It's never fun being sick. It's even worst being sick while living halfway around the world from mom's comfy couch and Kelly's chicken and noodle soup. I will survive. I always survive. Thriving is the challenge of the moment.

To entertain myself in my misery, I decided to blog about my ailments. More than anything, I could use your prayers. I'm too stubborn to stay home being sick, and that's what I'm pretty much forced to do right now. I'd like to get back to the kiddos at the center... probably the source of my illness to begin with. Nonetheless, there is much work to be done and I'd rather be there doing it than be stuck at home.

This is the conglomeration of medicines I have been taking, mostly all from the advice of others who have tried this or that. I hate menthol, so I haven't even made it through a whole cough drop without spitting it out. The Broncol stuff tastes like licorice, which I think I hate more than menthol. (Holding my nose today while chugging it down really helped!) The ibuprofen is for the body aches, the ACC-200 tablets dissolve in water and supposedly work similarly to Mucinex DM (Mucinex DM works WAY better, but they don't have that here). Med Lemon is a hot tea drink full of all kinds of special treats. Not sure how well it works, but sipping hot tea always has a soothing affect for any ailment. Otrivin I picked up today to help "nose drip". As you can see from the next photo, I've got a fair amount of that! I think the stuff helped a bit, though it stings... probably because my nose is beyond raw!

This is not even the HALF of it! I added one to the pile before I could even snap the photo. I've got... (wait, let me count them)... a pile of 8 used tissues beside me I've accumulated since I sat back down to load the photos and type up this blog.

I've easily sneezed at least 120 times today. They usually comes in pairs or in threes. Once today I had about 10 in a row. Please hold while I look up a synonym for how miserable that 20-second event was... tormenting, intense, extreme, irritating, torturous.

To recap: I will survive. I very much would appreciate your prayers. And although I'm not exaggerating about my symptoms, etc... I am always careful not too complain too much. I threw out any kind of "woe is me" card when God called me to this line of work. Yes, this is not fun and yes, it is uncomfortable--but I can only empathize all the more with people who are suffering daily from much more serious ailments and diseases.