My Eat, Pray, Love lifestyle had to be put on hold when I became ill.
My illness was simple. A cut to the bottom of my foot that I was tending to went wrong after it rained for four days straight. Maybe it was animal urine, human urine, faeces, who knows? But the infection it created went from “what’s that pain on the bottom of my foot?” to “what the hell am I gonna do with this?”
The infection created a small boil which quickly grew into a large one. Without lancing it, here’s a small trick: Toothpaste. That’s right – white, fluoride toothpaste will soften and help extract a boil, all the while reliving it too – so two night of brushing my teeth before bed and then toothpasting my foot and “poof” it was out. With a few penicillin pills, all was good.
Learning the tricks of creating safety nets, a good medical kit and a few little tricks, you can save yourself a lot of trouble out here in “la la land”.
It still proves one thing to me, that when living in the Philippines everyone should look to their health to make sure they know their true situation. Anyone in their ‘golden years’ should think twice before retiring in the provinces, or anywhere without a decent hospital.
Saying the words “decent healthcare” can also be an issue in the Philippines. I am not a sickly person, but I’ve visited a few friends and family and some dear people in my time in here. I have to say that, without a doubt, most lost their lives to unnecessarily due to inadequate healthcare.
For me, tropical climates can be a bit of an issue – take air conditioning for example. I can no longer sleep with air-con. I sleep and live only with a fan – once you become acclimatised to the weather you too, like many here, no longer live recycled air.
I do like going to the malls and sitting in aircon for dinner, coffee and even working or writing, but I can’t sleep with it – after more than a day or two my lungs rebel.
As we all know, 48 years old in the Philippines is today’s 35-year-old mindset to the locals, but those who realize that time moves at an incredible pace and life itself seems to just flash before our eyes – this is in fact our time to shine, if not in glory then for sure in our ability to live a happy and successful life in a country with many problems, but many freedoms.
Just try not to get ill
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