Imagine if we lived under the weather…We would never be found, never discovered… (warning- mega-long entry!) (Lara)

After missing the first week back at uni because of the Chicken Pox, you would think that due to your ability to fly/return to Melbourne after being pretty much grounded due to sickness for a week, you would be well enough to mostly get back to things as normal on your return, right??

Yeah… kind of……not really…
No.

On Sunday night I made my way to Sydney Airport and nervously boarded my flight, leaving behind the city I had been in for the past 2 or so months trying to relax and become a little more at peace with myself, and flew back to Melbourne. I was greeted at the airport by my friend, who drove me back to college where I dropped off my stuff and was bombarded with:

“You’re back!”

“Where have you BEEN the past 4394395439 days?”

“I heard you had the Chicken Pox!”

Etc. etc. Word travels fast when you live in a donut haha.

Anyway, I went back out to my friend who was waiting in the car, then we went to a restaurant at Crown for dinner, then to Strike bowling, then we came back to my college and watched Wedding Crashers…That movie seems to just drag on a lotttttttt. I then crashed and forgot about unpacking as I was exhausted and still had not much energy from still getting over the side effects of the Chicken Pox.

I went back to uni the next day on Monday. My first lecture for semester 2 was Genetics & Evolution, which I’m not minding at all…the other subject I’m doing- Working With Animals, is definitely my favourite though. At the moment we have an ongoing group practical assignment, where each group is assigned a pregnant rat, then we monitor the mother and the pups from birth till weaning…it’s amazing how much they grow in only one week!! The lectures have also been really interesting too, they’ve been on things like forensic entomology, animal behaviour, dog training, animals used in quarantine, in which the 2 speakers bought in their dogs which each were trained to signal smuggled objects in different ways- one passive, which sits when it smells something and the other one was active and digs at (more like rips open!) the box or whatever the object is contained in.

You’re probably thinking “Why’s this meant to be such a bad return??” Well I haven’t told you about Wednesday onwards yet.

So there I am sitting in the Rowden White Library (affectionately known as the “Rowdy” lately it seems), using the computers because my laptop can be a tad evil at times. Of course I got sidetracked and followed the clearly posted signs’ rules which scream in block letters “PLEASE DO NOT STUDY” or something likewise, and log onto MSN to chat to a friend. Then my phone receives an SMS, it’s my best friend from back in Sydney:

“Hey, I’m not really good at talking at the moment so that’s why I’m not calling you, but my mum passed away last night…hope to talk to you soon, love Danielle.”

All of a sudden nothing else mattered, I don’t think I even bothered logging out and closing everything I had open, even my university email. I suddenly felt extremely nauseous and was trying to avoid breaking down into a mess in the middle of the library, so I ignorantly pushed into the queue to get my student card back and did what felt like a space walk out of the library exit, feeling like I was floating but only just…waiting to come crashing back down to face the reality of what I had just been told. I somehow got downstairs, not caring for everyone staring at me as I walked like a disoriented zombie, tears rolling down my face and my bottom lip quivering as I struggled to contain an emotional eruption. I didn’t know where exactly I was heading, all I knew was I had to be alone. I have discovered that’s something only recently that I have resorted to- needing to be alone for a bit to come to terms with anything that may have come to me as a shock. So I floated back down Royal Parade completely oblivious to all in the world except my poor poor Danielle, whose family history/background isn’t exactly fairytale material to start with. I walked into college, up the stairs to my room and dumped my bag, made a quick trip to the bathroom, then walked back to my room…I could feel it coming any second…I felt little all of a sudden again; I felt little and dependent. So I sent a message to one of my friends telling her what happened then she came to my room. I couldn’t hold it in any longer- out came all those tears and the sobbing. It’s funny how humans are so dependent on each other, and how much our emotions can be tweaked with by another individual, or something that has happened to another person.

So after letting out all my tears and calling my parents and another friend to cry to them some more, I decided, as I had learnt from past experiences this year, to not let something that’s gotten me down to stand in the way of other things which would make me happy. Wednesday night I went to the St. Hilda’s ball at the Metro on Collins St.

