Not so Hot

So, about a week ago, I finally began to recover from an illness which I carried for two solid weeks. At the very beginning of my sickness, before I was actually ill, I predicted that I was about to get sick. So, naturally, I went to the doctor so I could catch it early, before it could start kicking my ass. I was in the room with the doctor for about three minutes when he determined I wasn’t sick because I didn’t have a fever. In fact, he determined I was just getting over a sickness, which is absurd because I hadn’t been sick previously. So, like an idiot I left without challenging him (doctors have this interesting knack of convincing me of their perspective, and the instant I’m out the door, I’m like “wait a second… wtf just happened in there?”), and that night I was struck with the fever I didn’t have because I “wasn’t sick”.

Every night the fever hit me, for two weeks, starting around 7pm and ending around noon the next day, leaving me exhausted, fatigued, and extremely achey. I saw a total of five different doctors in those two weeks, trying to determine what I had, and conveniently I never had a fever when I went. Two ER visits, two trips to the Allergy doctor, one trip to the Infectious Disease doctor, and two IV’s and three blood-draws later, they never determined what I had.  It wasn’t the flu, or mono, or anything typical. The closest they could come was Typhus Fever, but in the end, even that wasn’t correct.

I missed 7 days of Arabic class. We can miss a total of 10 before we get an F in the class. I don’t plan on missing anymore, because I need to save at least a couple of those absences for accidental over-sleeping or a random bout of stomach virus or something.

I’m better now—except for a tiny amount of residual fatigue—but dang, what a great way to spend two weeks: in hospitals, lying in bed while my head is on fire, worrying about the horrifying looking rash spreading across my limbs, and getting needles stabbed into my arms until they bruise.

Welcome to Austin: have an unnamable viral infection!