Tired Traveler

I haven’t written in a while. It wasn’t that nothing interesting happened or a lack of inspiration. I just wasn’t awake long enough to and do something and write a blog about it. Ever since I arrived in Cambodia I have been feeling super, super tired. Even at the moment of writing I am so tired that I just had a nap and then re-applied the anti-bag cream under my eyes!

At first I thought it was the warm weather, something I am not used to as a Dutch girl. I thought it was the constant moving, change in diet, the lack of good sleep as I often share a room with noisy strangers, or simply my body relaxing and feeling the accumulated tiredness of the past months. But I became kind of worried when the weeks progressed and the feeling of fatigue only increased. I started to have cold chills, pain in my bones (especially in my joints) and became very forgetful and unfocused.

Another reason why I didn’t worry at first was that my travel companion Rinskje experienced the exact same symptoms. I guess it became sort of normal to sleep for eleven hours and then having to drag ourselves to the sights of Cambodia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. We both had to run frequently to a toilet, as our bladders wanted to relief themselves every 45 minutes. This symptom became so annoying after a few weeks that I did go to a doctor in Auckland. She did some tests and it turned out had a urinary tract infection and also anaemia.

Some antibiotics and iron-rich food later I started feeling a whole lot better. The doctor in Auckland suggested that the anaemia could be a side effect of a virus, and that I therefore should get myself tested again. I went to the hospital in Wanganui, where a very nice Dutch doctor works. He checked me inside and out, and it turned out that I have (or recently have had) a virus or bacteria. He checked a few possibilities, so I now know that I do not have dengue or malaria. That’s a relief! The only thing that came up was a past infection of the cytomegalovirus, but it is not sure when I had that infection as there are no previous results to compare the outcome with.
Because the virus is still in my blood I have to go to my GP when I am back in the Netherlands. Just to make sure my body has got rid of this evil visitor. I know that I should rest at the moment, so my body gets a chance to recover. It is just so hard to do nothing when you are surrounded by opportunities to do the things you love and that you normally never get to do. It’s no fun to be in Raglan and not being able to surf!!!!!

Despite everything I gave it a go yesterday, but I shouldn’t have. I loved the first hour, the waves here are perfect. But then my body became so cold that I couldn’t stop shivering. I stupidly thought that if I would be more active, my blood would start to get running again and I would get warmer. In fact, I tired myself out to the point I nearly drowned. I swallowed at least 1 liter of sea water! I gave up and spent the rest of the day feeling exhausted, sick and cold. I am still recovering from those two hours today…..

Jonna (not in the best of moods)