Tag: health

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weeknotes

weeknotes, 2/24

the week was going well, and then i got sick. pain swallowing, highish fever… i hadn’t had a case of tonsillitis since i was a little kid, but boy does it suck. it threw me to the sofa for a few days, alternating between shivers and sweats. and then i got some antibiotics and things started looking up again. :) the magic of medicine!

amoxicillin is like a wave of nostalgia from childhood, and it amazingly still tastes the same as it did when i was a kid.

apart from that, earlier in the week we finished this succulent-themed lego set that our friends gave us for christmas:

lego has all sorts of fun stuff these days, and these were a really nice challenge. it seems like the theme of the week was “things we hadn’t done since childhood”!

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weeknotes

weeknotes, 31/23

– our niece is here! 3kgs of tiny baby LJ, already a champion of the eating-sleeping-pooping triathlon. :) we’ve barely seen her awake, but she seems perfect: healthy, pink and squirmy. looking forward to many cuddles and future adventures with her!

– the pope is also here for a week to celebrate world youth day, and the country seems to be under some collective spell. we’re still up north at the parents, which means TVs stay on at mealtimes… the coverage is constant, overwhelming and a little hallucinatory. going by the street interviews, every passerby seems to have their life changed by the mere sight of the man (it reminds me of this). i start to sound like a grumpy old atheist lady, so i’ll spare you further whininess.

– did you know that the largest trilobites in the world were found in portugal? usually these fossils are just a few centimeters long, but in a shale quarry in arouca, specimens have been found with 70cms! we’re staying nearby at the boy’s parents, so we had a little road trip to see them and to try arouquesa meat (and top up the iron reserves). both recommended!

– the bad news is that the boy is still coughing his lungs out, and his doctor suggested we investigate other causes of the problem, so we’re making time here while we wait for blood test results. it seems farfetched… but if at least we had a clue as to what is causing this prolonged cough, we could at least try to address the root of the issue.

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in taiwan

masks

although they were no longer mandatory in most places when we were in taiwan, 90% of the population still used masks everywhere, even outside — i guess part out of habit, part because of the pollution, and part just to play it safe. we used them as well most of the time as a precaution, because i would have hated if i had gotten sick during this trip that i had been waiting for so long. it actually felt good to wear them when out and about! 

it helps that masks here are really cute: there’s a variety of designs and shapes, and they seem overall much more comfortable than the ones we’d been wearing in europe during the height of the pandemic. i grabbed some travel/postal themed ones, and later also these cute moomin ones. :) i’m keeping a little stash to use in hospitals or public transportation back home — i think they’ll be the cutest masks in a large radius! :D 

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in taiwan

japanese encephalitis vaccine

japanese encephalitis is one of those diseases that, if you get it, things can get irreversibly bad pretty quickly. the chances of being bitten with the mosquito that carries it and getting symptoms are low, so doctors only recommend the vaccine for longer stays in asia, or trips that involve going to the countryside during mosquito season… but it’s a statistics game, really. knowing that 1 in each 4 symptomatic cases are fatal, i really didn’t want to risk it.

after checking in portugal (and poking a few pharmacies in spain as well), we quickly realized it was not going to happen, and an email to the lab that makes them confirmed that they’re having trouble delivering stock to southern europe… so when we were planning the trip, the thought crossed our mind that we might as well get it in taiwan.  we checked, the price didn’t seem to be that different from what we’d pay in portugal, so let’s book it!

when the day came, things were a little messy… a bit like a paper chase around the hospital! go to the other building of the hospital -> register -> talk to the doctor -> take this paper and go pay for everything -> get the vaccine from the outpatient pharmacy -> come back here to take it… pfeww! it took a couple of hours to go through all the steps, but somehow, we managed to do it. the doctor was young and chatty, perhaps a little surprised to see foreigners on holidays taking vaccines… but he explained everything carefully and even gave us suggestions of places to visit in taiwan. :) the hospital wing we were at was quite crowded with people going about their appointments and exams, but somehow, everything seemed to work. when we got to the hospital’s pharmacy, the prescription was already ready and waiting for us.

the vaccine itself was easy-peasy: super quick and painless and no significant side-effects afterwards. and now we wait a couple of weeks and we’ll be immune for the next 20 years. check! ✔️

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just life

weeknotes, 28/22

a quiet (and very hot) week.

– postcrossing celebrated its 17th anniversary, and it’s a little bit astounding. :) how many internet projects have lasted this long? we celebrated with an overdose of cake, from a cute new café in town.

– turns out, the tingling in my arm is the beginning of another herniated disc, this time towards the end of my neck… sigh. i still have to see a proper doctor, but yeah. more of the same, just in a different spot.

– got a quote for aligning my teeth with one of those fancy invisible thinguies this week, out of curiosity. the treatment is several thousands of euros and 2 years long, and includes taking out all my wisdom teeth and then some, to make room to straighten things out… do i want to do that? on one hand, my teeth are healthy and i don’t want to risk ruining that somehow… but on the other hand, they’ve always been more than a bit wonky. i don’t know what to do. :(

– in order to beat the heat, we’ve become the kind of people who only leave the house early in the morning and late at night. we’re hanging in here, trying to be clever about the shades and windows, to avoid using the AC too much. so far, so good… though i really wish we had a tiny pool!


– today i got up extra early, saw the sunrise at the ria and met a new friend. i think i’ll call him bush.