Teething troubles with the Kenyan job
Part of my preparations for Kenya involved going to the dentist to make sure my teeth were OK. I knew I had a cavity that needed seeing to so got in touch a couple of weeks beforehand. Of course, the dentist couldn't actually see me for a week and then had to make another appointment to do the actual work as it transpired that the cavity had touched on the nerve pulp in the tooth which meant I needed root canal work. This was scheduled for the Wednesday before I flew but, alas, illness forced it to the Thursday morning. By Thursday evening the increasing pain in my gum made it pretty clear that I had a problem.
Come 8AM on Friday I was on the phone to the dentist and got an emergency appointment. By now the pain was raging. The dentist confirmed, with a second opinion from her colleague, that yes I had an infection and prescribed two different antibiotics including one which I could not drink alcohol with at all. When I picked up the prescription the chemist reiterated this point "No drinking with this one". OK, OK, I get the point! And pain management? Cocodamol and ibuprofen was all they could do. That pretty much wiped out my Friday which I'd pencilled in for last minute shopping and lunch with a friend. The shopping was haphazard and I wasn't exactly a sparkling conversationalist over lunch preferring to look miserable instead.
The one bright spot lay in me being so off my head on painkillers I didn't feel the pain of buying a fancy new camera, a Sony Nex5. Oooh, it's shiny and nice.
Some sleep came on Friday night courtesy of a sleeping tablet but didn't prove to be that restful or long. A constant regime of painkillers through the day saw me eventually on the train to London woozy from the amount of codeine I was on. The original plan had been for a convivial glass of wine or two, chat and food with another friend but that was torpedoed by the tooth and turned into food and me once again being sullen and little fun.
Then, on to Heathrow Terminal Three. Ah, Heathrow, what can I say? It's crap, that's what I can say. particularly if you're off your head on pain and painkillers. Unfortunately by this point my head was swimming but either the pain was getting worse or they were no longer cutting it as I was hurting really quite badly. Sitting there, waiting for my flight I was beginning to think the antibiotics weren't working. If you've ever had a root canal infection you may appreciate where I was. If you haven't, good for you. To be honest I was seriously mulling over cancelling the flight but in the end staggered on, head spinning.
The flight itself was fine and with the aid of another sleeping tablet I managed to get four hours sleep, and then, before I knew it (pain killers, remember?) we were touching down in Kenya! W00t!
John, the head of the outfit I'm working with, came to collect me from the airport. Nice chap, shame I couldn't hold a decent conversation with him which has been something of a recurring theme of late. We stopped for coffee on the way to the apartment at a place on the edge of a game park (the only game park in a capital city in the world I was told) but alas, no game to be seen. The apartment itself is nice enough, regular home from home as you can see from the pics below.
If it's good enough for the FBI it's good enough for me...
The only shame is the wifi doesn't work, so I've been getting internet withdrawal symptoms, trying to use CNN on the TV as a substitute. Didn't really help though. Even so I managed to make it through the day and went to bed at 10pm local time in order to help get my sleep cycle sorted.
Come 8AM on Friday I was on the phone to the dentist and got an emergency appointment. By now the pain was raging. The dentist confirmed, with a second opinion from her colleague, that yes I had an infection and prescribed two different antibiotics including one which I could not drink alcohol with at all. When I picked up the prescription the chemist reiterated this point "No drinking with this one". OK, OK, I get the point! And pain management? Cocodamol and ibuprofen was all they could do. That pretty much wiped out my Friday which I'd pencilled in for last minute shopping and lunch with a friend. The shopping was haphazard and I wasn't exactly a sparkling conversationalist over lunch preferring to look miserable instead.
The one bright spot lay in me being so off my head on painkillers I didn't feel the pain of buying a fancy new camera, a Sony Nex5. Oooh, it's shiny and nice.
Some sleep came on Friday night courtesy of a sleeping tablet but didn't prove to be that restful or long. A constant regime of painkillers through the day saw me eventually on the train to London woozy from the amount of codeine I was on. The original plan had been for a convivial glass of wine or two, chat and food with another friend but that was torpedoed by the tooth and turned into food and me once again being sullen and little fun.
Then, on to Heathrow Terminal Three. Ah, Heathrow, what can I say? It's crap, that's what I can say. particularly if you're off your head on pain and painkillers. Unfortunately by this point my head was swimming but either the pain was getting worse or they were no longer cutting it as I was hurting really quite badly. Sitting there, waiting for my flight I was beginning to think the antibiotics weren't working. If you've ever had a root canal infection you may appreciate where I was. If you haven't, good for you. To be honest I was seriously mulling over cancelling the flight but in the end staggered on, head spinning.
The flight itself was fine and with the aid of another sleeping tablet I managed to get four hours sleep, and then, before I knew it (pain killers, remember?) we were touching down in Kenya! W00t!
John, the head of the outfit I'm working with, came to collect me from the airport. Nice chap, shame I couldn't hold a decent conversation with him which has been something of a recurring theme of late. We stopped for coffee on the way to the apartment at a place on the edge of a game park (the only game park in a capital city in the world I was told) but alas, no game to be seen. The apartment itself is nice enough, regular home from home as you can see from the pics below.
If it's good enough for the FBI it's good enough for me...The only shame is the wifi doesn't work, so I've been getting internet withdrawal symptoms, trying to use CNN on the TV as a substitute. Didn't really help though. Even so I managed to make it through the day and went to bed at 10pm local time in order to help get my sleep cycle sorted.
posted by Bill at 6:05 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home