Istanbul to date

we've been in istanbul for 4 days now and today is one of our first days out and we're only on the internet down the road, we may venture further depending... this is why: turns out i have laryngitis and bronchitis which mixed together are a very nasty concoction. started on the flight from vienna to here- a small cough... and then i was in the hotel room while i waited for ellie to fly in at 1am and i was joining the shuttle to go and get her and i felt so weak and my joints ached and her plane was delayed and they lost her luggage in milan... and it was a late night and my throat started to get really sore... woke up feeling absolutely horrid, couldn't eat, skin super sensitive, coughing so much i couldn't breath... so we try and go down the street for panadol and strepsils and it's all too much and i need to come home and sleep... and that night i had the worst coughing fits that i felt like i was going to suffocate... and terrible fever that made me dress in so many layers and ask for extra blanket from reception, only to wake up at midnight so unbeleievably hot that i thought i'd pass out. i was dizzy and couldn't walk very well and i was very sore all over... so i asked ellie to see if they had doctors that came to visit and hotel manager said they can't do much and that i should go to the hospital... so we caught a taxi for what seemed like an eternity to the 'Amerikan Hospital', apparently one of Istanbul's finest, and they didn't disappoint... they admitted me straight away and i got a bed to lie on and ellie sat with me and then they wheeled me off to have a chest xray and then brough me back and took some blood and then put a bag of solution on the hangy thing and connected it to my arm and then sent me up to the ear,nose and throat specialist because of the trouble i was having with breathing, he send the camera down my throat which was mighty uncomfortable but he saw what he needed to see, sent me back down to emergency and they gave me an injection and then prescribed a cocktail of 5 different pills (inc antibiotic), some syrup and a inhalant mixture, and now it's day 5 and i am feeling much more human.

So, that's why this is my first day out. we'll see how far we get. we spent the last few days in the room amusing ourselves with reading books & Bible, listening to music through the ipod with speakers attached, looking at thailand pictures in aeroplane magazine, newspaper from airoplane, sodoku puzzles (got ellie a whole book of them), eating what small amounts we could because both of our appetites had waned- ellie was sick from something she ate so she wasn't holding much food, so we were surviving on bread and juice and anything else that we possibly felt appetised by which wasn't much.

we have today and tomorrow here and then we leave (22nd) for thailand. we are so excited to get there. i am most excited bout seeing mum and dad- especially since the emergency incident the other day- i missed them more than ever! talked to them yesterday and they are having a ball down in Krabi (where we fly as soon as we arrive in Bangkok)- they've been on an island tour, snorkelling with the fish, and a jet boat and had 1.5 hour massages in the hotel room- all on the house!!! they say we have fun stuff planned everyday we are there too! so now we are VERY EXCITED!!