Running off the runs

What a messy thing

I woke up a little later than usual this morning having had a rather torrid night of it. Like on Tuesday night, I was out of bed every few minutes to assuage the diarrhoeal urges that I have battled since then.

Most of Thursday, I was fine, I hardly needed to heed the call of nature until after work and during my nap, I had to rush out of the bedroom to the toilet. Then having laid towels on the bed, I had 4 changes of towels with the need to run a late-night washing machine cycle before things quietened down.

A run on stemming runs

By then, I had run out of Imodium Instants, I hoped for the best that things would just settle, and I could get some rest and comfort. At noon, I went to the Boots Chemist to get an over-the-counter pack of Loperamide hydrochloride, the main ingredient in Imodium and it would appear a few more people have had the runs that there has been a run on Imodium, they were out of stock.

It took going to the local supermarket home remedies shelf to get the last two packets available. It might well be there is a bug going around. This was the issue the pharmacist raised at the vaccination centre if they needed to separate the side effects of the booster vaccine from the continuing problem of diarrhoea and I cannot say if the booster might have exacerbated it.

Brian would probably be nodding his head at my apparent obstinacy, but my view is we have to deal with the situation as it is rather than what could have been or should have been done before.

Incredible India: The Rite of Passage

Running for the runs

I am back at the inn just before the midday break at some cost because I needed an unscheduled ride from the training centre.

In serious discomfort just after I barely concentrated enough to cover a few topics because I am going through one of those rites of passage.

The passage is used in every sense of the word as in the experience and the visits to little rooms with closed doors, a rumbling belly, pain that fluctuates gradually from almost unbearable to just within the threshold of tolerable.

What aches much is the belly

I have taken much advice, bananas, yoghurt and curd all to bring some comfort to my somewhat contorted visage, the many quite understanding of what I am going through and sympathetic too.

It is called Delhi Belly and a good few trainees have succumbed especially those from the regions where we have not built resistance to the bugs – it is my first time of having travel diarrhoea in all the times that I have travelled to place far too numerous to mention.

Treating India

So, as I lay in bed hoping to get some rest and recovery, the funniness of it all is interesting as some might think, he is not in that much discomfort, else he will not be blogging – you have no idea; I have blogged in far worse situations before, each situation deserves the journaling a blog provides.

In answering an unusually phrased question yesterday, I found that good humour has therapeutic quality too.

Q: How are you treating India?

A: With Imodium.

It is, I suppose a rite of passage to India.

Medically happy

All side-effects are good effects

I am most pleased about the physiological reaction to my new medication; it would appear I am quite well adjusted to the drugs. My body responds well to professional medical prescriptions than to self-medicated concoctions.

There was one time when I stayed up late and really had the feeling of being stoned and the at risk of losing my balance, I made my way to the security of a bed and lying down your senses do not have to contend with whether you are standing, falling or somewhere in between.

The vivid dreams can be vivid but no more as terrifying; in fact, they are no different from the dreams I normally have. The sleep is a bit deprived but not something I cannot manage, in fact, I have not called my treatment supervisor since to intimate her on my feelings about the medication, I guess I have been just too cross with her for suggesting sleeping pills as a first resort – I needed to see what pattern was developing before getting back to her.

Changes for the good

The diarrhoea is long gone but I still have the pain patch on, it has been on a quarter of the original dosage for the past two weeks and I have just decided it would eventually fall off for the wearing off of the adhesive component that allows it to adhere to my skin.

I would suppose that would call for some celebration, a meal with some wine – I have been abstemious since August, the taste of some fine wine would not go amiss.

There are other aspects of my health and well-being I need to consider, reducing my intake of sugar, trying some water rather than fruit juice, a bit of exercise and working out on my abdominal muscle firming gym-kit before the moving parts freeze up for lack of use.

The body watch

My weight is racing far ahead of where I have ever wanted it to be, in some cases, it would be considered moving towards the normal weight but I seeming to like the slightly slender look I had from December through March – it does not come free, one either works it out or infirmity forces it on you to your great detriment.

Obsession with looks comes to you at one time or the other hopefully one has the resolve to do something about it before your body runs away from you.