself slipping into a deep red rage.

Fortunately by then, another staffmember was free to take me to the clinic, and there we headed, me pillioning on his trusty Honda EX-5 (God knows how many times since 1998 that make of bike has saved my arse) wheeling in and out of consciousness, able only to recite one thing to myself: Don't Fall Off.

Everything else once we got to the clinic was a blur - the registration, the doctor's surprise that I'd allowed myself to run about with a temperature that would have gotten me warded anytime else, a blood test that was alarmingly low in platelet count, the discharge with a plea that I return on Tuesday for a follow up and then it was bumpity bumpity on the bike again and all of a sudden, I was back at the college, the exam for the day was over, and the taxi was waiting.

It has to be said here that the staff at the Kulai Health Centre deserves the highest kudos for their professionalism and kindness, something I'd not expected in a long while. That evening (at about 530), I ordered room service, forced a pizza down my throat, scarfed the pills and the antibiotics, dozed, woke up to puke half the pizza out, went to sleep again, and stayed there until 545 am the next day.

Things would seem to get a little better...

(to be continued..)