hot update

My knees are feeling weak. No loving notions here… other than the fact that they have been working hard to protect me from kissing the floor today. 😛

We have had two weeks of humidity levels that have been higher than 70%. At 05:00 this morning, we were on 90%. It has dropped now to 70%, and I see there is a gradual increase predicted throughout the day today, so that by 21:00 we will be back to 90%. On the few days where we have been blessed with the much needed rain for our empty dams, humidity levels have remained the same. It’s that ‘I can barely breathe’ type of heat. I think that this is the worst our weather has ever been. February is always our hottest month, but it’s never been as bad as it is now. Which causes me to become overly concerned about what we have in store for us next month.

Our Winter months were a huge disappointment. June is usually the coldest time here – and that’s when things started going terribly wrong. June last year arrived, and we still walked around in short sleeves. In our entire Winter period, I seldom wore a scarf and lightweight jacket. My Winter sleepwear lay folded in the cupboard the entire time – I never even put a blanket on my bed. By the beginning of August, still Winter time, people were flocking to the beaches already.

My house is tiled, except for the bedrooms. The floors remain moist, and slippery. The brickwork on the veranda outside my bedroom looks damp. My indoor plants are wilting, despite me watering them.

And I think I am wilting too.

Bacteria and viruses thrive the most in humidity levels above 60%, so it’s no surprise that our healthcare system is currently under a lot of pressure. Due to very favourable conditions for bacteria and viruses, illnesses are resembling plagues at the moment. One of the greatest downfalls being the fact that most homes here do not have air conditioning – air con is reserved for the wealthy.

When humidity levels started getting uncomfortable at the beginning of December, I actually investigated the costs of purchasing smaller units – hoping to be able to put one in each of our bedrooms. The cost of one was the equivalent of what I earn in two months. So it was a no. Especially when I took into consideration the fact that we have such an unstable electricity system at the moment.

Having said all this, it will not surprise you that I got bronchitis shortly after New Year.
(I do usually get it around Christmas time, *rolling my eyes*, but 2018 I managed to successfully skip all that!)

I don’t like doctors. And with some of them the dislike is even personal 😛
I also have an aversion to antibiotics. They don’t react well with me – any of them. They leave me feeling listless and tired, and the heat is doing a good enough job of that already 😛 They also make me tearful and overly emotional. And did I mention tired?

But knowing my bronchial history, and putting my stubborn self in the naughty corner 😛  I hauled myself off to the doctor. I didn’t even fight with him when he gave me my prescription for antibiotics, and I cheerfully filled it and popped the first one. It was a rather strong 5 day course, and yesterday was 5 days post antibiotic. And I have felt no better – in fact, I am feeling worse.

A quick off-the-books consult with a GP friend of mine confirms what I suspected. I’m now at bronchial pneumonia stage.

No. I am not on another antibiotic – not yet anyway. I have promised to go and get another lot if I feel no better by Sunday though. For now, I am doubling up on a natural antibiotic that we have over here, and hydrating. I am going to rest a little more too. Speaking of which, I should probably go and lie down now for an hour, before I need to go and fetch my daughter from my school. Car drives are always great – I have air con in the car 😉

If you pray, please do – especially that these little growing suckers stay with me, and stay AWAY from my kids. But also that my health improves 😉
If you don’t pray, some cool thoughts will help too 😉