A bout of Charles-flu

Or perhaps I should call it Costa Rican flu?

In either case, I've had this really weird flu since Monday when I woke up to a really bad sinus infection, back pain and my body generally feeling miserable - like moving in flu territory. I've tried taking it easy for three days now. I've tried sleep, water, baths, pain killers to little avail,  so by now it feels like the only sensible thing to do is go see a chiropractor or a physio.

Baths are actually the one thing that does alleviate the symptoms a bit, which is what makes me think of physcial therapy - and my friend Charles.

When we were in Costa Rica many odd years ago, he came down with a flu and, would you believe: the first treatment he could think of was not finding a doctor or a pharmacist, but finding a chiropractor.

He got it into his mind that the only thing that could cure the flu - he had fever, a runny nose and generally felt pretty bad - was seeing the chiropractor. Or perhaps it was that since he'd put off seeing one for so long now was the time to do so, or a combination of the two.

So we walked all over San Jose looking for a chiropractor. Our biggest challenge being that none of us spoke or read Spanish, and most of the Costa Ricans we met didn't speak English.

For the first hour or so it felt like a wild goose chase. But somehow it turned into an adventure when we finally found an American chiropractor-couple after lots of finger language, pointing and directing in one medical centre had led us in their direction .

The husband and wife took turns walking on Charles' back, while whichever of the two was free sat talking to me about the chihuahuas they bred.

Now I don't think I need one of those walking-on-your-back treatments, but a bit of physio, Rosen therapy, massage - well, you get the drift - that could take away the back pain would be nice.  If it works, I'll most definently put this flu down as the Charles-flu.

Here's a shot of the two of us from the first night in San Jose (our attire for the evening is due to my lugguage getting stuck in Newark, New Jersey. But that's a different story, I've touched on it here).

Update 06.03.2011: Turns out this wasn't a flu, just the result of me abusing my back (again), some of my back muscles were all locked up. So am very grateful for this old story from Costa Rica making me think of seeing a physio (smart move) who cured this "flu" instantly. Thank you Charles.