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Entry #27 – The Anatomy of Vomit

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When I woke up this morning I had no idea that I’d be writing about this – that is, until I heard a female colleague of mine at the office heaving away in the ladies restroom. It sounded like a cow being strangled with barbwire and at the same time being raped by a pig. The excruciating sounds gave me concern because this was far beyond food poisoning or choking on a McTasty (those burgers are HUGE!!! not available in Nigeria tho).

Now rumour has it that the ‘heaver’ was trying for a baby recently so could it be a simple case of morning sickness? You can never tell. Perhaps what’d be more interesting (for me) would be knowing what the vomit looked like – was it brown, yellow or a mixture of both? was it runny, chunky or clear like dog drool? was it pungent, ammonia-esque, or akin to a block of sour cheese which 3 days ago used to be the semi-skimmed milk for her cereal.

Well curiousity never really killed the cat, did it? In fact it’s the curiousity thats killing me. The images of vomit in my head (ok, that didn’t sound right) are probably worse than the actual thing. I’m off to the loo to find out 😛

~Prevention is better than cure

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  • On arrival into Nigeria, you need to get hold of some anti-malarial drugs asap. Malaria can kill but drugs are available in our pharmacies to combat or prevent the attack of the mosquito-borne disease. There is also the option of having a Chloroquine injection administered to you in a hospital as a preventive measure. You would have to register with a hospital first in order to do this.
  • Don’t panic if you get bitten by a mosquito. At worst you are more than likely to just have a sore bite/rash since not all mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite (Follow this link for an animated tutorial). Use a bed net and spray your bedrooms with insecticide e.g. Baygon, Raid, etc as mosquitoes feed at night time.
  • There are also body creams available at local pharmacies that act as a mosquito-repellent. They usually have a pleasant smell and can compliment the use of insectide sprayed around the room.
  • Be wary about living close to stagnant water. This is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, especially lagoon areas. Make sure you only drink filtered water or bottled water (approved by National agency for Food and Drug administration  and control, NAFDAC).