I just can’t win health-wise in Hyderabad
Friday, October 17th, 2008So last night I was finally feeling better - over my head cold, still a bit weak, but definitely on the road to wellness - and I was playing it safe. Tom and Siobhan had invited me out to debate watching at a bar in Hyderabad sponsored by a group of ex-pat Dems and then some further shenanigans (I think any party to which you invite someone named Siobhan can accurately be termed shenanigans or perhaps sionanigans), but I chose to only attend the debate, and only because it didn’t go too much later than dinner normally would. I wanted to rest up and really get better.
The debate was fun to watch in a group - even on tape delay - and the bar was a very weird/funky place to watch a presidential debate, what with its dim, blue lighting illuminating a modern bar scene complete with disco lights on the dance floor and semi-comfortable, ultra-modernist furniture. We came, we watched, we jetted in separate cars, and I was home to the guest house while Tom and Siobhan were off to their party.
Even when Tom texted me (humorous on my little phone which looks like its display is “a sticker” according to a number of folks) saying that he was having a bunch of fun and I should join, I remained resolute. No, I’m getting over my cold, I need to heal up.
Which is why I can’t help but feel disappointed, though not at all surprised, that I woke from a bad queasy dream at 5 this morning, to a bad queasy feeling in my stomach. Food poisoning. While previous bouts could have been described more as my stomach letting me know it generally didn’t like what I was doing to it as it became more or less upset with me over the course of a few days, this one was direct and specific.
I don’t know if it was the ice they put into my drink - I had asked for no ice, but didn’t feel like making a big deal/scene of it when ice showed up - or the mysteriously-caked-in-batter “stir fried vegetables” or the actually-finger-shaped chicken fingers (which I didn’t look too hard at, just ate) or even my late night snack of a bowl of cereal with milk followed by a square of dark chocolate. Heck, it could have been the water from the pitcher in the guest house, since pitchers are left to dry, after goodness knows what kind of a cleaning process, in a big cabinet frequented by ants the size of chihuahuas.
Point is, I’ll never know what did it, but something very unequivocally gave me food poisoning last night and, where I had been feeling weak before, I feel wobbly now. I have a week and three days to go to nationals, so I hope I can heal up fast. Yeah, between the water sanitation issues, the food prep sanitation issues, the presence of so many livestock (and their wastes) in and around the human population, and the pollution in the air, I would not suggest Hyderabad as a training destination.
I had already noticed that my immune system was under a lot of strain just by being in Hyderabad. Even working out had a significant impact on the chances I’d feel ill, and I just required a lot more sleep here than I do in Seattle, but man, actual food poisoning was a different level. BLEAH. I definitely recommend Colorado or Kenya or perhaps the Swiss Alps as training destinations before seeing about Hyderabad. The people and food here are lovely, but - unless nationals is hit by a wave of e. coli or a roaming herd of oxen decide to take up residence at the polo grounds - I doubt it’s doing anything for my training regimen.
