Prayer request

Please send me some prayer power.

I'm very concerned about my health. I felt better for a few days, but now the cough has dropped so low in my chest that it is frightening, and the phlegmy vibration of it makes me feel as if I will throw up. I have had many bouts with bronchitis in my life, but this feels worse and to be honest, I'm afraid.

Yesterday I began another course of the antibiotic Azithromycin. I've looked up the drug and the information available seems to indicate that a 5 day course is normal for Azithromycin, but the 250mg that the package directs is considered a "pediatric" dosage; apparently the normal adult dosage is 500-2000mg, so this time I am doubling the amount to 500mg per day.

This self treatment is scary, but I found the hospitals in Japan quite horrid, and haven't any reason to think they will be better here (the clinic where I got my physical for the visa was completely unsanitary). Apparently, just as in Japan, one is expected not to question the doctors at all. A number of colleagues, both Chinese and non-Chinese, have gone to the doctor with bad cold symptoms and were given an IV... and to a one, they have no idea what the IV contained! One colleague had one and they missed a vein and her hand swelled up grotesquely for days.

As long as I can still breathe, self-treatment seems preferable to that. And, of course, lots of prayer.

Today, as the icing on the cake, I have a bad case of diarrhea; most likely a side effect of the Azithromycin. I've taken some medicine, but am still waiting for it to take effect, so I phoned the school. It's an hour's bus ride to the school where I teach on weeknights - that is just not possible with diarrhea. It took me a couple of tries to convey this clearly enough, but once they understood, they said they would phone the parents and reschedule tonight's classes to tomorrow night.

I hope all of you are feeling better than I am right now. Take care and God bless.