Update from the sickbed

Well, my mommy came on Sunday and took me back to Kenosha. I just called this week of work a wash. (I was scheduled to be off Friday through Monday the 26th already.) Since Monday I've been feeling slightly better, but not a ton better. And since all my insurance-related doctors and clinics are in Madison, in order to see a doctor I had to get authorized ... to go to the emergency room yesterday morning. Wooooo! It wasn't as bad as the first time. I went to the new hospital here, and everything went pretty quickly. I was apparently STILL a little dehydrated, despite my best efforts. (Do you know how hard it is to drink 10 glasses of water a day while sick?) So they gave me another liter of fluids, but this time they only took 2 tries for the IV. Bonus! They also took a CT scan of my head, and a nasal swab for the flu ... oh my lord. Have you ever had one of those? Here's my advice - don't. "Nasal swab" is such a misnomer. It's more like jamming a long wire into your brain through each nostril. Anyway, the doctor thinks I'm recovering from something like viral meningitis. Yikes. (Bacterial is the "it'll kill ya!" one.) Basically I just have to ... keep on recovering ... but he gave me a prescription for some different anti-dizziness/nausea stuff, and something for the headache. Meclizine and Tramadol, I think? The Tramadol, though, made me really dizzy and nauseous, in a slightly different way than usual. For awhile. But it also totally knocked out the pain, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I don't think I'll be taking 2 at a time again.

Besides that, I don't think I have anything interesting to report. Christmas is close. Very close. The only person whose present I didn't manage to finish buying before being struck down (well, the only person I'll actually see before Christmas) is my mom. I think I'll just tell her what the rest of her present is and cut her a check if she's going shopping. She won't mind.

Surfacing

Ooooh, sick. I spent the wee hours of Friday morning in the ER, for fun. I hadn't been feeling better - in fact, more dizzy by Thursday night - and when I got up intending to wash up and go to bed, I ended up dropping a ceramic bowl (holding a wet washcloth) on the bathroom floor, causing it to shatter ... and then falling on top of it and blacking out for like a second. SWEET. It was my first near-fainting (actual fainting?) experience ... not very pleasant, I must say. At the ER (Anya took me) they pumped me full of saline, which took way too damn long, and some nausea med (gave me a prescription for that, too), decided I'd had a migraine too, and then sent me home. They said it's likely a virus, and I have to "ride it out." Thanks! Apparently, I need to drink more, but only a few ounces every 5-10 minutes. That's an easy schedule to keep. Oh and it took them like 6 tries to put in an IV. My left arm is a work of art right now.

At the moment, I'm feeling much better, hence my return to the computer. It may be fleeting, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Know what sucks?

Being sick. I've been sick since, well, Monday evening. Yesterday seemed to have been the worst (today's not a ton better) but I hope it doesn't stick around much longer. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but I've had a perpetual low-grade headache, some light-headedness, a fever, achiness, fatigue, and nausea. Mmmmm. I've been working from home the past couple of days, and I'm so sick of being here, but I really don't feel well enough to leave. Woo!

Also, it's snowing outside. Pretty hard.

Sorry I haven't been very entertaining lately. Sunday night I saw Nels Cline and Jeff Parker's quartet play Paul Bley's record "Turning Point" in its entirety at the Empty Bottle. (And I got home around 3:45 a.m., which probably didn't help the impending sickness.) It was fun seeing Nels as the front man, introducing songs and sharing little anecdotes, and the music was impressive - but it's not quite my cup of tea. I find it interesting, and I liked a couple of the songs in particular, but it doesn't ... transport me. Still well worthwhile, and I got to see a lot of friends there too.