The Virus from Hell

If y'all haven't noticed, I haven't posted here in a couple of days...or even left responses to comments.

Since Wednesday, I've been laid up with what I would call The Virus from Hell...

Seriously. Here's what went down:

I was fine most of the day. A bit chilly, but it was chillier here on wednesday than it had been only a couple of days before. I figured it wasn't anything to worry about.

Then, around 2:45, a short time after I hung up from a conference call, incredible pain shot thru my head and extremities, and I started shaking all over. I doubled over and screamed--and that just doesn't happen to me. Usually I can deal with that "oh crap, I have a virus feeling."

You know the feeling I'm talking about. You feel it coming on: an ache in bones and muscles, cold hands and a warm head. Little or no appetite and an huge desire to climb into bed, curl up in the fetal positon and tell the world to go away.

Being fine one minute, and screaming in pain the next is not the usual pattern of a virus. I figured I was either coming down with a migrane headache because I'd let my blood sugar get too low or didn't have enough caffiene in my system--or I was coming down with a kidney infection. I was feeling it in my lower back, and whenever I feel *anything* painful, or even remotely painful, in my lower back, I figure it has to be a kidney infection.

Weighing the possibility that it was more along the lines of a weird, body/headache, rather than a kidney infection, I took some ibuprofen and got into bed. I really didn't want to do much else.

I woke up a couple of hours later and, while I knew I wasn't fine (I had a fever of about 100), I didn't think I was getting any worse. I wasn't feeling hungry eitherbut, given how fast this thing came on me--like a 2x4 to the head--I figured it just knocked the appetite right out of me.

I'd be fine the next day, as long as I could sweat the fever out.

So, I simply went to bed early.

I wasn't sweating the fever out though. My fever went down on its own--which made me think it was most definitely that odd blood sugar/caffine drop thing that sometimes happens to me. I got out of bed in the morning, feeling a bit shakey, but also feeling confident that I was over "it."

Breakfast would prove me wrong. Shortly after eating, I started to feel nauseus, my back started to hurt again and my legs were shakey and painful.

Now I was sure it was a kidney infection. What else *could* it be??

I called the doctor's office, which, since it's a clinic, I speak to a nurse first. She figured it was probably a kidney infection of some kind (I didn't have any pain during urination--but that didn't mean there wasn't any infection.)

Since I go to the clinic (no health insurance), I had to go to the walk-in clinic, which meant I'd be sitting there for a couple of hours (like 3.) I brought some water with me so I'd stay hydrated and would be able to pee when they needed me to give a sample.

The doctor checked me out pretty good, wasn't totally sure of what I had at first, but when the urine test came back negative for infection, he said "well, looks like you've got The Virus that we've been seeing a lot of..."

Cool! Now that the chills were gone, the thing would be over soon!

"Well, you can expect a little more of the nausea, some vomiting and diarrreah, before it runs its course."

Great. So much to look forward to.

He neglected to mention that my stomach would make such terrible noises that I'd think some kind of alien might burst forth at any minute... not to mention intermittent pain and a headache that immitates the sensation of a gorilla sitting on my head.

I haven't had a real meal since tuesday. I have re-discovered the pleasures of strawberry Jello, saltine crackers, and chicken soup. I'm not totally sure if I've dropped a couple of pounds, but it would be nice. All this not-eating shouldn't be for nothing.

I did, though, enjoy laying in bed with nothing else to do but read Dashiell Hammett.

If I recall what the doctor said, the Virus from Hell should last a couple of days more. That was yesterday. Looks like the weekend's shot. Just hope I didn't spread the love...

photo courtesy of this page on rotaviruses.