A Word on My Health

Dear Friends,

I'm sorry to say I have been the worse for wear these last few days. I took time off work to spend with my parents and together we set off for Penang, Malaysia to redeem those hotel vouchers to our name. Unfortunately, the sandfly bites I had gotten on the beach a week before became infected--thirteen of them--and they oozed rather alarmingly whenever the bandages were removed. Despite my mother's best efforts as a nurse, changing my bandages in the morning and evening, my leg remained too swollen to stand on for extended periods of time and I ended up rudely propping it up on chairs and tables wherever we went. It become clear after the third day that stronger measures were in order, and my mother and I visited the hotel doctor, who prescribed me antibiotics and ibuprofen. Since then then the bites have slowly been healing, though at the moment  I think I feel a cold coming on.

Still, the bites kept me from swimming or even lying around by the pool, as I had hoped, and the bandages would certainly get me noticed. Shopkeepers would stop and stare, and the only upside was that I really did have an excuse not to take them up on their offer of pedicures or foot massages or water sports. Thankfully, family time is not dependent on the amount of things you do together but rather the time you have.