Ear Infection- August 8th, 2011

Hey fam,

Well, how is everyone? All I can say is.. I´m glad this week is over. ha I had a bit of a health problem this week. On Wednesday I woke up at about 1:30 in the morning with an unbelievable pain in both my ears, and pretty much couldn't hear a thing. So I got up and tried to look for some medicine, but then realized that I left all my medicine in my last house, I didn't even have Ibprofine! So I spent probably one of the most painful nights of my life pacing my 12 by 12 foot room wanting to bang my head against the wall. Well the next morning I went to my cooks house and asked her to buy me some Ibprofin and I called the mission nurse. She gave me the name of some ear drops to buy and some other little things to try. So I did all that and it wasn't getting better, and the pain was straight up unbearable!!! I would take 900 MG of Ibprofen and that would calm it for about 4 hours on the dot and the pain would start up again, and on top of all of that I felt like I was constantly under watering my hearing was so bad. Well it just so happens that in this great country of El Salvador this week is break week, and not just for students.. but eeeeeeeeveryone. Including hospitals. So the nurse said that she couldn't get me to the doctor until Monday (this was Friday.. I had already past three days of torture). I called her back like five hours later and said hey listen I need to see somebody tomorrow. I don´t know what you have to do or what I will have to pay but just get me to somebody. So I went the next day to the emergency room place in Lyco to a specialist in nose, ears and throat. He examined me and said that I had a severe infection in both ears. He couldn't even see through my ear holes because they were both so swollen, so he had to pretty much pry them open. I about hit him. haha So he wrote up a list of medicines that he was going to give me and said that he wanted to give me three IV´s right then and there.. and that I would be better in three days. Well I called the nurse to check and see if that was ok and she said that she needed to call the area doctor to get authorization. She called back and said that the doctor only authorized the first IV and NONE of the medication that the doctor wanted to give me... so I had to explain to the doctor thanks for seeing me but that I couldn't follow any of his advice because the guy in charge of me wouldn't allow it... yeah embarrassing. So they gave me the IV, that was great (remind me to tell you some details about that some day), and I left.

The area doctor just told the mission nurse to buy a antibiotic (I had already tried 2 that didn't work) and just keep taking Ibprofen.. I was sooooo ticked haha. Well that was Saturday. I have been taking the medicine for two days, and the pain is a little better, but I still pretty much don´t hear a thing. So yeah, I'm gonna need some advice from Doctor Bruce Reid... I'm going to send the names of the medication that doctor wanted me to take and the names that I am taking right now and tell me what you think.

Well other than that everything is good. haha I pretty much was just in the house all week long so there is not much to tell you, but we actually have quite a few people in our teaching pool and the zone is doing really well for the most part. Tomorrow we have a muti-zone which will be good. Oh and I got the package on Tuesday!! I loved it thanks a ton, especially the video haha so funny. I have been loving it, although haven´t been able to enjoy it this week. Thanks for everything I promise I' ll get a better email next week!! Tell Biss hi for me.
Love Nick