Feeling awful

I've felt ill since Monday. This time it's a migraine. I was driving to the Finnish consulate on Monday night, to go to the sauna with friends, but had to turn back as the migraine hit me. I was better yesterday and worse again today. Matias has an eye infection, so while I got him drops from the chemists I got myself something for the head. The pharmacists asked me if I am nauseous with the migraine. I said I was. He then offered me something and said I must take it lying down.

I went home and asked if Dan could get India from the creche in the afternoon, as I was probably going to be knocked out by the pill. I took the pill and started feeling the effect in a half an hour. Rather than stop me feeling sick, it made me vomit quite violently for the next 1.5 hours. I then slept for 1.5 hours and now I'm more or less fine. I don't see myself taking those tablets again in a hurry.

Joyce has been feeling unwell, too. She told me that for several weeks she has been having high blood pressure, hasn't been able to sleep, hasn't been able to concentrate and has had stomach pains. All this because she has a problem. She tried to come and talk to me two times on Monday, but turned away at the door the last minute. Her family has been pressuring her to talk to me, and they have offered to come and see me themselves. They adviced her to come and talk to me first thing in the morning so she wouldn't have to worry and be anxious the whole day. Now she finally picked up the courage.

What is this awful question that deprives her of several weeks of sleep? Well, could I pay next month's salary in advance.

Paying the salary in advance is, of course, no problem. It's not even anything new as we have done it before. I assured her that she could come and talk to me about things any time, that paying the salary early isn't even any issue, and that we could do it any time. I tried to assure her even more by saying that Finnish people often get their salary in advance, and so we were used to doing that.

Later on we talked again. I said that when she came to talk to me I feared she would say she'd had enough of the puppy mess (mostly washing the bedding) and would quit.