Tuesday, April 8

Today at school I had a chemistry test that I didn’t study for, but I was pleased enough to find out that AP Chem has not complete abandoned me, and I was actually able to understand a lot of the test. School was going great until physical education after lunch. I was partners with Chichi, and we were running around the basketball court in the gym when I felt this horrible pop at the bottom of the left side of my rib cage, and my entire chest was filled with shooting pain. I stopped immediately and told the teacher I had t go to the nurse. Two friends, Isi and Rocio, were not doing PE that day, so they came with me. My left side had been bothering me for about 10 days, but I had always just kind of put it out of my head and decided it would just go away. I have been sick with a bad cough for about a month now, and my side hurt a lot when I coughed, so I thought they might be related. I wasn’t really surprised when the school nurse told me I had pulled an abdominal muscle from coughing so much and that I should call Nancy right away to take me to the hospital. I called and she came and got me, although she was worried about the insurance and didn’t know how we were going to do it. I was more worried about the crippling pain in my side. We got to the Fusat, which is a clinic next to the Jumbo and I checked in. We had to wait in an emergency room cubicle for about half an hour before someone came in to see me. I told her everything that had happened and she examined me to make sure it wasn’t appendicitis or anything. She confirmed it to be a pulled muscle and prescribed me 2 muscle relaxers, cough syrup, and something to clear the infection out of my lungs so I would stop coughing. Nancy had to pick Monse up, so she dropped me off at the Jumbo to get the medicines. I got them, bought myself a self-pity soft serve ice cream cone, and walked home. I spent the next few hours writing in my blog and hanging out with Monse and Maxi, but I was honestly just feeling tired, so I ended up going to sleep around 8:30. People say that the hardest exchange moments are the ones when you’re sick and you feel alone and helpless and just want to be home with your mom and able to communicate in your own language, but I really didn’t feel that way. I had no trouble explaining what was wrong to the doctor or to my mom, and I felt perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I’m usually pretty mature about being sick because I know that it will pass quickly enough. The medicines they gave me lasted 5 days and my left side was more or less healed by then.