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At 4:00 a.m. this morning one of this
country's vexatious insects put me in the hospital. When I first
came to Thailand I noticed that my friend had a strict policy of
keeping his doors
closed as a method of keeping the mosquitos out. I have tried
mimicking that policy, and for years it has worked very well.
Then a little over a week ago I began
to feel the mosquitos had launched an invasion operation to
recapture my living quarters. I killed 24 mosquitos in 2 days. I
still cannot find how they are infiltrating my checkpoints. Fortunately, their
numbers seem to have been dwindling. When I spotted one in the
bathroom this morning I was hoping he was the last. The toilet
seat was up, he zipped behind it, and I quickly put the seat
down going after him. I never saw where he went to because
that's when, along with the toilet seat, I went down. Here in
Thailand they seem to love tile floors that are slippery when
wet, and of course, the bathrooms here are designed for that
very purpose, to get wet. I slammed against the toilet on the
way down and scraped my shoulder on the sink. The middle toe of
my right foot was bleeding, the toenail broken down the middle
with one portion mostly removed. My bathroom floor kept covering
with blood that I kept conveniently hosing off the slippery
tiles and down the drain. Nice thing about Thailand is that the
emergency room doesn't cost very much more than going to see a
doctor during office hours. Before stepping out of the bathroom,
however, the mosquito buzzed by one more time and I splattered
him all over my beautiful white tile wall. Later, at the foot of
my raised bed, the doctor wanted to pull out the broken half of
my toenail and informed me that he would use a needle to inject
a pain killer. Then I saw why I needed a pain killer! It was to
relieve me of the pain from the needle! He insisted on
burying this gigantic needle into my middle toe which was just
too small to for a needle that size! All in all the visit costed
me about $77 U.S., which included a tetanus shot, antibiotics, and
pain killers. The only thing missing was a bouquet of flowers
and a get well card. I arrived home from the hospital and
hadn't even sat down yet, still looking over my assortment of
wonderful gifts from the hospital, when another mosquito buzzed
right past my eye! Score: Mosquitos 1, Me 0. My
brother tells me that the trip to the hospital was karma for
killing the mosquito. I don't believe that, I hadn't even killed
the mosquito until after my toenail was broken! |
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