Ouch!

My body is falling apart.

Day 2 of arriving in Shanghai: I sprain my left ankle in a very serious way. As I walked down a set of non-moving escalators, I misstep and hear a loud pop! sound. Pain! Pain! Pain! I have to hold onto Ryan’s arm as I hobble down the rest of the stairs. Later that night, I wake up in the middle of my nap, feel my ankle throbbing and look down to see that it has swollen up. It is difficult to walk. I never get it checked out by a professional and to this day I do not know if it is permanently damaged or not. It doesn’t hurt anymore and rarely do I feel an ache. But I know it's probably still there.

China’s National Holiday (Golden Week): I am fine until the last few days of the Golden Week. Luckily I was on holiday and did not have to work. But, on the last few days of the Golden Week I suddenly fall ill. As in, seriously ill. I had come home early from a dinner with a slight headache. The next morning, it was a chore to walk the few steps over to Darleen’s apt for a homemade breakfast. I had to decline an invitation to the Science and Technology Museum because my whole body just felt sore and horrible. My body later rejected the breakfast and any other foods I would attempt to eat for the next few days. I could barely keep water down and managed to eat a few slices of bread. I lay in bed with a fever, chills and pounding headache for about 3 days. I had a big homework assignment due so I would alternate: write a paragraph and nap for an hour, repeat. No roommate Sina was still in America. I had no way of leaving my apt if I needed anything, but thankfully Darleen would check up on me when she could. I had never, in my life, been that sick before. To add to this, the hacking cough that I caught because of my low immunity would remain with me for about 2 months until I left winter in Shanghai for warmer temperatures in Southeast Asia during Spring Festival.

Sometime in March/April: I am teaching in class and bending down to write something on the lower half of the whiteboard. I stand up and all of a sudden something pops loudly behind my right knee. I cannot straighten out my right leg because the pain is so intense. But, the show must go on so I am kinda hopping and putting all my weight on my left leg as I continue to finish up the lesson. Luckily I was about to start bookwork which meant independent work for the students. I tenderly put some weight onto my right leg and it hurts to support it. For the next two weeks, I cannot kneel or bend the knee, but I would accidently re-pop whatever it was 3 more separate times, all while squatting or kneeling for something. It really hurt. From then on, I am cautious whenever I have to bend my right knee and actually try to avoid doing so.

Today: I am packing up my luggage when all of a sudden as I am on my knees and moving around, I hear and feel that grossly familiar pop behind my right knee again. I thought it had healed, but apparently not. I struggle and hop to stand up and sit on my bed. Ouch!

What else is going to break down? Not to mention the mysterious bruises that I sometimes find on my body.