No, this isn’t a blog about the band…it’s really about my lips.
I think at this point, I might be in the lead with weird health issue this year. At least with this one, I got to visit the best hospital in Asia!
It all started on Friday when i noticed little bumps on my lips. It kind of looked like a white film in the corners of my mouth. I thought it might be a allergic reaction to something I ate and hoped it would go away. However, by Monday the little bumps were all over my tongue, the inside of my mouth, and it hurt to swallow. On top of that, I seemed to have a runny nose, stomach ache and just did not feel well.
This was bad timing (in my opnion) because this Friday is a day of celebration for me in many ways, which some of it has to do with my looks. (more on that in my blog My Story, that I’ll post tomorrow) Plus, it had been a wonderful month, so emotionally, I was down that everything had come to a close and honestly, didn’t want to go another month on the race. I was tired, worn out and wanted comfort, even though I now live outside of my comfort zone. I just wanted to go home, put my head on my mom’s lap and have her rub my back and run her fingers through my hair and listen to me jabber away and tell me that everything was going to be okay.
Monday night, when we arrived in Bangkok, I asked one of the girls, who is a nurse what she thought it was and told her everything else that was going on as well. When she looked it up in her medical guide, she said, “now, I don’t want to freak you out, but it says in here that it could be the beginning stages of measles.” AGHHH!!!
So, Tuesday we decided that I should get checked out by a doctor. By now, it had started to spread down my throat, I couldn’t swallow and my lips and tongue felt like they were on fire. The day began with a trip to the Chinese embasy to get a visa. The whole way there I was really not feeling well and for some reason, I got really upset while waiting in line for the visas. I think I just was not ready to move on to China. While they were processing the visas, we decided to go down the street to what we refer to here as “Thailand Target”. While I was waiting for everyone else, Shawna came over to me and started talking. And then it happened…I fell apart in the middle of Target. I sat there crying about all the issues that were going on and how I just wanted to go home. She prayed for me and Erin, Youell and I left then to go to the hospital.
When we arrived at the hospital, I was seen by a doctor who first of all ruled out measles. He then thought it was a fungus, but had never seen anything like it before. He refered me to a specialist, who took some samples and confirmed that it was a fungus (I even got to see it under the microscope. Oh boy!!!) He kept asking me though “Are you healthy?” and ” are you on any medication?” He told me that I shouldn’t have it if I was healty. So, then I went to the lab to have some blood work done. An hour later, the tests came back negative. What he thinks happened is that I’ve been on and off doxy (for malaria) from the beginning of the year(they tell you not to do that…now I know why). When you go on and off, it weakens your immune system. So, I probably touched something and then touched my mouth. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but because my immune system is weaker, it hit me harder.
So, I’m on some meds. My lips and tongue are still a blazing, (I almost cried today while eating thousand island dressing because it hurt so bad) but actually this has turned my thinking totally around and I’m actually looking forward to finishing with everyone else on November 19 in China!
