Maybe, baby.

Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.

Soooooo, since the Mountain Biking adventure much more, much less fun stuff has transpired. Basically, my left ear still doesn't work. However, that may not be the biggest of my health worries. On Monday I woke up feeling ridiculously lethargic and kind of dizzy. I soldiered through my morning, but by around 10am, my dizziness was getting worse and I had developed a fever. I made the command decision that maybe I should return to the hospital and find out what was going on. On the walk there, I started getting achy in my joints. You may not know it (as most of you reading this DO NOT live in Sub-Saharan Africa) but these are all symptoms of Malaria. I was a little freaked out, and feeling worse by the minute, so Elena escorted me to the hospital where it was complete and total chaos. I am talking lines and lines of people waiting for I-don't-know-what. I joined the line for registration thinking it would take at least 20 minutes to get through it. I was very, very wrong.

I have not yet explained the complete inability of Ghanaians to form a line. As an American, I thrive on order and form, and JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IT COULD POSSIBLY BE OKAY TO JUST JUMP TO THE FRONT OF A LINE WHENEVER YOU WANT TO. But here it is. It is okay for random people who do not want to wait to simply get in front of a service window and be helped. Immediately. It was ridiculous. I waited and was pushed to the back over and over and over for over an hour. I was near tears several times as I felt like I was about to faint, Elena had left me to go to a class, and I could neither understand the different conversations around me, nor could I hear any of the conversations in English because of my ear. If it hadn't been happening to me it would have been a situation worthy of a sitcom.

But...it was happening to me, and I wanted to shoot someone. Finally the 10 or so people who had shoved in front of me took pity on me and let me register, where I was given my patient card and sent to wait in a more orderly line to actually see a doctor. I waited here for 45 minutes, and finally got in to see the doctor. After I told her I had been in a few days before, she stopped listening to me explaining to her that I might be DYING of malaria in front of her, and told me I had to see my original doctor. Ahhhhhhhh! I completely lost it. Sobbing, I let the nurse take to to yet ANOTHER line, where she (thankfully) told the doctor that I needed to be the next patient inside.

Finally inside, I am pretty sure that my obviously emotional state made people take me a little less seriously when I started explaining my very real symptoms. However, the doctor did take my temperature, and was did look in my ear again, and at least concluded that I did have both a fever and an ear infection. He then explained to me that because I had been in Ghana almost a month, and was a foreigner, I had to be put on anti-malarial drugs. I then had to have my blood taken, and was told to come back on Tuesday to find out the results. After hearing how frustrated I was with the hospital system, the doctor, Dr. Bulcari, gave me his cell phone number to call if I needed help with anything saying: "I don't want you to be frustrated anymore." I hope he doesn't think I am a spoiled American...

Tuesday I returned to the hospital, where no one could find my patient card, and I was forced to sift through stacks of previous day's cards looking for it. (Seriously) Upon its continued failure to turn up, and my growing frustration (for lack of any other word to use) with the continued ridiculousness, I was finally given a new card. Then, I was told by the douche bag lab guy that I had to see my doctor before I could get my test results. So...I waited in line to see Dr. Bulcari for almost 2 hours, and when finally getting inside I was told to wait longer while my doctor went to yell at the lab guy for not giving me my lab results. Christ. My test was negative. However, only 10% of people with Malaria actually test positive for it...so...

On the bright side I have been feeling much better since taking the huge amounts of medication I was prescribed. Unfortunately, they also make me VERY drowsy and nauseous...so that sucks. However, since none of my classes have actually been attended by those teaching (yes, none of my professors have shown up to class yet...) including my 7:30 am Political Science class...I have had ample time to recover.

In some miscellaneous news, I took my first bucket shower today. The water stopped running around 7pm last night, and has yet to come back on. I doubt I did it right, apparently there is a type of method for bucket showering...I just sort of threw water around...oh well. I hope your health is less sporadic than mine has been lately. I love you.