Dengue Fever

Lauren: I hate dropping my legs under tables into dark places where mosquitos are just waiting for warm flesh.

(more…)

I arrived for Thailand-Take-Two this morning, and flew up to meet my friend Abby (from college) who I will be traveling with for the next 2 weeks. She’s been living in Chiang Mai for the last year and a half teaching English, so has been dragging me all over town today like a pro. Motor bikes have been whizzing past me all day long, sending post traumatic stress shivers down my spine. Abby and I spent the day plotting our travels, booking flights, getting bus schedules, and building an action packed itinerary. We leave tomorrow morning for Laos, and will take the slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang Probang and onto Vientiene. I, once again, am a walking zombie after a roughly 40 hour journey to Chiang Mai that consisted of 4 plane flights, a car ride, and a bus. I’ve managed to stay up all day today, so hopefully I’ll adjust to the 12 hour time difference by tomorrow.

As it turned out, I had to get surgery after all. An MRI scan showed that a small piece of bone had chipped off my tibia in addition to the other break. My ACL was also “loose” and the surgeon believed that the bone chip was attached to the ACL. The ACL probably pulled it off during the break.

I had the surgery this past Tuesday, and it went very well. It was arthroscopic, so I only have a few small holes in my knee. The surgeon said it went as well as could possibly be expected. The bone was attached to the ACL, and when the bone went back into place, the ACL went back too. It doesn’t have significant damage, so all that’s left for me to do is stay off of the broken leg for another several weeks and to practice bending and straightening my leg — which is easier said than done.

Thanks for all your well wishes and thoughts! I’m definitely doing much better since the surgery. I’m also keeping my pain meds down by using an anti-motion sickness patch. Hopefully that will continue to work for the weeks to come.

Lauren’s off to the adventure again this weekend, but I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on life in SC… and hey, if anyone’s up to a road trip to the South…

On September 27th, my grandmother passed away. Strangely, I was able to be here at the Cape with her because of the accident. I feel fortunate that I was able to see her one last time before she died, and was glad that I could be here with my family. I pasted a little something I wrote about her that I read at her funeral below.

I’m planning on returning to Thailand in a few days, but have not yet booked my flight. Our travel arrangements have changed slightly.

(more…)