the fever
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I woke soon after having eventually fallen asleep; maybe at 1:30 or so. Immediately I recognized that the nagging little sore through I'd had since about my fourth day in the city was worse. And that I had a mild fever.
I got up, took some meds and tried to sleep, and called Mari to let her know. The painkillers largely failed but after tossing and turning I eventually slept a bit. But now I was worried.
I started work a bit early and mentioned the incident to my boss and to my contact in HR. The latter was necessary because I'd been scheduled to go to the office to meet her, and I'd have to arrange a video conference.
Throughout the day, I received some packages that Mari had ordered: food and drink to keep me together in case I was "self-quarantined". The HR lady told me that I was quarantined as far as NN Life was concerned and was not to come back to the office for two weeks.
Then it was time to talk about that weird situation where we wouldn't be able to print things in the office in case of a national lock-down. And then at last it was my time to talk with HR about my staff. I'd prepared some notes and had had my staffer prepare an updated resume. In the end, HR and I saw it eye to eye. I reported this to my boss, and began dialing around the city to the various hospitals and clinics that Mari had listed for me in an email: they allegedly "spoke English". And by happy chance I managed to find a hospital that would take me. It was important to me that I got it addressed to night because tomorrow everything is closed as it's a holiday.
So I went, getting on the right (long-distance) bus, etc, only to notice upon arrival that someone from the hospital had tried to call me many times. Worrying about that, I walked in and wandered into the first office where I could see some women in auxiliary's garb and treated them to my shitty Japanese.
One of the ladies made some calls and led me on a trek. I did the paperwork and waited.
It took 2.5 hours in a deserted hospital but I emerged as I'd expected/hoped: On antibiotics and not bound for a detention camp. I have a throat infection and not Covid-19.
The poor doctors had to get all dressed in spray guards and moon suits and listen to my "Japanese". One of the docs made fair use of a translation device that I have to say worked fairly well. And when it got it wackily wrong you could at least trace the wrong verb or adjective back to an appropriate synonym.
The timing was apparently perfect for Corona virus: a sore throat four or five days after getting off the plane, then a fever on day ten. The difference being I would have had pneumonia today as well. Wouldn't want to face the real deal alone.
I enlisted an interpreter friend for the last twenty minutes to translate. I'm going to put her in my will. (Which I vowed that I will now make).
In addition to the 2x antibiotics I have some nice acetominophen things and something to prevent internal bleeding just because WTF.
I'd had a fair while to think about our global situation while I waited in the hospital. I'm going to be honest, I don't know when I'm going to see my family again. Porter airlines shut down until at least June, Boeing's skating toward oblivion, who knows where Air Canada and so on will land. Or what they'll be charging.