Yet more sickness!

I haven't written for so long, I'm so sorry! I don't even have a good excuse other than laziness!

So what's been happening? Nothing actually! My hand looks much better, it turns out it's much deeper than I first thought and it's going to scar like nothing else but it didn't get infected and (surprise, surprise) I don't have HIV or Hepatitis. But I am sick AGAIN.

Just before Sarah left for her holiday (end of May-she doesn't get back til the 19th of JUNE...I'm so lonely) I had the beginnings of a cough that felt like it could get quite nasty. Most of the children in my house have had a cough that's lasted from 2 weeks to about a month so I just presumed it was that. Last week was my short week so I had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off (although I had to help in the office on Friday). On Friday I didn't feel so brilliant: my lungs felt sore and my cough seemed more persistent but I ignored it thinking it was just getting worse before it got better, plus I had 2 days to sleep it off before I had to work again. However on Saturday I was having trouble taking a proper breath, not to the extent that I couldn't breathe but I couldn't take a big enough breath to cough properly with out my lungs feeling like they were on fire and normal breathing made my lungs ache. I vowed to wait until the next day (Sunday) to see if it had gotten better or worse before I went to the medi-clinic. I did do a quick bit of googling to see what it might be and once I'd ignored all the diagnoses of lung cancer the most probable thing it came up with was Bronchitis, which apparently they just run a whole lot of tests including a chest x-ray but they can't give you medication cause it isn't bacterial so you just have to wait for it to clear.

On Sunday, I woke up to find my breathing much easier and less painful. I went to the kitchen to wait for the girl who had offered to potentially drive me to the medi-clinic and let her know I didn't need to go anymore. I still didn't feel 100%, I felt quite dizzy and spaced out and I had a bit of a headache. When I coughed it felt like my head might explode. I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I woke up again my head was KILLING me. It was so painful! It was manageable if I lay still but the minute I moved it felt like someone was drilling into my skull and pulling my brains out. I promised myself and my room-mate I would go to the medi-clinic in the morning and I texted the volunteer-manager's-assistant-who-is-a-volunteer-himself to let him know I wouldn't be able to working the next day.

Monday I woke up and felt much better! Again! I have a slight headache still, my cough is ever present and when I cough my head still feels like my skull is cracking into a million billion pieces and if I take too deep of a breath it hurts and makes me cough more but I definitely feel more alive than dead!

I feel I should explain why I didn't go to the medi-clinic throughout all of this. Money. I have health insurance or medical aide as it's called here. Project Trust organised it. Now I have nothing against PT, they did the job of getting me out here perfectly-it was somewhat expensive, but I would never have found this place without them, so for that I am grateful. But I'm fairly sure all the volunteers are told before the training that we don't have to worry about paying for medical bills. Because PT is an organisation and they buy(?) the medical aide as such there is a very high excess fee/charge. Now as I'm sure most people know insurance prices goes up the more you claim, so if you get burgled every week, your house insurance would be phenomenally high. Same goes with our medical aide only it doesn't go on us as an individual, it goes for all PT volunteers. Basically we have to rack up £250 for medical bills before we can claim back anything. According to google £250 is R3960.30!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't even know how many times I would have to get Tonsillitis before I hit that limit. I think I would have to be airlifted home before I would be able to claim anything back. When you go to the doctors, there is a basic R500 charge just for seeing someone. Then it's around +R200 for antibiotics and prescription grade painkillers thankfully are +R20. So every time I go to the doctors it costs me R700-R800 depending on what drugs I need. *quickly consults google* that's like £50. I personally think PT should pay any medical costs that aren't covered by the medical aide-apart from injuries sustained from bungee jumping or sky-diving or something, obviously.

So lets end this on a vaguely helpful note: I know there are 2 PT volunteers following this blog and possibly more that are reading sporadically, so to any future PT vols, consider raising extra money and designate it specifically to any medical bills you might have to pay. You might get lucky and not have to go to the doctors at all in your year in which case you have funds for when you get back. But if you need any medical treatment at all, you'll probably be glad for it. I don't usually get sick in England, at most I get a cold once or twice a year, but I've had tonsillitis 3 times in the last 4/5 months and whatever this recent thing was. Sarah got foot and mouth, impetigo and countless other things, she's had to go to the hospital more than 5 times and she's still not hit the limit. This applies to any country as well, not just SA. Also, you'll probably be working with kids. Maybe live with them as well. Nobodies immune system is ninja enough to hold of 150 kids and 30 volunteers from around the globe for a whole year. No one.