A Digital Nomad’s Guide to Getting Sick
Remember when you worked a regular job? You could call the office, coughing ever so strategically, and tell your boss you were sick.
Whether it was mental health, the flu, or just a little rest and relaxation, you knew your colleagues would pick up the slack.
Being sick when you have a regular job is wonderful, you get to spend days indulging in ice-cream and painkillers, free from guilt, feeling entitled to your right to rest.
That doesn’t happen when you work for yourself.
Oh no, instead guilt will permeate your every sniffle while you try to stumble your way through emails and assignments. Your fever-raddled brain will ignore common sense and insist you stare at the screen and try harder. Eventually, you’ll give up and go to bed, ignoring the blinking light of your smart phone.
Worst of all, you’re probably in a country that doesn’t speak much English.
There are a few solutions to a problem like this.
Solution 1: Self-medicate with everything you can get your hands on
Go to the nearest pharmacy and get all the medicines you can legally buy. Google the local names of the medicines beforehand so you can go in and get out quickly.
Don’t care about the brand names, care about the name of the medicine.
My current go-to list:
Ibuprofen
Takes down a fever and helps with pain. I find it does a better job than paracetamol when the pain is severe, but I’ll combine the two to get rid of a bad migraine (it knocks me out though).
Paracetamol
Perfect for minor pains like a headache or a sore throat.
Codeine
This lovely stuff isn’t allowed everywhere because it’s addictive. But it works a charm for inflammation and fever. A few medications combine ibuprofen, paracetamol, and codeine for a three-pronged approach.
Vitamin C
You can happily take 1000mg a day when you are sick. Go down to 500mg a day when healthy to keep repeat illnesses away. A simple vitamin C boost has cured me in the past, and it’s worth a shot.
Vitamin B (all of them)
There are so many types, just grab what you can find but pay close attention to B12. The B vitamins give you some extra energy, hopefully supporting you if you have deadlines you need to meet.
Zinc & Magnesium
While a little on the vain side, zinc will help your skin stay healthy so you don’t look all gross when you’ve recovered. The magnesium will help you sleep and has been proven to assist with depression (yay!).
Solution 2: Go to a doctor and get your hands on some antibiotics
No matter where you are (apart from impoverished rural areas), you should be able to find a nearby doctor. Whether or not that doctor speaks English might be more tricky.
Most governments will issue information on doctors in areas that speak English. Failing that, join an expat Facebook group in the area and ask around, someone will know something and help you out. If you can’t find an English doctor, then translate your symptoms before you go. The doctor will need the following information:
1. What are you feeling/what are your symptoms?
- Runny nose?
- Phlegm? Phlegm color?
- Cough?
- Pain?
- Pressure in sinuses?
- Fever?
2. How long have you felt this way?
- Days?
- Months?
- Has it progressed?
Depending on your answers, they will prescribe you antibiotics or other medication. You can communicate via google translate to understand the dosage instructions.
Going to the doctor is the quickest way to get yourself sorted out, but it also requires the most effort and guts. Speaking to someone who literally doesn't’ understand your language but needs to understand your health is just short of terrifying. Bear the emotional discomfort for 15 minutes and you can shave days off your recovery time.
Solution 3: Prevention is better than cure mentality
I met a two very clever woman in the lovely seaside town of Kamakura, Japan. they were kitted out with everything. From band aids to antibiotics to asthma pumps, they had it all.
How they did it was simple yet genius. Knowing that the flu or similar ailments were inevitable in their year-long journey, they asked their doctor for an extra prescription of antibiotics. Problem solved.
First rule of travel: Fix problems before they become problems.
Carrying a spare pack of antibiotics might just be your saving grace when you catch sinusitis in the mountains of rural China.
It’s always a good idea to have health insurance. World Nomads are a little expensive but have a sexy, easy to use website and provide some of the best coverage. If you are covered under them, they will help you find the medical attention you need. (plus insure a bunch of other things).
As far as money goes, you should have some saved up for situations like these. Never deplete your savings while on the road. You might just need them.
Solution 4: Go home and give up
I’m kidding. This is a terrible solution*. The only thing worse than being sick is being sick on a plane. You will recover, just get yourself to a doctor and work through it. I believe in you.
Be kind to yourself and know you are stronger than your demons.
*If you develop a terminal illness, then I’d say its okay to go home or carry on, whatever you feel is best. Many go home to recover, then continue their journey at a later date.
Most important takeaway — It’s okay to be a bit of a wimp, but not for too long
“Live every single day like it’s your last” — Someone stupid
Every day cannot be the best day. To sound uncharacteristically mathsy — it is a statistical impossibility. You cannot keep having better days, life is a series of ups and downs, not an infinite staircase to ‘the best day ever at the ripe old age of 102’.
Take a day or two, be pathetic, call your mom and have a whine. You’ll be feeling alone and insecure, far away from your usual support structure in a foreign land with foreign people, probably doing a job that no one understands. There are going to be days where you get sick and need a break.
There are also going to be days where you get to scale a mountain with your bare hands and race elephants through the rapids of some imaginary amazon river. Who knows.
Point is, it’s not all bad, you got this far. Don’t let a stuffy nose bring you down, like most bad things, it’ll be gone in a week.
