Saturday, October 21, 2006
I've been quite busy, so the blog has had to wait. But I'm back, and eager to talk about...health. The topic was recommended by one of my Averill Park colleagues, but it's a good topic, since I underwent a bit of a stomach ailment a few weeks ago.
Every traveler must go through it at some point - the time when you realize your digestion isn't liking something you ate, and so you rearrange your life around trips to the bathroom. I first started feeling it on a Saturday night, and thought I'd be fine within 24 hours. But by Monday I wasn't retaining anything, and felt horrible. Still, off to school I went, and somehow managed to get through the day. Up to that point, I had refrained from taking anything, since my body tends to cure me of what ails me. The only help I was getting was drinking GE Oral, which is like a mix of Pedialite and Gatorade, only there's no flavor to mask the solution. It basically puts things back into your body that you lose when sick, but it tastes like a chemical cocktail.
On Tuesday I went to the school nurse (there is always a nurse on duty, and a doctor shows up between 11:30 and early afternoon to treat the staff and students). I had a colleague call ahead (explaining I wanted something very mild), and then started for the administration building that houses the health office. I was halfway there when a window opened, and the nurse (who I'd never seen before) leaned out and gestured for me to come over. Talk about service. She gave me two types of medicine, and sent me on my way (she didn't speak English).
When I got back to the English department office, I looked up the ingredients on the internet (one site had names describing my illness, including Turkey Trot, which I don't think was originally intended to mean the country). One was only sold in Canada, and had a list of side effects two pages long. The other was more mellow, and seemed appropriate.
I also started taking some of my children's Peptol Bismol-type medicine, since I couldn't find any here. I went to about seven different drugstores, which range from little rooms to modern-type stores. As other stores in my neighborhood, the smaller places carried quite a limited supply of medicines. Most shops had either a book or the internet, and would look up my request. None had it, and one said it was for hemoroids.
One of the major problems Turkey faces (or will face in the future) is that most prescription drugs are available here without a prescription. Antibiotics are used quite freely, which lowers people's immune systems. The government is trying to reign in what is permissable, but so far not much has been done. Friends of mine have said they've gone looking for headache medicine, and been given codeine, or stronger.
The weather has remained quite warm, with days in the 60's, and nights in the 50's and rarely 40's. It doesn't quite feel like fall. The lack of real leaves (colored or not) probably has something to do with it, and the only college football I get is on the internet.
Every traveler must go through it at some point - the time when you realize your digestion isn't liking something you ate, and so you rearrange your life around trips to the bathroom. I first started feeling it on a Saturday night, and thought I'd be fine within 24 hours. But by Monday I wasn't retaining anything, and felt horrible. Still, off to school I went, and somehow managed to get through the day. Up to that point, I had refrained from taking anything, since my body tends to cure me of what ails me. The only help I was getting was drinking GE Oral, which is like a mix of Pedialite and Gatorade, only there's no flavor to mask the solution. It basically puts things back into your body that you lose when sick, but it tastes like a chemical cocktail.
On Tuesday I went to the school nurse (there is always a nurse on duty, and a doctor shows up between 11:30 and early afternoon to treat the staff and students). I had a colleague call ahead (explaining I wanted something very mild), and then started for the administration building that houses the health office. I was halfway there when a window opened, and the nurse (who I'd never seen before) leaned out and gestured for me to come over. Talk about service. She gave me two types of medicine, and sent me on my way (she didn't speak English).
When I got back to the English department office, I looked up the ingredients on the internet (one site had names describing my illness, including Turkey Trot, which I don't think was originally intended to mean the country). One was only sold in Canada, and had a list of side effects two pages long. The other was more mellow, and seemed appropriate.
I also started taking some of my children's Peptol Bismol-type medicine, since I couldn't find any here. I went to about seven different drugstores, which range from little rooms to modern-type stores. As other stores in my neighborhood, the smaller places carried quite a limited supply of medicines. Most shops had either a book or the internet, and would look up my request. None had it, and one said it was for hemoroids.
One of the major problems Turkey faces (or will face in the future) is that most prescription drugs are available here without a prescription. Antibiotics are used quite freely, which lowers people's immune systems. The government is trying to reign in what is permissable, but so far not much has been done. Friends of mine have said they've gone looking for headache medicine, and been given codeine, or stronger.
The weather has remained quite warm, with days in the 60's, and nights in the 50's and rarely 40's. It doesn't quite feel like fall. The lack of real leaves (colored or not) probably has something to do with it, and the only college football I get is on the internet.