It was a fun night and the bands were quite good. I’d just seen the Exploders at Byron Bay at Splendour in the Grass, so I knew a bit of their stuff and was able to sing along to a song. I met some new people, lots of them were ex-ressi’s of my college, and one was a resident at Ridley before it closed, but he got kicked out in his second week there :S!! The last band were really good, they did a medley of every type of song imaginable which went on for a good 20 minutes or so. The group I was with (there were about 9 of us) went absolutely nuts when Livin’ On A Prayer was played, it was so much fun to be able to get out with people who only want to have a good time and not worry about anything else at all. I was able to take my mind off things for a while at least which I appreciated. After the obligatory 3am stop-off at Hungry Jacks, 3 of us piled into a cab back to college and went to bed.

I have no uni on Thursdays, and I couldn’t start my work experience the first week back because it was still being finalised i.e.- times, days etc. I woke up on Thursday and went to cough- uh oh. It seems all of a sudden I couldn’t cough, talk, or hardly MOVE even…not good. So Thursday was spent in my bed, not a good place to lie awake in when there is so much on one’s mind! I was still feeling pretty down by the night, with absolutely no appetite at all so I decided to take the next day off and go to the doctors. Boy did I not know what I was in for.

Friday morning: I woke up, showered, forced half a pear down my throat (by now I couldn’t even swallow water, let alone food), and trudged to the tram stop outside and caught the tram to Brunswick to go to the doctors. After a 1 and a half hour wait, I saw a doctor who took one look at my throat and said

“WHOA!”

Not the most pleasing/assuring thing to hear from your GP. Apparently my throat looked rather abstract. (I hadn’t looked at it yet)

So there we go. I was diagnosed with severe tonsillitis and was given my doctor’s certificate, drugs, advice etc. then came back to college and got the phone call saying when Danielle’s mum’s funeral was. I was distraught that I had to miss it- as much as I was close to doing so; I was, in reality, in no state to fly let alone get out of bed. So I rang my mum and asked her a favour, and got a huge bunch of flowers delivered to the funeral. I’m glad my friend understood the situation because I would have been on a plane in a heartbeat if I physically could have :(.

I spent the next days taking my antibiotics, lying in bed and turning up to uni with a scarf furiously wrapped around my neck. It was pretty bad, having no energy from not being able to eat nor drink and being all dosed up on antibiotics. A week passed and my script ran out and I was still no better, and losing lots of weight…I think I lost almost all my muscle mass that I had before from water polo. I was weak, starving, thirsty and depressed. Bahumbug. So I ventured back to the doctor, this time waiting for 2 and a half hours. I saw a different doctor this time…
“Wow… That’s nasty!”

Thank you, kind sir.

He then went on to explain how if I kept on going on the way I was till Friday, I’d have to go back for blood tests and penicillin injections (ugh!). BUT he prescribed me to stronger antibiotics…MUCH stronger- 2000mg a day, 4 tablets a day on an empty stomach!! The regular dose is around 250mg.

“You might feel a bit sick after you take these.” Thanks, ‘Doc. He was right too. I went home with a rather large bulky box, containing 50 (!) extra strong narrow spectrum antibiotics for my tonsillitis, pulling a face every few minutes when I painfully sipped on my water bottle to keep my throat and the golf ball sized tonsils that were blocking my throat moist. The worst part was sleeping, because I couldn’t breathe through my nose which was blocked so this meant I had to breathe through my mouth which in turn dried out my throat, and I would wake up every few hours in EXCRUCIATING pain trying to swallow to moisten my throat, ahhhhhhhh!!!

So pretty much, my first 4 weeks of uni were spent either in bed or… at uni. It was only a week or so ago that I felt slightly well enough to swallow a bit more than a quarter of my food, put some much needed weight back on (I felt like half a toothpick), and…Return to water polo!!

I went back to water polo training last week and I was so happy to be back. Even if I had to do a lot of intensive swimming straight away, which made me feel how much fitness all my illnesses had made me lose. But even so I was able to train, and I was happy to be back in the pool throwing the ball around because this sport is such a big part of my life and strangely enough I wouldn’t mind if I was doing it all the time. There was one point where I was training or playing water polo every day and I loved it…I love having something I can enjoy so much no matter how demanding it can get.

