A few days after running out of medication upon returning
from Africa...yeah you know where this is going... I went out with my coworkers
and ended up day drinking well into the next day. When I woke up that morning I
was in immense stomach, chest and back pain. I kind of felt like I was having a
heart attack, but since I have a track record of not giving a shit about my
health I decided to wait it out. Eating was excruciating, but regardless I
figured I did this to myself drinking and it would subside eventually. After
about four days of constant heartburn like symptoms and a growing inability to
swallow I went to a new gastro-specialist in hopes they would tell me more than
"no spicy food." She managed
to say even less. She just gave me more of the medicine I ran out of and told
me to go on a soft diet consisting of fish, yogurt, and ice cream...though not
in that order or in combination. Needless to say there's nothing enjoyable about
a soft/ liquid diet. The truth is I really just eat ice cream or soup. As
someone who has a 'special' relationship with food, this way of life causes me
great distress and when the symptoms continued on the fourth day, I decided I
probably needed to go home for real this time.
However, after some preliminary
discussion with my mother, I became aware that the treatment for what is
thought to be/ fairly self diagnosed GERD is pretty much the same in America.
AKA they give you pills. I figured if I'm going to just be miserable eating
pills and yogurt all day I might as well stay here and do it. In total, I've
lost about twelve pounds since June and don't get me wrong, I think being
skinny is pretty awesome, but being hungry fucking sucks and eating non-solid
food is not what I'm evolved for. Why would I have teeth then?
One of the major things, actually pretty much the only major thing that anchored me here was the pending arrival of my dear friend and former college roommate, Lyndsy. After about a five hour delay total, she arrived with no bags at the BKK airport around 4am. I'm now only working nights and weekends, so we have time to actually do things during the day and she's found part time work already which is good, cause even though we live well together it is a one bedroom apartment. Today we explored the Grand Palace and Wat Prakeaw which I had not seen up until today, despite it being probably the biggest tourist spot in Bangkok. It was cool, but incredibly hot. We talked in our hick country accents for the day and took some pictures of us looking like straight up assholes. It was nice. It's nice to have someone around after working such long hours, just to come back and unwind with. We're trying to plan some trips, which is a tad difficult since I'm working 6 days a week now. However, she's joining Rachel and I on our trip to Chiang Mai in September.
In other news, my boss is leaving this Friday for a new
chapter and I'm definitely sad to see her go. This is the first time I've truly
been friends with my boss and definitely the closest in age I've ever been. She
made the schedule for September already so really the new manager, who's merely
helping out not taking on Fashion full time, just has to not make my life a
living hell for the month of October and everything should be fine. Since
Lyndsy will be here all this month and half September, with the addition of
Rachel for September I'm expecting time to fly. In terms of my health,
hopefully it will remain skinny, but more likely a mystery.
