The Sickest I’ve Ever Been Physically

Day 5 of Keeley’s writing challenge

Aw geez, I have something wrong with me every day. Just ask Keeley. I was pretty damn sick the first few days after my recent knee replacement surgery. I couldn’t keep anything down including the medication to stop me from vomiting.

On the plus side, I did lose weight.

It was definitely the most pain I’ve ever endured for the longest period of time. Having babies was easy for me. I was lucky they were all monsters and gravity helped. I have a pretty strong constitution. I rarely if ever get a cold and the last time I had the flu was when I was pregnant with Keeley.

But I do suffer from IBS so am either one thing or the other not to go into specifics here. I am susceptible to giardia and other stomach bugs when I travel which is not always the most pleasant thing to deal with. On my last trip, I was violently ill twice. Once in Morocco where we went to a village hammam — not a good idea — the hotel hammam was closed for cleaning. I could not shake that bout for about a week so was still sick as a dog (where does that expression come from?) flying to Barcelona but I had to pretend I was ok or they wouldn’t let me fly.

The other time was on the train coming back to London from the Midlands. I won’t go into a detailed description here but I was glad there was a basin as well as a bowl! When I arrived at Euston, a kind railway worker put me on a trolley with my luggage and drove me right out to the footpath to catch an Uber. I was planning on catching two tubes to my airbnb but just couldn’t walk one step further.

My lovely host looked after me like a family member for days. I was lucky I had a downstairs room right next to the bathroom. God, I was sick!

Oh, I was also so ill on the train back to Beijing from North Korea I couldn’t care if I lived or died. When I arrived home and visited the doctor I had picked up another couple of bugs as well as giardia so it took a few weeks for me to get well.

You’re probably wondering why on earth I love to travel. Writing this, I’m wondering myself.

Maybe this is where the mental illness comes into it — I must be crazy to travel!