Update from the sickbed

We are both feeling better. That's the update. 

Below is my clothes-drying plan. The outer shutters are to keep out the day's heat, but today, they are serving as a clothes hanger. Dan doesn't understand why I closed them, but I figure that if places at the beach don't want your towels hanging off the balcony, the people running this place don't want your underwear hanging off their shutters. 

So yesterday, I went out to find yoghurt and bananas for the one who could not walk without holding onto a wall. I get it; vertigo is awful. So out I go to the Passeig de Gracia, which I apparently the uppity shopping area in Barcelona. I was surrounded (literally, as in any big city) by people, some of whom were quite glam in their barely-covered bodies. Look. I just need yoghurt. I don’t need to feel older or fatter, but thanks anyway. 

I find a convenience store, figure out which thing is yoghurt, grab two sad-looking bananas, and pay the grumpy cashier. On my way back, I spot a pharmacy. Here, as in France, the pharmacy is the place to go to get healthcare advice when a prescription is not available or needed.  The nice young man, who spoke English (self-taught, just like our taxi driver, Alejandro... amazing!), said that for Dan's nausea and my lower GI issue, we could take the same thing. I think that it's a silica gel (isn't that what they put in those packets that you find in your shoe boxes?) that he said would absorb pathogens. That sounded good enough for me. 

We each had to take two packets. So inside the packet is a gel that you can either 1) take directly or 2) dissolve in liquid. You know that fine dust that occurs when you sand off spackle that's been applied and dried? That's what this stuff made me think of. So it was door #2 for both Dan and me.

After that, I looked up the side effects of the antibiotic that Dan was on. Seems that a rare side-effect is dizziness. Since Dan has never had dizziness or this antibiotic, I decided to request a consult from our favorite PharmD. Cody happens to be on vacation in Cali with Autumn, but I bothered him anyway. I mean, we paid for him to get that degree, right? He graciously (as always) accepted my request and advised Dan to top the antibiotic. (This is what I thought he should do, but I'm not that kind of doctor.) He also said that this particular antibiotic isn't used much in the U.S. Huh. So thanks, Bear, for the info. With only one more day of pills to go and his mucus clear (ewwww - I know, but wanted you to know that the infection seemed to have cleared), stopping wasn't a hard decision for the patient. Correlation doesn't equate to causation, but Dan is feeling better today. 

As for this week's weight-loss regime, the spackle gel seems to have worked. Fingers crossed. 

If we both feel better, we have 5:45 PM appointments to tour the Sagrada Familia. While I hate to miss it, I hate us being sick more, so we will call that in about five hours.  Hopefully we will have more interesting posts in the next couple of days. My congestion is a little better as is my cough. So things are looking up (knock on wood).