In my first game back last Thursday, we won and we also tied this Thursday and I got the goal that evened out the score to 3-3 from a few metres back on the wing so I was pretty happy with that. Yay! Also, I’m going to the Australian University Games in Adelaide from the 24th-30th September in the water polo team! I’m so excited and I’ll be able to represent Melbourne University at something I love all of the time, because well you know studying can drag on a bit at times, especially writing out the genotypes of tens of little mutant flies 😛

Speaking of sport representation, last weekend I also played chicks footy on Saturday for my college. We won 14-1 (I think?) against Newman, and then we lost to Hilda’s, who then went on to win the final, so we don’t feel too bad about our efforts! On Sunday I went to a Collingwood (yes! Collingwood! And I support the Sydney Swans all the way!) game against Carlton with a friend who works for Collingwood. I sat amongst Peter Hellier and Eddy Maguire too. I must admit it was rather funny seeing Eddy’s face when Carlton was thumping Collingwood for a while!!

After the football I then went to the State Netball and Hockey Centre where I played mixed netball for Melbourne Uni. It was so much fun and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season, it’s so much more relaxed unlike the last 9 years that I’ve been playing girls’ netball! I scored in the first quarter too, because I had to fill in for goal attack until she arrived haha. After the game I came back to college and had dinner, and then we went out as a college to the Brunswick hotel to support the footy boys’ efforts in the grand final that morning, which we unfortunately lost to last year’s premiers St. Mary’s. That was also a pretty good night but I was so tired on Monday morning at uni because I didn’t sleep till about 4am!

So today I went to uni at 9.50 to do my rat prac recordings as I’m the Tuesday person, then I waited around in the library reading an article on the Chili Peppers (whom might I add I will be seeing in both Sydney and Melbourne!) in the Rolling Stone magazine, and on Wolfmother. Then I went to my Working With Animals lectures, where we learnt about the sheep industry, then animal behaviour. We watched a pretty funny video of a gorilla trying to get an apple floating in the water out with a stick hahaha.

Oh by the way I also went and saw my college’s production of Guys and Dolls…which was awesome..Especially the band, they sounded so good together. I’ve also been on various “retail therapy” trips with 2 good friends from college- Chrissy and Mel, and also a Melbourne “sight seeing day” where we walked through St. Paul’s Cathedral, Federation Square, and even went up the top of Rialto Towers which presented us with a truly beautiful panoramic view of Melbourne which I never knew could be possible, or hadn’t appreciated before as I forgot that just because you can’t see the ocean in the CBD in Melbourne doesn’t mean it’s not there..just not in as close proximity as I’m used to back home in Bondi!! One night Chrissy and I even went to Max Brenner at Melbourne Central where we had the BEST.WAFFLES.EVER. !

Tomorrow I only have one hour of class so that’s a relief as I’m still a bit sick with a cold and REALLY exhausted! Thursday morning I have soccer training, then I’m going trail riding for my working with animals prac which I’m looking forward to, then that night I have a water polo game, Friday is a 3 hour genetics and evolution prac, and I have a PowerPoint assignment due too which I’m about 1/4 of the way through, but that shouldn’t be too bad. Then on Friday night my college has its Booze Cruise aka- W.A.N.C aka- Annual Nautical Cruise or something along those lines which should be awesome. After the cruise docks I’m meeting up with my water polo team in the city for a bit of a bonding night. FINALLY Saturday morning I’m playing soccer for my college, and then I’m just going to relax. Overtired-ness is not a good thing! Oh well…I hope I can finally have one day back at Melbourne this time round where I say… “I’m not sick anymore!!”

Hope everyone is having a good second semester so far, and good luck for any mid-semester tests…I’m kind of freaking out although I know I shouldn’t be :p

Lara

EDIT: I forgot to add, I went to work experience last Thursday at Birds Australia! I never imagined the amount of work that goes into preparing field research, even volunteer programs! I came home with lots of information and the co-ordinator of their main project at the moment asked for my number, so hopefully I’ll be able to venture out with the team on a field trip one day soon!