Ah, dat's better...

Hello little blog, here I am again, all smoothed out and feeling (more or less) sane again...

M went out at the crack of today, over the road to where we knew there was a medical centre, and made me an appointment to see an English-speaking doctor this afternoon.

She was wonderful, listened carefully to my necessarily long explanation of The History of A Bad Bad Nose, discussed all sorts of options with me, was moderately horrified by the uber-ness of the antibiotics I have to take, and then examined me. She did a new thing - used a tiny ultrasound machine/screen on my face! It's the newest thing, the ultrasound can detect any *ahem* fluid in the sinus cavity, and report it as a tiny graph of position in the sinuses, and relative quantity. Sorry, I'm trying to sanitise this as much as I can! The ultrasound doesn't detect air, so it's very useful for giving the doc an idea of how extensive infection/inflammation is, without any violation of the poor old patient's nasal integrity. And speaking of a much-violated integer, I appreciated it very much - no pain, no poking, no icky-yuk factor at all. Unless you count ultrasound gel on your cheeks, but meh. That's NOTHING.

Anyway, she decided to give me antibiotics: one tablet I have taken many times before, and another which the University Pharmacy is trying to track down somewhere in Finnland and get made up into a solution for me to use with a dropper [this antibiotic is one that my Adelaide uberdoc prescribed for me earlier this year, and which I have been taking ever since. Supplies are getting lower than we expected for the trip, because we optimistically thought - hoped - it wouldn't continue to be necessary]. She also gave me a quick once-over as to anxiety symptom control, general sweatiness (she said "it's very humid, I am suffering too"!!), and told me that sinusitis never becomes catastrophic. As a means of helping me to calm down and stop thinking I'd have to abandon ship and come home with my nostrils under a skull and crossbones sign, this was very effective!

The Pharmacy will contact us tomorrow (I hope first thing) to see if we can actually get this solution made up. There is a possibility of us doing it this way: they might be prepared to post it to Tallinn for me. Or (get this!) I could always catch the ferry from Tallinn BACK to Helsinki to retrieve it! M even pointed out that one can fly from city to city in a helicopter in about 20 minutes. I'd be prepared to do that! But, yeah, kind of dramatic. Let's hope we don't have to consider it except as an amuse bouche...

So, today brought to you by swinging levels of despair, stiff-upper-lipness, a little blob of Vaseline, and a most, MOST satisfactory post-medical shopping expedition! And the kindness of both strangers and my dear M, who has a difficult time having fun when I am falling to bits. Send him a few hip-hip hurrays!