I used to be healthy... Sniff! Sob! Sigh! Part 2

It was a surreal moment. I could feel myself suppressing laughter as he pushed the tip of my nose up to peer into my nostrils with the aid of the torchlight.

I had to make a visit to the doctor again this afternoon due to what I can only refer to as side effects of the flu that attacked me over three weeks ago, not to mention the few social invitations I had to decline, including one for tea just this afternoon with two friends I haven't seen in awhile and probably will not see in a long time because they are both being relocated out of the country!

The thing is, far from getting better in time as Leona Lewis emphasizes in her song that goes with the same title, the everlasting cough seems to have hurt my ribs to the point that tears freely poured out just the other day when I had run out of my supply of fisherman's friend and started having a fitful, uncontrollable coughing marathon (I've also been taking the cough medicine prescribed by the doctor and several traditional recipes courtesy of the mom), and to make matters worse, the pain seems to have spread even further to my external obliques and possibly even my glutes that sitting down is very, very painful. Standing up and sleeping is kind of alright, but walking seems a bit of an issue too. So my visit to the doctor was basically to obtain some pain killers so that I can live life like a normal person (I was hoping for an injection), and instead of that I had my nostrils scrutinized. One of my colleagues seems to be facing the exact same issues as me, but he was warded the other day because he started coughing blood. Turns out, his coughing of blood was not tuberculosis or cancer as suspected, but merely an internal injury caused by his consistent coughing! (Plus there was something about him being very, very thin and not having enough fatty tissues to protect himself from said internal injuries)

Back to the visit to the doctor... as I was explaining my history, he actually had the gall to tell me that I walked just fine, so my pain couldn't be that bad! (Of course I walked alright, it was a muscular ache, not a broken bone!), and he had that skeptical look in his face... probably thinking that I was some sort of junkie or something. Why don't doctors ever take pain seriously? (It happened once back in late 2005/early 2006 and I have quit going to that particular doctor for that very reason) Nevertheless, he gave me some medication, including some medicine for flu, (but why???), painkiller, cough medicine (again?), and some antibiotics... I took the painkiller about two hours ago, and seeing that I can actually sit down and type this out, looks like it is working indeed... we'll see how the rest of it goes though...