Monday, November 21, 2011

On Death's Door...

...Or so I thought I was this weekend.

Let's back up a little and let me tell you the post that I has planned to write on Friday before leaving school. I was planning on writing about the fun things I was going to do like get in at least 10 miles of running for the #HBBC, watching football, taking Heif for a fun snow frolic, grocery shopping for my personal Thanksgiving so I can have leftovers.

Sadly, that fun filled weekend of rainbows and faeries didn't happen. Instead, about 2pm I had a bit of a headache and took something and it helped along with a giant cup of tea. I survived Friday seminar and even asked some good questions. I was at school and packed up my stuff (for some reason I decided to bring my computer home) about 5:15 and then waited for the bus. It turned out that the bus was 25 mins late and standing in freezing temps for that long is not fun. No biggie. It's the weekend before break (WSU undergrads get the whole week off) and everyone but me is trying to get out of town. I get on the bus and pull for my stop in plenty of time which is about a half mile up a hill from my house. No biggie. The bus driver missed my stop and took me another half mile up a hill. Great! So I had to walk a half mile down a hill and try not to kill myself and then up the half mile hill that I'm used to. By the time I was done, my legs weren't cold anymore and I made my mom talk to me the whole time. Thanks Mom!

I got home, let Heif out and headed to Moscow to get some Christmas presents Laura and I made and do some grocery shopping. The presents were ready (score!) and then I headed to Winco. I got pretty much everything on my list and some orange chicken for dinner. I went to Laura's house to drop off the goods and hung out for a bit. While I was there, I noticed that my hands and feet were cold so I snuggled under a blanket. No biggie. As I was there for about an hour, I kept feeling colder and colder. This should have been a warning for me b/c I'm usually the person that is always hot. (Hello dummy!)

I leave Laura's house and I am absolutely frigid the whole ride home, so much so that I'm shaking cold and chattering. Not good. I manage to bring my groceries inside and put the perishable ones away and somehow my milk got a hole poked in it, so it went in the sink b/c I couldn't deal with it. I headed for my bed and turned the heating blanket on. I sleep comfortably with it on 2. I had it on 8 and I was still freezing. This is when I knew something was wrong and I busted out the handy dandy bedside thermometer and we clocked in at 100.5. Awesome!! After my chattering stopped, I made a cup of honey tea and had my water bottle nearby. I think I was in and out of sleep/sweating to death most of the night. I let Heif in at some point, so don't worry about him. He's got plenty of hair and prefers to sleep in the cold.

I am pretty much miserable through out the night with this fever and a sore throat grows in. I finally reach my peak of miserable with a temp of 102.9 and text my friend Kara for help. She and her hubby, James, were kind enough to swing by my house and get my card and go to Walmart for me to get gatorade, tea, and redbox movies that I had reserved. I think she saved my life! From then on, I was in the bed half alive/ half not watching movies and sometimes sleeping. I was feeling better about 6 with a temp of only 101 and made some noodley soup and a cup of tea and went back to the bed. Over the course of the weekend, I had a comic marathon with Thor, XMen first class and the Green Lantern. About 8, I was still running a temp and called the WSU Nurse line to see if there was anything I wasn't doing already to help. Turns out the only thing I wasn't doing was gargling water. So I tried that. It maybe helped a little.

Through the night I was up about every 2 hours to drink b/c I was parched from sweating and to pee out the liquids I had taken in. I think my fever finally broke Sunday morning about 9am. This was good news because I had decided that if I wasn't better I was going to the clinic in Moscow to get help since HWS isn't open on weekends and I wasn't going to the emergency room for a fever under 104. So, I got a shower and felt more alive better and got myself ready to go. I went to the clinic and they looked in my mouth and said it didn't look good. The nurse took a swab and said the strep test needed 5 minutes to cook. As soon an she left she was back and strep was confirmed. The Dr. then came in to check me over and was surprised at how big my lymph nodes were. No duh dude! I've had a fever for the last 36 hours. My immune system is a tad bit pissed off right now! He sent me a script for antibiotics to Walmart and I was feeling better already.

$20 later, I got my pills, some more gatorade and some Werther's to suck on. Then I decided that I was feeling good enough to go to the movies b/c Dr. said I wasn't contagious as long as I wasn't kissing anyone. Good deal b/c I wasn't planning on kissing Erin, who I was going to the movies with. We went and saw Breaking Dawn part 1 and enjoyed it. Then we walked across the parking lot to Taco Bell and sat and chatted for about 3 or so hours before deciding to leave. It was a good night but I was starting to feel worn down again. I went home and changed my sheets b/c the sweaty ones were too gross to even consider. I put on the fleece sheets that my mom got me for Christmas last year.
They are pink and zebra!!!
I wasn't expecting so much pink, of which the stretchy sheet totally is but enjoy the zebra top sheet. They are super squishy and I love them. Even if they are pink! ;)

Last night I did a better job of sleeping and was up every 4 hours instead of every 2. I emailed my boss that I was dying and wouldn't be in to work today. Luckily this is where me bringing my computer home was a life saver. I worked on my paper all day and sent a new draft to my Post Doc to go over tonight!

I have rejoined civilization and feel mostly better. I am glad to be out of my bed. I am thankful for antibiotics!

...And I have my own turkey to cook sometime this week depending on how the weather cooperates.

How was your weekend?

1 comment:

  1. wow!!! so sorry to hear that you have been so sick. crazy impressed that you still got a new draft of your paper in...i would have not be been trying ANY type of work ;) haha! glad to hear you are feeling better and hope you have a good week!

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