Typhoid Madness

Yes, it's true. I have contracted typhoid fever and am coming home as soon as my treatment ends. No joke. The adventure is over. The phoenix has smoldered and plummeted into the ashes. I spent the better part of Friday in some seedy hospital with an IV plugged into my arm, watching bugs crawl aimlessless on the walls.

It was terrible, but not as bad as the bouts of sickness I have been feeling for the past several days. I thought it was the flu and would pass rapidly, but apparently it was more.

Laying in the dirty hospital bed for hours led me into some deep introspective reflection which I neither wanted nor needed. I have not eaten for three days, and am reduced to a diet of jello and bread, says the doctor.

Blink, wash this all away. What am I doing here in this clinic, with light flickering on and off. There is some urine-colored medicine being pumped into my body, one drip at a time.

Drip, drip, drip.

How long have I been here. I need to go.

The nurse comes in every few minutes and injects something new into the solution. My left arm feels cold.

Drip, drip, drip

An earwig has fallen off the light and landed on my pants, crawling up toward my face. I can't move to flick it away. Bugs everywhere.

"By the way, no cheese or dairy," says the doctor.

While I am here, Juan's doberman is in a nearby hospital, getting it's ears cut short.

"Are you sure it's typhoid, isn't that rare," I mumble.

"Not really," he said.

Several hours of this shit. The doctor pops in every few minutes. I am feeling light-headed. Trying to avoid passing out.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

How much longer in this place. The lights are off, and there is no TV or any sign of life. Absolute silence.

Suddenly, music comes over what sound like loudspeakers. Some wierd country long.

"This liiiife. This Loooove."

What the fuck?

Then No Doubt, and finally John Lennon . Am I imagining this?

Let it be. Let it beeeeee.

Darkness.

Now, a day later I am drinking bottles of Electrolit Rehydrant and reflecting on everything that has come to pass thus far.

How did I get here?