A Short Letter Home: Bleh

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Bleh

Warning: The following post contains brief descriptions of minor gastro-intestinal disorders. I tried to think of a pleasant way to report this, but given the nature of the ailments, the post would have been reduced to the sentence, "I was sick." This would have been unacceptable to my natural verbosity, so I chose to write a more detailed description with this warning attached. So you have now been warned and may quit reading if you don't want to read about my health issues. Thank you.
P.S. I have been requested by family members to refrain from mentioning their participation in this epidemic, so all the names have been omitted to protect the innocent. Thank you again.

I would've written more this week, but I've been in the middle of a epidemic. We spent the weekend in Kunming, returning home on the sleeper bus. That left us spending Monday feeling lethargic. I think the first digestive problems were felt by the family by Monday evening. Early on Tuesday morn, I was awakened by the sounds of someone varfing. Later in the morning, I was feeling nauseous and, despite my efforts to resist it, by the evening it was my turn to retch. I really hate doing that. Anyway, three of the four of us were declaring ourselves to be ill. It was a minor illness, however, for we all seemed to be on the road to recovery on Wednesday. We felt bleh, but were able to function. On Thursday, I either had a relapse or a new ailment. Whichever it was, it struck lower in the digestive system. Friday, saw me with a tender gut, but able to get through the day without excessive trips to the bathroom. Today I felt fine, albeit a little more tired than usual after hiking.

Add to the above discomfort a cold apartment and the hot water going out for two days and I was longing for home. But I suppose I could take some comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone. Not only was my family stricken, but a number of folks on campus have reported that they had their own bouts of sickness this week. At least that rules out something we ate in Kunming as the cause. We had a delicious time and I'd hate to think I'd have to avoid such cuisine in the future.