black tongue!?
Dear Friends,
Being under constant stress has apparently crippled my immune system. Let me list the ways:
-Upper urinary tract infection: This type infects only the bladder and possibly the kidneys, so it is somewhat asymptomatic compared to the more common lower UTI.
-Yeast infection: I'd never experienced this before using a Korean sauna. Possibly the cause? I don't know.
-TMJ: This is when the jaw begins to make popping sounds, it hurts to bite and chew, and it becomes difficult to open the mouth wide, etc. It is probably due to clenching my teeth in surpressed anger whenever my boss springs things on me without any advance notice. Let's see, that would be nearly every day, several times a day. Also, it is due to being given tasks to do that are impossible to actually do well. Such as being asked to call the students at home and having to speak to their parents, who do not speak English, and being asked to discipline the children by myself when we don't really share a common language, and the only thing they really seem to understand is violence. (Not that I'm hitting them or anything. I just occassionally threaten to hit them with a ruler.) To do these tasks I have to work ten times harder at them than a Korean teacher would, just so I can get results that are one tenth as good.
-Black hairy tongue: Finally, to add insult to injury, there is fungus growing on my tongue! The possible causes of this harmless condition: Eating soft foods; check due to TMJ.
Candida yeast; check.
Antibiotic use; check due to UTI.
Drinking tea, coffee, and red wine; check.
Pepto-bismal use; check due to heartburn.
So, basically the only criteria I don't meet is being an elderly smoking intraveinous drug user.
And being in Asia, smoking is becoming increasingly likely due to peer pressure...just kidding.
-Tasha
P.S. remember this is on top of normal travelers' diahhrea, and the occasional discovery that I can't eat certain foods, such as cuttlefish, which everyone says is very delicious, yet it causes me violent illness.
Being under constant stress has apparently crippled my immune system. Let me list the ways:
-Upper urinary tract infection: This type infects only the bladder and possibly the kidneys, so it is somewhat asymptomatic compared to the more common lower UTI.
-Yeast infection: I'd never experienced this before using a Korean sauna. Possibly the cause? I don't know.
-TMJ: This is when the jaw begins to make popping sounds, it hurts to bite and chew, and it becomes difficult to open the mouth wide, etc. It is probably due to clenching my teeth in surpressed anger whenever my boss springs things on me without any advance notice. Let's see, that would be nearly every day, several times a day. Also, it is due to being given tasks to do that are impossible to actually do well. Such as being asked to call the students at home and having to speak to their parents, who do not speak English, and being asked to discipline the children by myself when we don't really share a common language, and the only thing they really seem to understand is violence. (Not that I'm hitting them or anything. I just occassionally threaten to hit them with a ruler.) To do these tasks I have to work ten times harder at them than a Korean teacher would, just so I can get results that are one tenth as good.
-Black hairy tongue: Finally, to add insult to injury, there is fungus growing on my tongue! The possible causes of this harmless condition: Eating soft foods; check due to TMJ.
Candida yeast; check.
Antibiotic use; check due to UTI.
Drinking tea, coffee, and red wine; check.
Pepto-bismal use; check due to heartburn.
So, basically the only criteria I don't meet is being an elderly smoking intraveinous drug user.
And being in Asia, smoking is becoming increasingly likely due to peer pressure...just kidding.
-Tasha
P.S. remember this is on top of normal travelers' diahhrea, and the occasional discovery that I can't eat certain foods, such as cuttlefish, which everyone says is very delicious, yet it causes me violent illness.