I had been a walking zombie for days. But the day I renewed my VISA I couldn't cope. I had woken up with pains from my arms, my legs and back. It felt I hadn't slept in days. I thought, "This is an odd thing to feel" even if the possibility was that I'm sleeping on a bad mattress.

I arrived at North General hospital for like the forth time, after finding one volunteer with Dengue Fever. First thing I did, of course was see Charlotte Cross who looked like s*** (I apologise if you read this). She filled me in on the stories. Moving masks, awkward questions and sympathy food (lots of fruit and power drinks - everything she needed was in sight).

I had my CBC and after an hour, the results came back. "You don't have Dengue Fever. But its possible that you have a virus." Oh, that's great. "Let's go to ER and find what it is they think of the results." So we did. After being interrogated, I got told that its rather strange. Low platelets and a rash. Its possible, not definite that I may have Dengue. "Come back tomorrow morning for another CBC." I then got jabbed which made me sleepy that I could sleep there and then. The YPS and interpreter were there and I wasn't comfortable with sleeping, not in ER with a really sick man behind the curtains.

One evening after another CBC (they monitored me as often as they could) I had the UK interpreter ask for me, whether they suspect I have Dengue. The doctor was like "Yes...."

After 5 CBCs and one urine test (costed VSO a hundred something pesos for my piss ooh) I had a GP tell me, there was nothing wrong. Would it be different, if they inserted a needle into my arm, after dropping it?

My last written prescription involved vitamins. VITAMINS! Are you kidding me!?? It was great to know it wasn't serious but how retarded is that!! Stress, paranoia and pathetic two hour visits for over a week. When I could just be sleeping it off!

As Charlotte Cross says; "Welcome to the Philippines."

The best part of the hourly waits was when the interpreter showed me the canteen one afternoon and we found the ER doctor eating on his lunch break.

"He's so big (we mean fat) and he's a doctor. Its not exactly brilliant is it?"

"Haha. No. This is not something we will talk about, not in here anyway!"

"What? Its true. Could you imagine him consulting someone with a heart problem that he/she needs to lose weight, when he's so big himself." haha.