Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005
Still sick, posted at 11:19 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I've been up for a few hours now. I watched Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind and wondered when I'm going to meet Kate Winslet on a train. I also did dishes. So I guess in some senses I'm feeling better. Really, though, I was just sick of sleeping, especially when the drugs I'm on do not induce sleep. I was hoping to just NyQuil a few days away, but the doctor tells me that NyQuil, as well as any other medicine designed for the PM, dries you out and makes the flu worse. So I lay down because it hurts to do much else, but am not really all that tired. In addition, the room heater that I'm using in my bedroom now is great because it's keeping me warm through the shivers, but it's also giving me a case of swamp crotch that makes me feel like a shower despite the fact that water falling on my skin seems torturous to me right now.On the bright side, my throat hurts so bad that I haven't eaten anything today save a bowl of cereal this morning since the doc tells me I should try to eat something every day even if I don't want to. But one thing isn't much. It made me think that maybe I'll be lucky and not feel like eating all week and lose ten pounds or something.
By the way, my throat hurts so much that I have to think about talking. I haven't seen anyone since this morning, so I haven't had to talk, but when Holden decided to lay down on top of a pile of laundry, I was trying to verbally kick him off, and my vocal chords froze up, not wanting to inflict pain back there. I tried to say something, and my voice came out in a strange rasp, as if my body was relearning how to talk in order to inflict the least amount of pain. I just ended up shoving him off, and I hope I don't have to speak again.
This is only my second bout with flu ever. During the first one, I was about twelve and my mom folded out the living room couch so she could take care of me better. During those first days, I remember being in more pain than I've ever been. On the third day, I started whining, and I remember my mom saying that it was a sign I was getting better.
I don't think I'm as pained now as I was then - either that, or a scalpel to the eyeballs puts into perspective the pains of a flu. Regardless, I'm a whiny patient and I want my mom to fly down from Michigan to take care of me.
All told, though, if I had to get sick, there's not a much better time than midterm week, when my presence is not as important as during a regular week. In addition, it happened after the NYC trip, which was good timing because it would have sucked to have been sick there. I have no restaurant shifts until Friday, so I have no problems there. In all these respects, getting sick could have been a lot worse if my timing was worse.