While being a glasses-wearer provides some degree of (falsely) perceived modesty in the banya, (hey if I can't see, no one else can see me right?) I'm not totally blind. So in these winter months I can't help but notice that *everyone* has these two bruises on their butt cheeks... curious. Does it mean everyone is falling on the smoothly polished ice-walks that cover this harsh cold city? No. Today I discovered the real cause of these pain-marked derrieres.
Sitting in the scrub room with my banya buddy, she mentions that it is really hard to sit at the moment because she had the flu. Hmm... sounds odd? No not really. You see here people are obsessed with the Уколь. Injections are the Be All and End All of home and hospital medical care. Got a sore back? Take an injection. Got a headache? Get an injection. Got anemia? A needle will fix it. Got the flu? Injection, injection, injection... And what is in these injections one might ask? Well, my colleague was kind enough to find out for me several years ago when she accidentally got punched in the nose while swimming laps at a local swimming pool.
(Thankfully she had the presence of mind to get out of the pool before she passed out, but to her dismay, was unable to get to her towel. When aroused from her blacked out state by smelling salts waved under her nose she was disturbed by the thought of the unsightliness of her body hugging wet bathing suit...)
As a precaution she went to see a doctor who immediately diagnosed swelling on the brain and informed her she would have to spend a week at the hospital doing nothing but lying down with her eyes closed. This did not sit well with her and she fought to be allowed to oversee her own restful care in her own home. Reluctantly they let her leave, but not before giving her instructions on the medicine she needed to buy from the pharmacy.
Not wanting to completely dismiss the medical advice here, she bought this medicine and the syringes required to inject it and as I looked on, proceeded to stab her upper leg and administer the magical potion. Unfortunately for her, but much to my amusement, she hit a nerve as she did it and for the next 10 minutes her leg spasmed out of control.
This was enough for her to do some further research into the drug she was administering and was suitably expletively outraged to discover it was merely a tylenol equivalent...
Since then I have heard of many people here who have had to have injections - and I'm fairly certain that they are mostly pain killers. But when you try and say "there's a pill format that is much easier..." they won't believe you.
And so... people with the flu walk around with bruised butts. And as for my colleague - her nose is a little more crooked than it was before, but she survived the week, despite not taking her injections and despite using her eyes and walking around.
