I hate being sick

I hate being sick. I rarely get sick yet I've managed twice in less than 6 months. That makes me sad. Normally I would just fight through the sickness and go to school and everything but these last two times have been bad enough I just stayed home. Last time it was because of a fever, this time it was because of aches and pains. I missed one class and work but decided that I would go to class the next day. That was a bad idea.

In the morning when I woke up I didn't ache as much. My nose wasn't stuffed. My cough wasn't noticeable. I thought maybe the day would be worth going to. So off I went to class.

The left side of my face just started pulling and hurting like a sneeze was building but it wouldn't come out. When I finally did sneeze it would be at least five in a row but the feeling of a building sneeze STAYS THERE! It drove me crazy. On top of that my face looked really weird because of it. 

I sat through three classes like this. Amazingly nobody asked about the fact one of my eyes looked like I was high and why I was crying out of it too. 

It didn't end with class either. I had to go around looking for teachers to sign credit papers for when I study abroad. None of them mentioned how I looked either so I just sat there listening to them talk and try not to drip snot and tears all over their desks. 

Needless to say it was a very stressful day. I finally made it home and even wrote a term paper. Then my RA came in and gave me an orange since she knew I was sick. 

A KFC buffet and my first trip to a hospital.

So as you can probably guess I'm sick. It has been a crazy time leading up to this point. 

So Friday, after Spanish class in the morning I had a few hours (4) of downtime before my next class. I ended up falling asleep. I woke up in time for class and realized something was amiss. My head was throbbing. This is something completely new for me. I have never really had a headache before. I didn't know what to do or how to cope. So I went to class and suffered the entire time. 

I came home and attempted to start to sleep it off. I made it about an hour before I remembered a friend was taking me to walmart soon and I had to go meet him. I walked down to the basement to find four of the guys getting ready to leave. They were going to KFC. Not just any KFC. The one in Greenville because it has a buffet. I was in before Scott finished the sentence. Off we went, and I texted the other guy that I wasn't going with him anymore to Walmart. 

So off we go. And go. and go. Nobody knows where we're going. So I break out my phone for navigating. No service. Another guy breaks out his, service but we miss a turn, he loses service in time for recalculating. Now Greenville is in the direction of where I live. I know at least how to get home. And I know I will have service if we go this way. earlier it had been asked if 27 was the same as 127, and being sarcastic me, I said, "yeah just with a 1 in front.." There was discrepancies but finally we just turn around and go back into Oxford to go the route I know and my phone gets service enough that we can follow it.

An hour later we finally get to KFC. 3 plates each, we head back. My headache can't decide if it wants to throb or subside. I sleep the entire ride home on Chris's back. We get back to Oxford a little after 8 and I stumble upstairs and basically just spend the rest of the night half asleep, half awake.

The next morning, I wake up with the headache still, and cold shivers like a drug addict. I took my temp and it' was over 100. Great. Just 101 so not too bad. Yet. I work on sleeping it off, and posting my hours. Around 10am I decide maybe I should go to the clinic. So I text the one person that tells me to text her for these things. She doesn't respond for 4 hours, because she's in rehearsal. Around 2, I recheck my temp and it's at 102.2. I think that it's probably time to really get to the clinic. that's across the campus. I wrap myself in a blanket and waddle downstairs to the basement. As I had hoped a few of the guys are all gathered down there. I ask them if one of them can give me a ride. After about ten minutes, Scot says he will and off we go. He drops me at the clinic and I tell him to go back home, cause I don't know how long it will take, and I can just text Jenna when I need a ride back.

He leaves, and I go to the door. This is when I learn the heard truth. The clinic is closed on weekends. They give a number for a hospital. The number is disconnected. Seriously?? I don't have a number for Scot and I don't know where the hospital is. I text Jenna asking her and after a while she sends Scot back to get me. I'm passed out on the sidewalk wrapped up in my blanket by time he gets there. He drops me at the hospital and we go through the same drill. Good thing too. I'm there for hours.

