Stubborn Pride

Hi. It's only after 8 here but I think I am doing anything and everything that will delay my making a decision about whether to go to an ER tonight or not. Yeah, it sounds worse than it probably is. You may remember that I've been complaining about a sore throat the past few days. And how miraculously on Thursday it was so much better. Well, it's not so much better any more. And I'm actually scared. Trying to find a doctor Wednesday night was stressful and I do not want to bother anyone or be a burden so if I could find and get to the doctor on my own and speak fluent Danish in about 5 minutes time then this probably wouldn't be so hard! But I can't. I don't, actually, would be better. I have health insurance, thankfully, but it's hard to explain that to someone and then ask them to drive you. I haven't done it yet. Can you tell? Ah, I'm scared. And I probably shouldn't be this open on a blog either. So, at that, I'll stop. But would you please pray for me? I'm sure I'm blowing whatever this sore throat/swallowing thing is way out of proportion but I would so appreciate any and all prayers and thoughts. Pray for guidance, courage, humility, determination, and peace of mind.

Happy July 4th, by the way. There's nothing special going on here and I guess you could say I celebrated by sleeping in, which is hard to do when it's above 75 by 9 am. I lazed around the rest of the morning and at noon went out shopping. I pass some shops on my commute to work every day and wanted to check them out. After two hours of shopping I can say that I bought a hair clip and ice cream (black berry sorbet with karamel ice cream underneath). Came back to the house and it was HOT. So I did some laundry and took a nap. My throat actually hurt laying down and has continued to do so today, hence the first paragraph. Anyway, after my nap I decided to see if I could get some postcards. I ended up riding Lise's bike to the store (awesome!) and didn't buy postcards but did get food stuffs. I bought beef tips (I think) and peppers and bbq sauce (yeah, I couldn't resist, I need some flavor!) and a couple other things. Came home (biking up the hill was warm to say the least), put stuff away and eventually got to talk to my mom. After that I started watching another movie (it's just too hot to go anywhere and I'm still tired) once I made dinner, which was delicious! Now I'm at the point of the last paragraph. So my next post will tell whether I went to the ER or didn't.

Happy 4th of July!
Bekah

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I decided to simply add to this post instead of waiting for tomorrow. After praying, crying, finding a hospitalet covered by my insurance, and talking with my mom again, I called the hospitalet to see if someone would advise me whether I needed to come in to see a doctor. Writing it down it doesn't seem that stressful or hard. It was. Mostly because I'm incredibly prideful and don't like asking for help. If I called the place I would have to ask for English; if I went to the place I would have to ask for English as well as a ride or directions there.

But I did call.

The first woman answered in Danish and I requested English. After explaining what I was feeling and why I was calling I was transferred. The second woman answered in Danish, listened to my explanation and told me I should call the Medicine Doctor on call. She gave me the number and we hung up. I called the number and found myself listening to an automated voice messaging system, you know, the kind that says "Welcome to blah blah blah. Please enter the phone number of the person you are trying to reach. If you don't know the number select from the following menu...." and so on. One problem: it was in Danish. I said English once or twice thinking maybe that would change it--it was a shot in the dark. One bit of encouragement was I recognized the numbers when they were said. :-) Anyway, eventually I reached a third woman and, after asking for English again, I gave her some basic info. I didn't have a certain health number she wanted so instead of being a student I'm a "tourist" in their computer system. Totally okay with me. I explained what I was feeling and she said to take ibuprofen (or something like that), drink lots of water, sleep with my head elevated and call them tomorrow if things got worse. Granted, I've been doing that so far, just not "religiously." But it was still a comfort to know that as far as she could tell I didn't need to come in tonight. So water, pills, elevation it will be.

I would still appreciate your prayers and thoughts, though, as this isn't exactly over. One thing I am grateful for is that I can still eat and drink. Yeah, swallowing hurts a bit but I haven't lost my appetite, don't have a fever and can still down food. Little blessings along the way. :-)

I've finished The Children of Huang Shi and will probably head to bed in an hour or so (that's when I can take more ibuprofen). Yujie didn't sleep well because of the heat last night so I'm also grateful I was able to sleep. And I pray again tonight I will be able to sleep as well.

Enjoy your fireworks later tonight and I'll be back again tomorrow.

Thank you for praying!
Bekah