London Underground Falling Down

It's good to have a cell phone again. In this day and age to go without your crackberry for 3.5 weeks deserves some sort of medal. Which I'll accept.

After my trips in and out of doctors offices I had to work on my extract for the showcase. The main reason I flew to London in the first place. Even though I am living back home in NYC I am still in my second year of grad school at City University of London. I've been working on my thesis play which is due Sept 1. Then I will be done... But I had to fly over this June to showcase a scene from this unfinished play.

The school hired a director and well established actors. We had two days of rehearsals/ rewrites before the big shebang. While I think all were very talented in this process there were two things I could have done without.
1. The Tube strike (why of all days did the London underground decide today we will stop working?) - the funny part was after I took a 2 hour bus ride for what should be 30 mins. journey I found out that no... the Northern line (the one I was off) was still working. Seriously London? You come to NY and find out what a subway strike is all about. The last time I had one was on my first day of work temping as a Kennedy's personal assistant. She didn't believe me when I showed up six hours late because I had to walk from Queens to the Upper East Side. So in retrospect the subway standstill on a big day for me... should have expected it.

The second issue I had was the Director had the actors get up and move on their feet for the reading. Not just read the scripts from a stationary position. Generally in a staged reading the actors sit. And the playwrights stage directions are read. I would have preferred that but instead the actors did their own makeshift blocking... flying by the seat of their pants so their interpretation and emotions got in the way of my words. Which isn't a bad thing but it brought some lines that were meant to be subtle to a strange and bold place that made it laughable. If their focus hadn't been make up our own blocking as we go the invited industry could have heard the script the way I intended it... but this is theater right? So if it were a full production it's good to know that's the problems with my script. So I mean while I didn't like it for the showcase I enjoyed it for my rewrites. I can hear some of the problems clearly.... I just didn't need the BBC to hear it...

After the showcase finished which was like a snap of the fingers we went to our local school pub where the only industry guest that followed was there prowling for girls not really interested in our work. So I can't say it was a waste of a trip over because I did discover my next draft in the rehearsal room but didn't forge any success for the future. And I had a tone more adventures right after the showcase from Cornwall to Scotland and everything in between....

Hollie vs. The NHS

So when I was back in NYC I couldn't see a doctor because like most out of work Americans I have no health insurance. I had to just hope my dizzy would stop long enough for me to fly to London. Lucky me... it did! But only a few hours after my arrival it hit me hard.

When I woke up from my 12 hour nap my friend HR called the NHS help line. (That's the UK's health care service hotline) Of course they had to call back because there was a large queue. Several hours later I get a call from a nurse named John. A very lively chap. I told him all my symptoms and he sat for a moment. Then he did something very unexpected... he let out a small laugh and said "I donno. Never heard that before. How unusual." Really John the nurse? You never heard of people getting dizzy after they eat? Then I thought 'what the hell is wrong with me if the health care hotline hasn't heard this one yet.' I would imagine they would have heard of far stranger things than that.

So he classified it as a non-emergency which meant I couldn't go to the ER. I had to first go to a walk in center. He told me I should wait until Monday as well so I could go to one with a GP. The ones open on the weekend just had nurses. And as he didn't know what was wrong with me he felt they wouldn't either. (But not being able to eat... isn't that an emergency?)

This meant two more days of spinning in my head. Well, I spent the day/night in bed after a brief trip to the park where we sat in the sun and worked on our piece for the showcase. After a while we switched from the park only filled with dogs running loose to the Common which was filled with a sea of bodies. We found a place to sit but had to keep moving as the sun went behind the tree and it's shadow grew and grew. In the shade it felt 10 degrees colder and when you're wearing only a Tank and skirt that's not the best feeling in the world. But I seemed fine until we got back inside and I ate dinner.

On Sunday HR made more calls to the NHS. We found a walk in clinic with a GP on staff. It was close to her flat, clean and more importantly... empty. Now by this point my intake of food was... well... lacking because it made me so panicky as well. Which means I was very weak... like anorexic weak I would imagine. I was living on banana's. The only thing that didn't make my head turn. But this Doctor who was not a native English speaker called Dizzy "Izzy". I kept correcting him thinking does he understand what I am saying?

He took my blood pressure, my blood sugar levels, listened to my heart beat, listened to my symptoms. At one point I thought I was going to black out so I pulled out a banana. "Are you eating?" He says and I think.. shit he hasn't listened to a word I said... just nodding his head!. "No" I reply and I saw it in his eyes. He thought I was anorexic. No fool... I love my food that's the problem here... my body is the one stopping me. Okay not helping my case here... So after a few minutes of hardly anything he says everything seems fine. You may be hypoglycemic. But I don't have diabetes or take medication so that's highly unlikely. He went on to say I need to go see my GP. I was like I don't have one that's why I am here. He said I should register with one. I'm on a temp visa can't do it Mr. So HR asked if he could refer me. He said no. So why was I there? Defeated we headed back to her flat where I looked up hypoglycemia and just decided to follow the diet. At least it's something. It mainly consisted of very small portions many times a day. No sugar, alcohol, white flour, or caffeine. All my loves in life.... gone.

HR made me a tiny salad and I ate it slowly. I'm not a natural slow eater. This took time and practice to get right. Normally with two big fork fulls and the thing would have been gone. But I caught on and ate slower than I ever thought possible.

And that was my first weekend in London, having to eat hardly anything and just staying in bed as HR called NHS half a dozen times. But it was clear they weren't helping. So she called her mom, her dad, her brother, her sister-in-law. Everyone said 'is she pregnant?' Apparently that's how they all found out they were... but no. I'm not pregnant. Seven sticks don't lie. Well, they didn't know beyond that.

HR then called her own doctor and asked how could I register. First I had to prove that I lived in her flat too and show my passport. Well... I do have a student visa and I did live here for a year... a year ago. So HR decided that Tues she would take me to the doctors and if they wouldn't see me then we would go to the ER.

But this was a day away... so far the hypoglycemic diet was working. I wasn't dizzy as of late just very very tired and light headed with a massive headache... and fearing the worst... a life with out sugar, caffeine, and alcohol! How could this have happened?!

London Bridges Spinning Round...

I made it to HR's flat with my 50 pound bag and everything in one piece. We had a few hours before her Arch Night started. (An event of various acts her theater company puts on now and then.) So I didn't take a nap. I just opted for some food. She made me a proper British breakfast of beans, toast and eggs. After several bites it hit me... dizziness. Now this had been happening for a week or two. Every time I ate I get dizzy for hours after. So I had to stop - even though I was hungry. Slowly it faded though which was good because it's a shitty feeling to have. Especially when you haven't slept in two days and have a massive headache.

We got showered and dressed so we could meet up with V at the pub. It was a beautiful day still so we sat outside. I got a Pims - which I love and caught up with V and HR. But somewhere around the bottom of the cup I felt the dizzy return. I had to stop drinking. Then I saw someone order a huge burger and I thought maybe my iron is low. I'll have what he's having. So after a short wait I got one and gobbled the meat up. At that point it didn't effect me.

After a bit we went to the venue for the event. V and I waited to the side as HR did her producer thing. It was then that it hit me hard. I turned white and felt like I was going to fall over. So they gave me some coke a cola but that only made it worse. It was official. I had to call it a night. The rough part was I had flown in early just to see this event of HR'S! But defeated by whatever was happening in my body I had HR walk me back to her place. Once my head hit the pillow I was out for 12 hours. I guess I needed it. But unfortunately that wasn't the last of the dizzy.