So I get in there and they send me to the urgent car/emergency room area. There's quite a few people there, and not even students. I have to fill out all this stuff, as I've never been there before and have to go wait. I find one of the last chairs and realize I'm very thirsty. I spied a vending machine and go for it. All they have is pop, which I don't drink, and only take money, which I don't have. Only a credit card. I go back to my seat defeated, to find some girls had come in, and taken it. I lean up against a wall and just sit down, wrapped in my blanket.

I only have to wait like 10 minutes or so, before the nurse calls me in. She takes my blood pressure and everything, and while going through the questions, she gives me a death look when I say there's no chance I'm pregnant. I mean, really? A death look? Do I look like someone that's sleeping around? Is it just because I'm a student at Miami? What could really constitute that look?

In the end she gives me some pills and sends me to another room. Another nurse comes in and has me change into a gown. I don't know how many of you have had this experience of changing into a hospital gown, but alone and sick and shivering, it's next to impossible. there's like a string on the bottom and on at the top for tying, something's like folding, I can't get passed my hair, I was all stages of lost. Bows kept untying, so I had to just double knot it. I crawled into the bed, which was a lot more comfortable than I was expecting, and just waited for the nurse to come back.

After some breathing tests and stuff, and some water, the doctor comes in and announces they want to test me for influenza. This is the only thing he thinks it could be. Influenza. He's stumped because I'm not throwing up nor frequenting the bathroom. So of course it could be influenza... To test for influenza, they have to stick this extra long Q-tip up farther in my nose, than anything should be. Not just stick it up there, but twist it around and everything for a while. This freaking hurts! I wanted to cry. Then, they also want a urine sample, to test for something else.

I'm not to down with the sample but it's gotta be done. Luckily, the hardest part was walking to the bathroom in a gown trying not to flash anyone. I then get to play the waiting game and even fall asleep for a while. Both tests come out negative so they decide I just have a virus and come back if I throw up green stuff. Um, what?? Throwing up green stuff. Are they experiencing a lot of this right now?? Are other people throwing up green stuff in other rooms at this moment? Is it radioactive? What's going on? But anyway, they tell me to buy Motricine or Advil and send me off.

Scot comes and gets me, takes me to Walgreens and I spend the rest of the weekend in bed. Monday's looking the same. My fever only goes down when I'm drugged, but not being a natural drug taker, I never remember to take them, until I'm shivering with a fever again. It's a horrible cycle. Let's see how long it lasts. 

I nearly freeze to death but homework saves me.

So tonight I had to work for 4 hours, like I do every Monday, and by time I get off it's dark outside. I usually don't care because that's when I have my ipod in and sing out loud without having to worry about looks from other college students (that might be more for the dancing I tend to do sometimes too) but today of course was different or I probably wouldn't be noting it in a blog. On a day I already wrote a blog no less.

I usually don't have a flashlight since I usually take the main roads home, which are fully lit. I usually have more energy than I did today as well though. I got off work at 8:30ish. As in, really close to it. From about the last hour I had already noticed why tonight was different than other Monday nights. I was extremely tired. I slugged through clean up. I yawned to death. I was slow and dragging.

Now I just want to point out that its about a 15-20 minute walk home from the place I work at on Monday nights. Keep this in mind.

So, after clean up, I leave and put in my ipod as usual. I know I'm tired so I refrain from singing to conserve energy. I start my journey on a main road but today I think "why don't I take the shorter route since I'm so tired?" My tired body thinks "yes! yes! shorter means to bed sooner!" So it takes me in this route. Now the shorter route consists of a walk of about maybe 2-5 minutes through the Botany Woods. Now the Botany Wood's have a little trail system through them and aren't that large. It's just a random pack of trees in the forest. But they are big enough that in the heart, the lights from the surrounding roads and buildings barely shine, while the trees themselves are thin enough for the moon to shine down.

So during the walk to this place, I already had noted that my walking pace was a little slow. Just in case I started texting Nathan during this time (not like he could help me being and hour and a half away from me) but I started sending him situational updates, in case I die, then there's a record leading up to it. Though I guess, it would have gone better if he was responding to my texts. After I went through deciding that my average weight is just a bit high for any potential rapers to target and the possibility of survival if I sleep outside in the woods, he finally responds and begins a long night for him of telling me I can do it.

