Journal Entry: August 11, 2008

Holy cow, it's August 11.

Anyway, I just spent a weekend being sick. I premonited it in my post last Thursday, and it got way worse before it got better.

Actually, before I headed home from work Thursday I decided to drop by my boss's office and let him know I might not make it in on Friday, and on the way I got a case of the chills so bad that I could barely walk. That was probably the worst part of the weekend -- the chills.

Anyway, I got through that conversation (and he was pretty understanding, since I was standing with teeth chattering like maracas), then I went out to the car and drove home without turning on the air conditioner, and was still shivering when I went into the house.

T-- made a delicious casserole for supper (that I was barely able to eat, because I was feeling queasy), and D-- came over, and we watched TV -- me curled up on the couch under a blanket, while everyone else wished the A/C were a little stronger.

I took some medicine -- ibuprofen for the fever (and my back pain, which made the shivers excruciating), and Zicam (and later pure zinc tablets, per N--'s suggestion) to shorten the duration of the virus. I've got to say, that seems to have worked. Oh, and I took a couple benadryl to try to keep the queasiness down. That it would make me drowsy just seemed like a plus.

I couldn't sleep, though. I didn't sleep. My fever raged all night. I was burning up -- I felt like I was on fire -- and that was just constant, pretty much from the time I got in my car after work on. But, on top of that, I would go through cold spells where I shivered as though I were having seizures, and that was even worse. So, during the night, I went through cycles. I would feel so hot that I threw off the covers and the blankets, and it would take 10 minutes or so until I started shivering. Then I'd pile the blankets back on and spend 10 minutes or so regaining my core temperature, until the shivering stopped. At that point I had about 10 minutes of rest before I got so hot I had to throw the blankets off again.

I got up every two hours, through the night. Each time, I took whatever medication I could (as doses were constantly expiring). Finally, after I got up at 5:10, my fever must have broken because I went back to bed, piled on the covers, and before I stopped shivering I fell asleep and didn't get up until 1:00.

So, yeah, I skipped work Friday. I felt a little queasy again when I woke up Friday, but other than that it was just a headache and a sore throat, so I took some painkiller and got through it. I tried to drink lots of fluids, but I didn't eat much at all. On Friday I had a bowl of watermelon, a small box of cereal, and a single cup of soup. That was it, as far as calories went (and that was pushing it). Friday wasn't much fun.

We did get tired of being boring sometime Friday evening and T-- pulled up a website she'd heard about a while back -- rifftrax.com -- which is a site where the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 sell mp3s that you can play while you watch newer movies, and they sync up to create the ol' MST3K effect. We got one for Willy Wonka and then realized it was for the old one (and we only have the new one), so I ordered that from blockbuster and then we got another track for Harry Potter and watched that for the rest of the night. It was surprisingly good quality, and well worth the $4 pricetag.

My fever came back, complete with the agonizing chills, right about an hour into that movie, so I piled on blankets to try to make it through, and when I finally gave up and went to bed I had a similar experience to the night before, but it ended much earlier this time. I still slept until almost noon on Sunday, and woke up feeling better than I had in days. Had a turkey sandwich for lunch, and then D-- and I played Civ for about an hour before heading over to K-- and N--'s to watch the first Cowboys preseason game, and then T-- and I went shopping while D-- watched AB, and then we all watched the first 12 episodes of the original series of Get Smart while D-- and I played Civ. That was a fun night.

I'm over my cold, now, to all appearances, but my back is hurting me worse than ever. Tomorrow I go in to see my doctor for a follow-up, so I'm going to request physical therapy. From what I've heard, it'll pretty much fix my problem. I just have to make the time commitment. And deal with another stranger. Fun.

Oh! Last night I went to bed fever-free, but still couldn't get to sleep. I tossed and turned for a while, and then finally just got up, frustrated, and stormed to my office to write down the lines that had been plaguing me. Julie asked me over a year ago if I would write a poem for her wedding, and I've been kind of guilt-tripping myself for months now to just get it done, but it always seemed like I had plenty of time, so I never put a moment's real thought into it. Then, last night, the entire poem sprang fully-formed into my head, so I just had to go write it down.

I'm not convinced it's what they want, but it should be enough to start with. It's enough to be proud of, I think. Anyway, that's my big accomplishment for the weekend.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.