Before leaving on this vacation, there were, of course, the expected comments about last year's vacation and how it ended with an emergency appendectomy. My typical response was that first I did not believe that I possessed any extraneous body parts to go bad, but that, second, if anything happened, we would at least be in the USA.
I'm happy to say that no hospitalization was called for for either of us while on the road. I can't say the same thing about when we got back, though.
I felt really good while on the trip. We were doing a lot of walking, I was eating my protein and even getting decent veggies and fruits in. I may not have been getting all of my liquids in, but that's a daily struggle no matter where I am, so no big.
The first signs that something was amiss was on Friday. After the bus tour, I was beginning to feel woozy, like when you turn your head and it feels like the brain inside has to wait a second before turning with it. I realized that I forgot to take my pills and assumed that was the reason. I took the pills and at some point felt better.
The next day, Saturday, while we were traipsing around Stone Mountain Park, I felt it again, realized that yet again I had not taken my pills. I took them and paid attention this time. It was several hours before I felt better.
That night, we stayed in a hotel in Chattanooga. When we got there, we discovered that the person had screwed up our reservation and put us down as coming in Sunday evening, not Saturday. Thank God, they were able to give us a room. Unfortunately, the only room available was a smoking room.
Now, my father smoked for the first 35 years of my life. I actually do not mind the smell of smoke. (Attention nieces and nephew who smoke, this does not mean that I don't think it's a disgusting habit and really wish you'd quit ASAP!). I figured we could handle it. I mean, how bad could it be? It was pretty bad. Good thing I had some Febreeze in the car, I sprayed the entire room, including me and Mom, and it was somewhat better. Probably, it was more just our olfactory senses had adjusted to it so we couldn't smell it all that bad.
On Sunday, I woke up with a headache and my eyes ached. Well, specifically, my left eye ached. I could see fine, but if I scanned from left to right, when I got to the far sides, the eye muscle was pure pain. Mom and I attributed the headache and eye issue to the smoking room. We drove home, and the wooziness returned.
In the middle of the night, I awoke with a fever, then chills, then fever. It was a good thing I had planned on taking Monday off because I felt horrible. As soon as my doctor's office opened, I called and made an appointment. My doctor, who I love!, ordered bloodwork and a urine test for Legionnaire's Disease. Great! Between giving the blood and weeing in the cup, I almost passed out! They laid me down, got me some juice, called my mommy to come get me, and strongly suggested I go to the ER for more tests.
For the third time since November, Mom and I headed to the ER! After tons of blood work, weeing in a cup, and other tests, the results were all negative, except for low white blood count which, or so we learned, means a viral infection.
I've spend the rest of the week trying to recuperate. I attempted to go to work on Wednesday, but about two hours in, I almost passed out and had to be driven home. I can't say that I was pleased about having to miss the whole week of work, but honestly, yesterday, Saturday, was the first day that I felt almost human again. So I've had a week to recuperate, rest with my little fur balls, and to recap the vacation for posterity.
Tomorrow, I plan to return to work. Today, I'm going to take a nap.
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