It's also important to note that at this time, the temperatures decent, and I'm pretty comfortable.

So I make it to about the heart of the woods where it's darkest and get captivated in how pretty the moon looks. I'm walking innocently enough and have noticed a few other guys on the trail. So I'm not too worried that I have made a bad choice in walking this way. My pace is still a bit slow but I'm making progress. But after a little bit passed the heart, I get a wave of exhaustion and lose my upright position. I inform Nate of this new development and he seems slightly concerned of my prone position. My only fear is, the sinking feeling that snakes are nocturnal and coming for me now. But I'm tired enough to not get up. His concern also stems from his noting that at home, it's raining and freezing. It's only slightly cold where I am, but that means rain is probably on its way. There's some pondering of what I'd do if it rains and I'm still laying on the path in the forest where no one but a guy an hour and a half away knows where I am in the middle of the night. While pondering this I hear an explosion by my ear. A squirrel has dropped an acorn right beside my head. The impact was deadly it seemed, and near enough to make me wonder if the mean squirrels of Miami were now depressed for a missed opportunity to remove the human scourge.

The involvement of attack squirrels compels me to get up and move on some more. I hadn't made it out of the woods but I was now close, I could see the roads and the bell tower and hear the boys soccer team practicing. my tiredness overcomes my burst of adrenaline and down I go. This time I'm snuggled against a tree and nestled in some leaves, that I did test for snakes first. Nate has suggested I get a move on and move inside at the least. I try to explain how tired I am, and how moving right now feels too much like a chore. We both agree that at the least, if I stay there all night, it's fortunate that I'm halfway to my first class tomorrow. I doze in and out between texts during this time and have also added on, instant messaging Nate's mom, keeping her updated as well.

It's around this time that I begin to notice, that I'm feeling a little bit cold. and the wind's picking up, as well as I can see my breath. I'm also incredibly thirsty and have a lot of homework to study for exams coming up as well. Things were starting to look a little grim. I checked my phone for the first time and notice its 9:21. I had been off for almost an hour. I would have been home 45 minutes ago, had I been walking at normal pace. I had no idea where the time went and that I had been out there for that long. this also explains why it's getting so cold. I noticed that I couldn't see the moon anymore and clouds had started rolling in. Rain seems impending. After a little while of gathering energy, I finally get up and start trudging homeward. I have so much homework to do, I needed to get home. A little ways away I cross over a vent in the street. this vent is shooting warm air up. I huddle up. I'm still texting Nate who seems, oh so thrilled I'm moving and making progress towards home. At this point, I'm really noticing how cold I'm getting. I can barely text coherently anymore. Here's what my texts were beginning to look like;

Me:  I'm so thirstyuj nioy cool (im so thirsty not cool,)

"Pace decreasingg progress still apparent5" (pace decreasing, progress still apparent)

"Feel like hack in titanic nd have to keep tsalking to nto fr4eexe to death or was rios3e? too ubalert to rember" (Feel like Jack in Titanic, and have to keep talking to not freeze to death or was it Rose? Too unalert to remember)

"back to ggrundb again. Soclose tro doem" (back to ground again, so close to dorm.) At this point I had made it to the grassy area behind my dorm before passing out again. I was soo close to warmth and a bed.and I'm not sure why I was compelled to send this next text:

"grass snells weorsd" (grass smells weird) I'm just going to assume the cold and tiredness was finally over taking me.  Good old Nate is still with me though and of course just says "Stop sniffing the ground"

After about 5 minutes dozing here, Daft Punk came on my ipod and motivated me to get up and continue, where I found my roommate who thought I looked like I'd been crying. I knew my nose was running but I didnt think the dirt had gotten that mixed in.

I finally made it inside! Then I remembered. I live 3 flights up. No elevator. I was still so cold. As I texted it to Nate "Nafe it idnsidem. 3 flighgts of staiurs ubfoirguvinbg. Using banister"

followed by "hopws I get baniss ter trightqam" and

"wallsk are nivwe"

After that I finally made it into my room. To do all the homework that compelled me to come home. That I'm not doing to write this blog. Oh well, least I'm warm.