The Funk Resolved

So, I must finish the story of my special case of Chinese Funk. I kept not feeling better and experiencing general malaise with a side dish of intermittent low grade fever. Jenna's nurses caught wind of my condition and sent me warning through Sally that I had better get myself over to the hospital (outpatient) to get checked out for H1N1 virus. Sally lined me up a translator to meet me there and I took a cab over. The translator, who was a young woman we knew quite well and liked, was waiting for me. She ushered me past a long line of people waiting for medicine at various windows to a quiet glass window where I paid a man some money and he sent me back into a room with doctors. They did the typical- "show tongue," "show throat," take temperature, listen to lungs. Then they sent me through another hall to a hole in the wall. I was instructed to put my hand into the tiny window so that a (not visible) person on the other side could get some of my blood. At that point, I started to feel a little freaked out. I guess the translator could sense that because she tried to distract me with what she must have thought was pleasant conversation. She inquired as to whether I had seen the new Twilight movie "New Moon," and then she said " I would really like to be a vampire" as my blood was being extracted into the tube. This did not comfort me in the moment.
While we waited for the blood test results, we went back to the first window, where I paid the man more money. Then back to the doctors' room through a drafting waiting area, where some people were curled up sleeping in big blankets and others were smoking cigarettes. The translator informed me that I had inflammation inside and they were prescribing an herbal formula plus some pharmaceudicals. When I asked if I had H1N1, everyone laughed and finally someone said "No, you have Common Cold."
I paid for the meds and left. As I was leaving, the translator told me about 5 times that I should avoid visiting Jenna and that Sally should too, because she might be carrying the virus I had and since Jenna is suseptable to infection, we should protect her from exposure. Sally had no signs of sickness, and we talked it over and decided that if she showered and changed into clean clothes just before leaving and wore a mask, it would be fine for her to be with Jenna. So the next day we ignored the translators' advice and Sally went ahead in. Well before noon she was kicked out of the hospital and told not to return until I had been without fever for 2 or more days. She was told that she was carrying the virus and even if she wasn't sick, she probably would be soon. She would put Jenna at risk. We were so pissed off. What about all the nurses and PTs and docs and massage therapists and such who treat all kinds of people everyday and come around Jenna? Are they somehow safer than Sally? We had to abide though, and arranged for two English speaking young ladies from China Connection (the agency who arranged the program for us) to come be with Jenna for a good part of each day until Sally and I were allowed back. At least she would have someone to communicate with even if it wasn't her sister or her good friend.
As for the funk, the next night I finally broke a sweat and the sickness started to leave. No more fever and I regained my energy, but I kept coughing like crazy and being congested as hell. I realized after days of this that it wasn't going to clear up until I got home and breathed clean air. And that is exactly what happened. As soon as I got home it quickly cleared up and now the funk is virtually gone. As for Sally, she come down with a Common Cold about 2 days after my special diagnosis. We didn't tell the people at the hospital though, because we couldn't handle them rubbing it in. I blamed her absence on "cramps," which didn't go over so well either, but at least no one could say, "We told you so..."

Emerging from the apartment for the first time "after the funk"