Not a class.
I taught three days last week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. By Wednesday at 3pm, I was exhausted beyond measure.
I get this way in my old age. B) I'll be pumping along full throttle for hours then hit the wall. You can see the change in my face. You know I'm finished for the day. This normally hits around 7:30 or 8:00pm, and I go to bed. Wednesday, it hit at 3pm. I dutifully went home around 5pm (hey! I have things to do!)
Thursday, I went back to work although I felt awful because, well, I had things to do. Besides...whatever it was was only gearing up. It wasn't enough to merit going to the clinic and get put on quarters. I worked then came home genuinely under the weather around 2pm.
Friday, I went back to work because I teach that day, right? A fellow instructor gave me a couple of Motrin with which I got through the day. I left around 5pm because...yeah.
Saturday. Papers to grade, literature to read. Slept all day, miserable, ate soup, aching, could barely move. I was now exhibiting every one of the symptoms Nyquil was created to combat with a post-nasal drip, to boot.
Sunday, worse. Cold and hot and cold and hot. Managed to eat something and take a bath and read some Shakespeare, but other than that, the day was a wash. Called my boss that evening to alert him that I'm off to the clinic on the morn and will get myself put on quarters. He said, "I hope you get to feeling better soon. Keep us posted in case this thing goes on for a while, and we'll get your classes covered."
Monday, appointment at Academy hospital at 10:10. For some unfathomable reason, they don't have a "sick call," like every other place in the United States military. If you're sick, you must make an appointment. (Also, did I mention how crazy it is to drive oneself 25 miles to the hospital when one is too sick to go to work?) I'm stuffy and can't breathe, and layered heavy to hold in the heat. Doc takes my temp. It's at 98.5. (The day before when I'd taken my temp, it had been at 97.8 or so; my temp often reads low when I feel horrendous.) He checked the holes in my head and asked me a few questions, then prescribed a basketful of drugs and put me on 48 hour quarters. He said it's definitely flu-like, but since we're past the first 48 hours of it now, any efforts to treat the cause would be like taking sugar pills. He said it's a virus, all right, and calling it a "bad cold" doesn't do it justice.
I feel an odd sense of vindication, incidentally. I fear being labeled a hypochondriac, so I wait before going to any doctor, just to make sure the illness is real.
For the past couple of days, I've been thinking of the Dave Barry article "Molecular Homicide" in which he says he and his wife have the flu. He's been thinking about the composition of air a lot lately, because he can literally feel every molecule colliding with his flesh. He's quit brushing his teeth because (1) his teeth hurt and (2) he doesn't have the energy. Yeah.
During the interview with the doc this morn, I told him I have had the flu before, and this is closer to flu than any cold I've ever had. He said, "Did you take your flu vaccine?"
I said, "Yes. Like I said, I've had the flu before...."
Have you ever had the flu? I got it in January 2000. My temperature was so high that my skin was dry, tight and hot to the touch, probably for about five days. I had to literally crawl like a baby to the toilet, about 15 feet from my bed, and when I hauled myself up on the throne, I sat there trembling, teeth chattering from the effort and the cold. When my fever finally broke, I sweated torrents for a couple of days. I rose long enough to remove the saturated towels and replace them with fresh, dry ones.
The worst part was recovery, though. You can't imagine how weak a prolonged high temperature leaves you until you've been there. A week or so after the fever broke and I was feeling better--in my ignorance--I went for a run. I made it less than a mile when I stopped. I was trembling from exhaustion, and I carefully walked back home. I finally managed to regain my distance (speed took longer) a month later.
I really don't need this inconvenience right now.
My temp is currently at 101. It seems I don't have a choice.
d
