As far as Korea and the Reeds go, on most days we are on good terms. Despite the occasional changes like co-teachers for no apparent reasons or only eating rice at lunch because the other dishes look or are inedible. However, when it comes to Korean germs and our health systems we have not been on good terms since we moved here.
I have lost my voice 3 times now from the poor air quality. The first time was a few days after we arrived, a few weeks later I lost it again and then 3 weeks ago I lost it again. This last time it was the worst, sinus pressure, cough and no voice. It made for a very stressful week of teaching. In fact I have still not completely recovered from it because I coughed so hard that I strained some of the ligaments/muscles in some of my right ribs. David isn't much better with the air quality. He's been sick twice with either a hoarse voice or cough and sinus drainage. So you ask, How in the world do you keep getting sick from poor air quality? Well, there is a desert in China that blows Yellow Dust all the way a crossed China into Korea and Japan. That's why so many Asia's wear the medical masks. I always thought it was from pollution and even though there is a good share of pollution here, that's not the main cause of our illnesses. The dust gets in your nose and throat and just won't go away.
There was really bad Yellow Dust 3 weeks ago and I am still recovering from that. My ribs still hurt, my nose is still stuffed up and we both still have slight coughs. So to top it all off, Korea thought it would be nice to give us a mutant flu virus. We are not sure where David got it, the only thing we can think of is that a kid a school had it. But on Monday... 3/30, David woke up with a fever of 101 but despite telling him he shouldn't go to school with a fever, he went anyways. He stayed at school all day but when he got home, his fever spiked and he would go from cold to sweating with in minutes. He continued like this and stayed at home until Tuesday afternoon when I got home and his fever spiked to 103. So we went to the doctors. After being told that he has the flu or hepatitis (yet again, ask him about it), we opted for the flu medicine and then went home. His fever did not stay down passed 99 until Wednesday morning. In fact Tuesday night he took 3 showers because he couldn't stop sweating. He stayed at home until Friday since the doctor had given him a 3 day pass from school.
So that brings me to well me. After my 3rd class on Wednesday, I began to fell a little sick. I ate rice a lunch, hoping that it would settle my stomach and was able to make it throw the rest of the day, aka, sitting at my desk and watching a movie. I came home ate some chicken soup I made the night before and headed to bed at 8:30... Yes 8:30 pm! Then at 10:30 ish... not quit sure but that's when the throwing up started. It continued until 3 am. I threw up everything in my stomach and when I say everything I mean the stomach bile too. It's the nastiest tasting, smelling, looking stuff ever. I was able to sleep until 6 am and then it started again every 40 minutes. David left to go to the store to look for some Pedialyte since I couldn't even keep down water. When he got home, I told him that we needed to go to the doctor since I was still throwing up. After I took a shower and I mean right after, I threw up again. This time I throw up blood, so I guess it was a good thing that I was on my way to the doctors. The doctors office that we go to isn't that far way but we still had to walk there. I then spent the next 3 hours getting an IV drip because I was dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. I was also given 2 days worth of pills to help with the flu symptoms and nausia. I threw up one more time on Thursday and have been feeling much better since. I can't remember ever having the flu that bad!!!
I am still recovering from both the Yellow dust and the flu but hopefully Korea and it's germs will be nicer to our immune systems next time around... Actually I hope there is no next time around.
Thank you for your prayers.
Much Love,
Lisa and David
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