Vacation

I've been on vacation for a week now and it has been very nice. You might have noticed that I have lost the ability to think of synonyms for 'nice' so it is what it is. Right after I posted on my blog last week the headache I had been dealing with moved into my left ear. After a sleepless night I went to the doctor to confirm my ear infection and get some antibiotics to deal with the condition. Since I was sick I decided not to go back to Coblenz and join an impromtu trip to Etosha. I enjoyed a couple nights of sleeping in the car, and we saw a whole bunch of wildlife: springbok, oryx, wildebeast, giraffe, elephant, hartebeast, warthog, zebra, jackal, a variety of birds and reptiles, and the elusive lion. We staked out a watering hole where lions had been spotted and watched a large male lion for a while and then on our way out of the park we had to stop to let two mating lions cross the road right in front of us. After Etosha we hit up the Cheetah Conservation Fund ( www.cheetah.com) which manages the largest wild population of cheetahs in the world and squeezed in a day trip to Waterberg Plateau Park.

 

This morning I went back to the doctor since my ears never cleared up. I gave him the rundown of my condition, he looked in my ears and yes... they are still a bit red. But... that's strange... it looks like something foreign is in here... it kind of looks like an insect. At this point I see the doctor messing around with a multi-tool, shaping a paperclip to try to hook this foreign object in my ear. The first attempt hurt pretty bad, but I figure this guy knows what he's doing and I'd love to get me ear cleared out. Second try hurt worse and... thats a blood blister and its bleeding a bit now... you can stand up now. So the doctor gave me some more antibiotics and painkillers as well as something to clear out the eustachian tubes, but what about that blister. I asked him about it more and he said that there is a virus that can cause blisters, but not blood blisters. Now I've left the clinic without much confidence in a doctor who doesn't know why I might have a blood blister in my ear and didn't give me any medication to deal with it. My next move is to call the peace corps medical officer and a possible trip to windhoek to see a doctor there. First I need to pop a couple of those painkillers.