Queen of the Random Ailment

And in keeping with my life's theme of random ailments that confound even the medical professionals, I now have infected gums due to an unfortunate incident with a toothbrush. And by "unfortunate incident", I mean I accidentally stabbed myself in the upper left gums with my toothbrush while brushing them on Friday morning. There was no blood and it didn't break skin (do gums have skin?). I spent Friday and Saturday mostly just feeling like I had bruised gums. But yesterday, it hurt to eat and drink and when I woke up this morning, it hurt to move my mouth at all. So I took a look and sure enough, what is bright red and white and swollen all over? MY GUMS! Ugh. So I'm to swish with warm salt water 3 - 4 times a day to try and kill the bacteria all up in there. My first dose is heating up on the stove as we speak.

In other news, I'm pretty sure I drank unclean water last night. And by "unclean water", I mean it came out of the sink faucet and was probably piped in from the nearby lake that all the garbage runs into. I'm not 100% sure about the unsanitary-ness of what I drank though, so I'm trying not to be a hypochondriac about it. Here are the facts: I was at a restaurant with Aswan and the meal had a kick. Not a right away kind of a kick, but the punch-you-when-you're-not-looking kind of kick. It wasn't until AFTER I finished all my food that my whole head felt like it was on fire and the wounds in my mouth were BURNING and there were very nearly tears. I ate some cucumber slices and drank my entire glass of orange juice, which helped, but I needed more. So I stole an ice cube out of Aswan's drink, popped it in my mouth, and was sucking on it for awhile before the burn died down and I realized how NASTY it tasted and spit it out. I realize that I am from the boondocks, but even so, ice is not supposed to taste like manure. I ended up with some unpleasant and semi-explosive stomach issues today (I'm certain your imagination can fill in the blanks there, but if not, feel free to ask me for pictures. Just kidding - I didn't take pictures. That would be gross.), but fingers crossed for no permanent damage.

Oh, Indonesia...