My Absence

Firstly, I must apologize for a lapse in posting.  If you include the time in New Zealand (which you shouldn’t, because that is now all up-to-date, and a pretty good read – albeit a bit long) I haven’t written in over two weeks.  But, allow me the benefit of the doubt – when I started this blog I promised to keep you updated daily, and feel I have done pretty well to this point.  Please, let me explain my absence.

As you know, I was in New Zealand for nine days with little to no internet access.  That was previously announced, and as I mentioned above, I have added the posts which I wrote in New Zealand, so everyone should be caught up through my last day there (16 April).

Literally the moment the plane touched down in Sydney in the early morning of 17 April, I began another, unplanned trip; an excursion, if you will, or an investigation… a foray into the world of public healthcare.  The adventure had roots a few weeks back, but for the most part that is all unimportant.  I had gotten a bit sick before Easter but was determined to let nothing stand in the way of my New Zealand trip.  Armed with Advil, Tiffany and I made it through New Zealand without much of a problem.  As you can tell by the posts from New Zealand, we got to do a ton of incredible things, but we didn’t tend to go out at night – due in part to my body’s progressively uncooperative state during the trip.  There was not a problem until the last full day in N.Z. – I woke up in Wellington and my body got the best of me.  Tiffany and I were determined to see what we could, and made the most of our day in the city, but by 5:00 I couldn’t seem to eat, drink, or talk, and we were both exhausted from the long trip.  I chalked my ailments up to exhaustion, travelling, and whatever was leftover from the sickness the previous week, and we thanked our lucky stars that we would soon be home.

The flight from Wellington to Sydney was the flight from hell.  Not that there was anything wrong with the flight itself, far from it.  The service was good, the in-seat entertainment engaging, and the weather agreeable – but it quickly became apparent that my body was in no shape to fly.  My ears popped and then no longer would, building with pressure.  My throat throbbed.  I was stressing about clearing Australia’s notorious customs and border control quarantine (they don’t like any foreign bugs and have been known to refuse entry or keep people at the airport).  Luckily, Tiffany talked our way through the border with my occasional sympathetic nod or forced “yes”.  We parted ways on the train, and I finally made it back to Redfern (the station closest to my house).  It was still a 15 minute walk at the height of rush hour to my house.  I don’t know how I made it to my street, but I thank my lucky stars that I ran into Hannah.  She grabbed my bags and got me back to the house.  I grabbed by healthcare card (which arrived while I was in N.Z. – thank goodness) and she walked me to the health center on her way to class.  Less than two hours back in Sydney and I was already at the doctor’s.

Long story short, after waiting for a bit, they confirmed I was sick (shocker), ran some tests and prescribed me some antibiotics.  The next 48 hours of my life were spent in a pile on my sofa, attempting to eat, drink or talk (attempting being the operative word).  I have a wonderful, wonderful friend who brought me soups and drinks to take care of me for the week, and my roommates checked on me a bit, but from all accounts I was a pretty pitiful site.

Thursday, I called the doctor to check on test results to determine whether what I had contracted was viral or bacterial (and therefore responsive to the antibiotics I was given), I was admittedly quite surprised when the tests confirmed that it was bacterial.  I was informed by the nurse that therefore the antibiotics were working and was told the swelling had gone down and I should be getting better.  Clearly, I knew that was not the case, and after a lot of I can only assume was incoherent mumbling on my end the nurse relented and said I could come in, but that there were no open appointments so I would have to wait; she recommended I come in around 1:00 and that maybe I could catch a doctor after lunch.

Tiffany came over around 12:30 and walked with me to the doctor (and did a few mundane errands along the way).  I rocked into the doctor’s about 12:50 and told Tiffany she could go to class.  Almost immediately I was called back to see a doctor, which shocked me to no end as there was a waiting room of people.  I explained my backstory best I could and the doctor went to check my throat.  After about ten seconds of being in the exam room, she turned to me and said something along the lines of “you need to go to the hospital right now.”  I’m not going to lie, I was half expecting that response as I had already looked in the mirror that morning and could see how constricted my throat was.  In preparation for that prognosis, I had brought along my passport and any other documentation that seemed pertinent for admittance to the hospital.  While the doctor compiled the paperwork and contacted campus security to arrange transport, I set about texting all the appropriate people in Australia that would need to know my whereabouts.  Additionally, I sent a “don’t panic, but I am going to the hospital” e-mail to mom and dad – I have a sneaking suspicion my mom did not follow my instructions.

Campus security showed up and I was whisked away to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, conveniently located on/near campus, and a ten minute or less walk from my terrace and the doctor’s office.  Unfortunately, it turned into a twenty minute drive with traffic and construction, but finally I was unceremoniously dropped at the emergency room with a letter explaining my plight.

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, opened in 1882.

I went in and gave all of my documentation, and within ten minutes I had been removed from a fairly full waiting room (apparently the ability to breathe takes priority over many cases in the ER, or CAS as they seem to call it, short for casualty I believe) to go sit in the ER to await treatment.  After an hour or so, I was seen by a flurry of nurses and received my IV port.  I was prepared a pole, and as it was delivered the nurse joked that I should be quite excited that it was all for me!  I got five bags on my pole, which made me feel pretty special (everyone else was toting around just one or two), and over the next few hours, my condition improved quite a bit as my hydration levels went up and some serious steroids and antibiotics made my throat open up.

By 6:00 or so, with the first round of medication all done, I was moved to a bed in the EMU (I assume it means Emergency Medical Unit, every time they said it all I could envision was a large bird).  I spent the following night in hospital on a constant circuit of fluids and drugs.  I slept a bit, but spent most of the time getting to watch the steady stream of craziness come in and out of the EMU.  I have to say, I don’t think it was any more shenanigans than you would see in an American hospital, probably less, but I have to admit that I have never spent any length of time in the hospital before.   Nonetheless, I was not disappointed by the antics throughout my stay, though I was not sad to finally be discharged on Friday afternoon after a visit to the in-house ENT and one last round of IV antibiotics.

So, I’ve now been back home for a few days enjoying Australian television and a lot of soup and hot tea.  Things have improved dramatically over the last few days since I returned from hospital.  I was put on a regimen of pretty strong antibiotics since the infection didn’t seem to respond to the first round given by the doctors when I first returned from NZ.

Some extra medicine.

The people at Town Hall, as well as all of my professors, have been very understanding through the entire ordeal, and I haven’t missed out on too much except some pretty terrible rain by being stuck in the house.  If there was ever a week and a half that I could just give up to be sick, this one actually hasn’t been all that bad of timing.  Now that things are improving, I should be back to the blog every day, though I have to warn that I will be in the house for at least a few more days, so there won’t be very exciting updates!

All in all, I am happy to report that I am doing better, and my ‘research’ into the public healthcare system in Australia gave me quite a bit of confidence in what I already believed – namely that the US could benefit from providing healthcare to all.

Clearly, the next step is now to label and post the New Zealand pictures.  I was pretty good about not taking too many pictures, and the project isn't too terribly daunting.  I will post them as soon as the large computer company affiliate explains to me why their product is not allowing me to upload my pictures... (I don't know if you read this blog, but I have asked you twice over the last two weeks to look into my problem. So get on it :))