As most of you are aware, I'm embarking on a new Peace Corps medical adventure. I have dysphagia. Now before you get too concerned, I've had it for a couple months now. It's not too serious. I mean, I'm unlikely to die from it, but it does present new challenges when it comes to food.
Dysphagia literally means "difficulty swallowing" and that sums up my problem pretty well. I swallow, and then begin to choke. It doesn't happen everytime (you swallow almost 600 times per day, I begin to choke just a few of those times), but it happens frequently enough that I decided to ring Peace Corps' medical office to have a very awkward conversation.
"Um, hi, this is going to sound kind of weird, but, uh, when I swallow, err, sometimes I start choking and, well, it's been happening for a while..."
Peace Corps is on it. They seem to believe it's anxiety-related (though I don't feel particularly anxious), and they're following up shortly. In the meantime, nobody panic. I'm an Olympic-level cougher.
While I sit in my shack, hacking food down my pathetic excuse for an esophagus, how about a delightful read on "development"? Though I tend to agree with many of Illich's statements, I'm still going to graduate school (SAIS-Bologna 2012) for international development. At least I'm a hyprocrite who's very self-aware.
http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm
Happy reading (and swallowing, for those of you well enough to do it properly).
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