Getting Salmonella does NOT make me feel like a badass

It makes me feel horrible.

I have spent the greater part of the last 12 hours in the bathroom. I throw up everything that’s there, and when I’m done, I throw up nothing. That part really sucks. After about three rounds of this before about 11am, my colleagues decided I needed to take a visit to The Surgery. I was in no shape to protest.

The Surgery seems to be where ex-pats go when they get sick. The head physician is British, I believe, and there’s another doctor who I met at Thanksgiving dinner who is Australian. The line was long and we were counseled to make an advance appointment for the afternoon. I came home, slept for two hours and went back.

The doctor assured me that whatever it was, it would most likely run it’s course in 24 hours, but it could last five days. He suspects Salmonella, which is apparently very common – as he put it, “everyone’s a carrier here, so why not?” He gave me some antibiotics to start taking only if the “troubles” start up again, and some other pills to take if the other “troubles” come back (the latter troubles being the barfing uncontrollably). Very inexpensive pills from Pakistan and India. Hooray for generics manufactured in south Asia!

I’m especially happy about the pills that will keep me from throwing up. I’m weak and dizzy when I stand up and I’m supposed to visit the field on Thursday. So it is now about 4:40 PM on Wednesday and for the next 14 hours, I will most likely only move from my bed to go to the kitchen and refill my water or get juice. It’s all part of the job. It could be worse. All that will come of this is a missed day of work and a few lost pounds. But I would certainly prefer to go about meeting both of those results and not feel like crap to get there.