u/Extension-Fan2865

Hi, so this is my first time on Reddit so please excuse any mistakes I make. I just finished my first year of my PhD program, and am in South America with my two advisors to get started on the site that will lead into my dissertation. Since landing here four days ago, I started to feel ill and shared my concerns with my professors, both of whom brushed it off. They left me to fend for myself essentially and go to the pharmacy to ask for over-the-counter medications when I desperately need antibiotics (which are not available without a prescription). I also told my professors I think my illness is compounded by the presence of black mold in the house I am staying, to which one of my professors said “Oh I don’t doubt the house has black mold.” As someone who has asthma, I have to take this very seriously as I could develop something like walking pneumonia that could irrevocably damage my lungs. I am having a fever, bloody/stuffy nose, headache, cough, sore throat with inflamed tonsils, and have almost completely lost my voice. I finally put my foot down today and told my professors I could not go back into the field today and that I need to go to a clinic. I finally was able to go to the clinic, and was given medicine. However, my Spanish is not perfect and so I did a Telehealth visit with a doctor back in the U.S. to just reconfirm what the medicines were for and to ensure I am not allergic to any of them. The Telehealth doctor told me that what I have sounds like a viral infection, possibly COVID, and that the antibiotics will do nothing to help kick the virus.

Here is the issue: I am a TA for a field school here that starts in about 4 weeks and I am concerned that if I do have COVID, it will develop into long COVID due to my asthma (my previous experience with getting COVID meant i needed almost two months to get over it). I am worried that I will not receive the treatment most adequate for my medical history here, and think that it would be better if I could recover where my PCP could monitor me. Here is the main concern: I fear that my professor will become retaliatory and vindictive towards me if I do not try to “tough it out” and stay in the field. I have agreed to continue receiving antibiotic injections and taking the course of medication the doctor here recommended, but I also plan on getting a COVID test after the course of medicine is done, if my symptoms have not improved. What do I do if my professor becomes hateful towards me? She already has a bad attitude towards students who need mental health days in the field and has been very dismissive of my health this week until I literally coughed up phlegm last night with blood in it and demanded to go to the doctor. She is married to the director of my department, which is the other professor here with me now and I am concerned that leaving the field could mean the end of my career as an archaeologist in this country and a PhD student in my university. I just feel incredibly scared, sick, and lost and would greatly appreciate any advice.