Following Close Behind: War, Famine, Death

They say that getting sick while in another country is the worst. On the one hand it sucks because most of the remedies and comforts you're used to aren't available, but on top of that, you supposedly get sicker because you're being exposed to germs different than the ones you've been around. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but I can tell you this: the flu I caught here has laid me lower than any illness I can recall. Tania -- or as I like to call her, Patient Zero -- came home from work sick a couple weeks ago. I thought Ioana and I had managed to avoid catching it, but it turns out I was mistaken.

My original plan to just tough it out worked for a couple of days. The in-laws picked up some non-prescription medication for me at a pharmacy (in Romania, everything health-related has to be bought in a pharmacy, even if it's over-the-counter. If you want vitamins you have to buy them at a pharmacy). They're sold in these sealed glass ampules, like something out of a Renaissance-era apothecary. You snap off the neck when you're ready to use them. They would work for a little while but didn't really control the flu. I ended up bedridden with super-high fevers and hallucinating. It was like all the joys of the DTs without having to go through all the tedious and expensive drinking first. Once I was no longer conscious to tell people I just wanted to tough it out like a cowboy, my in-laws called in a doctor.

In Romania, doctors still make house calls. Even I, as ancient as the oaks, do not remember the era of house calls in America. He had a little traveling doctor bag and everything. It was totally awesome and would have made the entire flu worth it, if he had also given me a million dollars. But it at least made the flu suck a little less. He gave me the once-over and then prescribed a regimen of six different medicines (all using Space Age pill technology) plus additional folksy treatments like hot steam inhalation.

The in-laws then went into a full-court press. Say this about Romanians: they can pump out a lot of love.* Gagi went out and bought all the medicines on the list plus a bunch of other stuff besides. Tania took two or three days off of work to stay home and play nurse, making up a medicine schedule and cooking soup, as well as providing hot-water foot treatments, heated salt packs, and I don't remember what all else. In America we would call this a spa treatment and you'd pay a zillion dollars for it. I hope Tania never finds that out. They even replaced the mattress on our hide-a-bed with a way better one.

So after four days I'm out of bed and feeling a lot better, although as you can see in the photo above that hasn't stopped the flow of foot baths and hot lemon-water. Io started coming down with the flu right after I did, but luckily has gotten a milder case, probably because the germs were exhausted from fighting my superpower USA immune system. But now Gagi has come down with it as well, and he seems to have the really bad version.

Will all this stuff end up interfering with our plans for a c-section on Monday? TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO FIND OUT!

* Pumpin' Out A Lotta Love is the name of my Barry White cover band.