Blog: Theatre Night Fever, January 26, 2012

January 26, 2012

Not a Good Time

by Howard Dai

It all started on Dec. 6, 2011. While striking after our band concert in Massey Theatre, I fell on one of the risers which left a huge open wound on my left shin. We went to a public clinic a few days after to get a tetanus shot; they gave me some antibiotic and said it would heal in a month. Three weeks later, the wound showed no signs of healing, so we went to the only hospital in my city, and they told me there are some bacteria living on my wound. 

They gave me two choices: A, oral pills or B, IV (intravenous) therapy. Of course I chose the first option, so they gave me this antibiotic called Ciprofloxacin, which, according to the information sheet, is not licensed for use in children. That night I took the first pill. A few hours later I got hives all over my body and had trouble breathing. It turned out to be a “very rare but serious” allergic reaction. We rushed to the emergency room, and when the allergic reaction was gone, I got the first dose of IV therapy, which involves a needle in my arm. 

Then, for ten days, I had to go back to the hospital every night for an hour for this IV therapy, but that’s not the worst part - I had this needle inserted in my left arm with me wherever I go, which made me very, very anxious. Ten days later, I finally got the needle out, but I found that I wasn’t  able to stretch my arm due to the pain. We thought it was the antibiotic that had been accidently injected into the fat of my arm. 

That went on for another week, and just when I was about to be able to fully stretch my arm, the next day, my neck was covered by a nasty rash that came out of nowhere. So we went back to my family doctor; he said it was another allergic reaction to something that had contacted my neck. Right now, my neck is still red and itchy. We still don’t know what’s the allergen that caused the rash; we can only hope the rash will go away as soon as possible.

The past month has been miserable for me. It was all this that made me realize how much theatre is a part of my life. I missed three weeks of theatre rehearsal, countless hours on the theatre youth panel and committees meeting, an opportunity to tech my school’s dance show, and tons of plays and musicals that I looked forward to seeing. Hopefully my life can get back on track soon; I can’t afford to lose any more of my teenage life on things the are not theatre.