Monday, July 12:

In Hospital Pulau Pinang, I asked a nurse at the nurses’ desk if someone would raise my bed like a few others that I pointed to. I wished that I had known last night that the beds could articulate. My back hurt all night and morning, seemingly from the weight of my body on my spine. If I had my bed jacked-up to a 45° angle, it might’ve alleviated some suffering. I ambled back toward bed two, and while I waited for a nurse or orderly or anyone I looked out the south windows of C-block to the playground and the street beyond. Though several windows were tilted open and the ceiling fan above beds 1 and 2 was whirring at top speed, I began to feel very hot, as if I’d just hiked up Bukit Bendera. »→

Monday, July 12:

About 12:15 my bed was pushed to the radiology department again, and someone thrust another bottle of  banana-flavored contrast medium for me to drink. Afterward I struggled to shift my body from the bed to the curved tray that slides into the CT scanner. I was glad that I had received an analgesic recently. I got several scans, from my groin to my cranium before inching off the tray onto my bed. I was returned to the multi-care ward at 1:00. I was too late for lunch, but  I wasn’t very hungry. I just lay on the bed, wondering what’s next. I’d heard that the CT scan results would be available in the evening. I wanted to know if any damage showed in the new pictures of my shoulder and back. »→

Sunday night — Monday morning:

I was laid-up in bed 2 in ward C10, on the third floor of Hospital Pulau Pinang, not sleeping as I gazed at the white ceiling and a furiously-spinning ceiling fan — which dried my eyes.

I was there overnight because I felt  too battered, pained and weak to go home.  My upper back and lower neck hurt, where my neck joins my skull hurt, some ribs ached, I felt like my heart was being stabbed by a pencil, my shoul­ders were swollen and painful, the right knee hurt, my right hip and thigh were bruised and swollen, and I was rather immobile.  I wasn’t breathing deeply, either.  At home I wouldn’t have a health aide, so I thought that a hospital loaded with health care professionals which has strong pain medicines was the place to lay low for now. »→

I wrote optimistically a day ago that I was recovering from insecticide poisoning, largely because the dry, painful coughing had subsided. And I suppose that my headache had abated because I had taken an aspirin tablet.  I was still groggy/dizzy. I went walking -unsteadily- on the esplanade here. I felt like a staggering drunk. I likely wasn’t as visibly unsteady as I felt, but it was not a pleasurable stroll. I was just to eager to escape the apartment. We’ve had such beautiful weather, and I had been inert indoors, coughing and feeling miserable for days rather than enjoying recreation or photography in tropical sunshine. »→

I’ve been out of commission for more than two days since being poisoned Tuesday evening by anti-mosquito aerosol which was sprayed in George Town, Penang by MPPP employees blowing great clouds of it from wands. I have had a headache which won’t quit, grogginess/dizziness, dry, painful cough, muscular aches, joint aches, bone aches it seemed, near-continuous nausea (no vomiting), two miserable nights of fitful sleep …  I’m mostly recovered, I hope … I still have headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and sometimes the feeling that I’m about to puke. The painful coughing has mostly stopped. I have drunk gallons of water, trying to help flush-away toxins, if that’s possible. I hope that without the violent coughing I will sleep well tonight. †