My Valve!

Yangshou, China

I have gone and done some damage to myself.

After our night out in Kunming, I took a doxycyclene (sp?) tablet (anti-malarial) just before bed without drinking any water. I woke up several hours later with an intense burning/stabbing pain just under the bottom of my breastbone. Sitting on the toilet was no help. Some relief was found by drinking many glasses of water. After 6, the pain was reduced enough that I could go back to sleep.

Since then, I have had a persistent pain in the same area minus the burning. It feels like I have something sharp stuck at the bottom of my esophagus. The sensation is worst in the morning and when I swallow (especially hot liquids). Hunting around on the internet, it sounds like I have either some kind of acid reflux problem or an ulcer. Both of these can be treated with medicine.

The pain is not getting any better, so I am calling in the professionals. There is a hospital here in Yangshou that reportedly has some English-speaking doctors and Erin L has friends that might be talked into medical translator duty. I hope to go there today and get checked out. Fingers crossed that we can get this fixed up quickly. It is starting to worry/annoy me.

BTW - A Confederacy of Dunces is a very good book indeed.