Thanksgiving and sickness

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and Oz and I were all set to spend it with the American family I've been partnered with. However the day before Thanksgiving I started to feel really ill with a sore throat and later bad ear ache, I went to see a nurse and got tested for a variety of throat infections, one of which came back very quickly and proved to be negative, the other I'm yet to find out about, I did however leave with a few non-prescription drugs that have largely proved to be useless. Anyway Oz and I cancelled our planned trip to the Channel Islands and hoped I'd feel better soon.

I woke up at 3am on Thanksgiving morning when Oz a sleeping Oz decided to cuddle me closer, unfortunately due to the ibuprofen wearing off (and another batch not being allowed to be taken for another hour or two) it was too painful to go back to sleep as every time I swallowed the pain woke me up again. I ended up dozing on the sofa because at least then I could sleep sitting up which was less painful. When I finally gave up the hope of further sleep and got dressed in an impressive 5 layers of tops. Needless to say I was pretty useless, I was in lots of pain but could take no more ibuprofen (why can you only have 6 in 24 hours - why?) and only had 2 paracetamol tablets left that made absolutely no difference. So I sat on the sofa moaning until Oz got up 3 hours later and produced some Tylenol from his bag which helped enough to get me out of the house.

We went for a walk along the beach, and ended up buying some food, unfortunately by this point my Tylenol hit was wearing off and I was feeling crap again. Thankfully the only shop that was open in IV sold aspirin, so I got to add that to my painkiller collection, my liver is now working overtime with trying to get rid of them all. Walking around IV was very strange, instead of the bustling place I had come to know it was more like a ghost town, very, very few people around and only one shop open. I am very grateful, I could not cope with a loud IV when I have ear ache and am feeling well and truly crap. If my neighbours call me the "English bitch" already, I dread to think of what they'd call me after I tried to politely, yet extremely firmly get them to shut the hell up.

I had hoped that the walk would make me feel marvellous, they helped a lot when I had ME, however it just made me feel worse and so I had to phone up and cancel my Thanksgiving plans, which is a real shame, I would have loved to experience a real American tradition. But it couldn't be helped and I made the right decision to cancel.

When I eventually crawled back I sat in my bed and called by family, I succeeded in really worrying my mother, but I enjoyed the chat nonetheless. Oz brought me lunch in bed, which was very sweet of him and he met my parents and sister via the wonders of Skype. After that he sat down next to me and showed me his home town of Melbourne and we discovered that he lives only 8kms from Neighbours very own Ramsay street - which in my mind means I've pulled my very own Neighbours spunk! It also means that when I visit him I can go and see the Neighbours set! He promised to go with me, which is just about the most romantic thing that has ever happened to me seeing as he hates Neighbours. But our Neighbours time did not finish there - we watched the Fraser and Rosie wedding online and the inevitable wedding disaster. Oz hated it but I patiently explained to him that its brilliance lies in its down right awfulness, he still didn't seem to understand why this made it fantastic. I'll have to convert him another day.

After that I actually went to sleep and woke up to my surprise several hours later feeling awful as all my painkillers had worn off. After very slowly making a nutritious soup for dinner and eating it even slower I felt better and Oz and I curled up on the sofa and watched Pride and Prejudice (he suggested we watch it - I am a phenomenally lucky girl!). After Pride and Prejudice we made our way to bed and enjoyed another nights disjointed sleep.

I woke up agan very early and after proving how little brain function I had by running the cold tap for about five minutes in an attempt for it to run warm, once I had found the correct tap it quickly ran warm and I climbed into the shower. I eventually got dressed and this time wore only 3 layers, although one was thermal. Again Oz lay in and I made a pathetic attempt at washing up and ended up dozing on the sofa again. I felt even worse this morning because on top of my ear ache and my sore throat I had a blocked nose and have enjoyed sinus pressure all day long.

Oz has taken really good care of me today, making me dinner, cups of tea and fetching and carrying countless things as I sit around hoplessly. He's trying desperately to get me to eat lots of fresh fruit and veg as well as anything else that counts as healthy. Unfortunately I'm not hungry and am really tired so its very difficult to eat, but he tries anyway, the darling.

At the moment Oz is sat next to me on the sofa, both of us with our laptops, him doing his zoology memorisation (he has to learn ridiculous amounts of fishes which will inevitably never come in handy ever again), and me writing this blog very slowly. I have lots of work that I should be getting on with, but I can't bring myself to do it, I just feel too ill. I can't see myself getting better very quickly and may well have to skip some classes next week unfortunately, although this does lighten my work load temporarily.

Being ill has made me realise just how great the NHS is, if I was in England I would have gone to a walk-in centre today and hopefully gone home with some advice and prescription painkillers, as it is the place my medical insurance covers is closed until Monday and they won't pay for me to go anywhere else unless I am basically about to die or am greviously injured. Friends of mine have broken feet, had crippling earache and had their feet sliced open and the medical insurance has made them pay for it. I can afford the $500ish visit to the "Emergency Room" if necessary, but my travelling would be severally affected by the loss of money, so instead I'm intending to lie on my sofa moaning until the second they open, when I'll be in the Nurse's office as soon as my lathargic body will allow me.

Room mate + Alcohol = Fun

Straight after I wrote to you last my room mate and I (already slightly sloshed from the wine and some cheap beer) went out so she could introduce me to some of her mates. I learnt about any timeless American drinking games such as Beer Pong and Flip cup, ahhh the wonders. I am entirely crap at both seeing how they rely on ability to aim (which I can't do well when sober!) or a light tap to flip a plastic cup. I may well be found one of these days practicing in my kitchen. It was really good fun, a bonding experience with Lisa (is there a better way to get to know your room mate other than getting pissed together?) and was nice to meet some other people, although I think I left my cardigan there. I have also learned the vital lesson that American beer is vile, it tastes more like Soda water than beer, but that does not matter because it fulfils two vital criteria for American students - it gets you pissed and its cheap. In England we just go for cheap vodka mixed with coke, but apparently that's too sophisticated for most American palates!

We stumbled into our beds happily steamingly drunk. Good times.

Yesterday I had my first real taste at how ridiculously expensive American health care is. I went to Student Health to register and was told I had to pay $27 for a TB skin test despite the fact I have had a BCG and therefore know I can't have TB. Its something they require me to do and yet despite paying around $400 a semester for health insurance I still have to pay the extortionate price. Even worse than that was when I asked if I could see a doctor or nurse whilst I was there because the night before I had slipped over and hit my knee really hard on concrete and it was now stiff and swollen, I was told that it would be $54! I know fully well they'd look at it for two minutes, tell me it was fine but might give me some anti-inflammatory's (which I'd also have to pay for), possibly sending me for an x-ray (kerching!) to make sure there is no hair line fracture. So am I going to pay that or am I going to wait and see if it gets better? What do you think - I'm a skint student! Thankfully it appears to have paid off, not hurting nearly as much today and I think the swelling is going down. I also discovered that when my next door neighbour cut her food really badly in a nightclub she had to pay $1200 (and that's with medical insurance!) just for an ambulance! If I ever get hurt I hope someone sticks me in a taxi instead of calling 911 - much cheaper.

Having got myself an iron and ironed all my clothes (worryingly I enjoyed that a lot) yesterday I was at long last able to wear what I wanted to and went out in a nice 50s style skirt. However I quickly realised just how stereotypically English I looked - everyone else was wondering around in shorts and even though I know I don't fit in style wise with England I fit in even less in America. I love these clothes, but I'm not sure whether I feel comfortable wearing them. I'm going to give it a bit longer and then hopefully I won't care and I'll happily go around as "the English one".