The bees helped you get your voice back

The most dreadful feeling in the world:
Suffering from headache and nausea



The best feeling in the world:
Vomiting after that



The dreadful:
Tearing my already sore throat while vomiting

The good:
Being able to sleep like normal human beings at earthly hours

The dreadful:
Waking up at 5am due to the worst throat pain ever

The dreadful:
Being unable to breathe while lying down

The dreadful:
Finding out I’ve lost my voice.

The dreadful:
Going to the doc at 9+am only to be told I’m queue #32. Doc was seeing #13 then.

The good:
Since the clinic was near, I walked home and waited at home… for 2 hours. Beats waiting at the clinic for 2 hours.

The dreadful:
Throat infection affecting vocal chords

The dreadful:
Not being able to eat despite feeling very hungry

The dreadful:
Not being able to help cyn at home when I did not have to go to work

The good:
Being able to sleep from afternoon till night.

~

I’m suffering from my worst ever sore throat in my pathetic 26 + years of life. It’s damn pain I tell you. Never swallow also pain. Swallowing is hell. I swear I never wanna suffer from this ever again.

It started from durians last Sunday night. However, the sorness was bearable throughout the week till early this morning. I woke up in pain and shock coz I realised I could not inhale smoothly. I felt like my whole throat was swollen and lined with thick mucus. I figured I may have torn something when I puked the night before. I took some pi pa gao and went “ah”. Yay, still got voice. Then, I tried to go back to sleep after sms-ing some colleagues.

Dad woke me up for work and I realised I’ve lost my voice…. Cannot teach anymore. Went to the clinic downstairs to register and drafted an email with instructions for the relief tutors taking my classes while waiting at home for the doc.

I saw the doc with kh. Kh was suffering from some throat thingy since Thursday. He too said that it was his worst sore throat ever. Usually he doesn’t even bother to see a doc unless he’s very sick. Hence for him to sms me asking for 24hour clinic on Good Friday just proves how much he has been suffering.

Both of us suffered from headache and body ache as well. We felt so much pain swallowing that we could not even eat proper food. That’s pure agony for piggies like us.

“My mum cooked mi fen tang and I can only drink the soup and stare at the mi fen feeling so hungry.” -- kh

He thought that mine was more serious coz I’ve got no voice. When the doc looked at his throat, she said it was real bad and asked if I wanted to see. She shone the torch down and the sight was simply eeewww…. There were dots of pus lining around his tonsils and down. I’ve never quite seen anything like that on a throat before.

He needed either an injection or the strongest throat infection antibiotics which cost a whopping $50 and if he still doesn’t recover, he may have to be put on a drip. Fwah… that’s serious. Poor boy is having his exams this coming week and he cannot afford to be put on drip.

When it was my turn, I showed the doc my ready-typed text on my hp to explain my condition. I summoned whatever whispers I have left in me to talk whenever necessary. Mine wasn’t as serious as his as there wasn’t pus. My throat was red and raw with gathering of bumps which became larger lumps at the sides of the tonsil and all the way down. The reson why I’ve lost my voice and he didn’t is coz my vocal chords were infected while his is tonsillitis.

“You two better stay away from each other.”

“We’ve been staying away from each other the past few days.”

I could not eat due to the pain when swallowing so I drank porridge soup with bits of porridge that felt like little grenades exploding in my throat before downing the medicine. If porridge grains felt like little grenades, the tablets were 3 F***ing atomic bombs.

When in pain, it’s better to be unconscious than conscious. With that in mind, I went to bed.

When I awoke, I found home-cooked food like broccoli with carrots, steamed eggs with tofu and plain porridge. One thing I’m thankful for whenever I’m sick is the privilege of having home-cooked food. For the past few times I was sick, I requested for broccoli and so I’m quite happy to see broccoli on the table just now.

My dad bought some medicine to brew from a Chinese medical hall. I smelled it and figured it was black plums (wu mei). I don’t exactly like the taste of black plums but for my poor throat, I’ll do anything. I sieved the whole concoction suspiciously, trying to spot for black bees. You do know that black bees are used in Chinese medicine as a cure for loss of voice right? I was shocked when I first found out about it the last time.

My da jie decided to help me scoop since I was being such a brat. She scooped one which looked like the body without legs and wings but I wasn’t exactly sure. It looked a little like a black bean with lines. Which black bean has segmented lines wan? Seeing that, she quickly poured that "bean" back and told me to pretend I didn’t see it.

That drink is a magic potion I tell you. It didn’t taste as bad as the normal wu mei drink and I got a little of my voice back in a jiffy! Throat isn’t as painful as before too.

When my parents came back just now, I questioned them if there were bees inside. Dad insisted there wasn’t. Then when my mum was scooping, she got a shock coz she saw one on the luo han, with wings, legs and all. She scolded my dad for lying. Hahaha… I thought it was very funny coz my dad was still very blur. He merely asked the person for throat and loss of voice medication and they gave him a ready-packed package. But then ah… how can he not see the bees when pouring the contents out to brew???

My joy was replaced with disgust.

As if to console me, my mum said, “Never mind la. The bees helped you get your voice back.”