Day 8

Sorry for my abscence.

There's sick and then there is SICK and I have been SICK. I have not
been this ill since i was a kid in my parent's house. Poor Rich is
sleeping on the sofa and tending to me. Yesterday was really bad, my
temperature hovered around 102 all day and I really was thinking i
had to go to the hospital. Nobody can feel that bad for that long and
not die. Horrible.

it started last Sunday when I went to Amsterdam. I had a cough, it
sounded bad but wasn't painful or anything. By Monday, after I had
seen a museum that morning, I took myself off to bed as I was feeling
really punk. I stayed in bed the rest of the time, in my tiny
draughty hotel room with no tv, telephone or internet, except for
the horrible time at the airport Wednesday night where my fever
spiked and I was wearing three sweaters and a coat and STILL could
not get warm. Got home at 1am after my flight was delayed.

(Lesson learned? Usually when I travel I pick 4 star hotels that I
then never sleep in because i am too busy sightseeing. The one time i
cheap out, I pick a one star (admittedly charming and friendly) hotel
that I then end up spending ALL my time in because I am sick. No tv,
no internet. No one to bring me food, I had to slouch over to the
nearby mini market for SOMETHING to eat. Arg. I will always make sure
from now on that the hotels have something to offer in the way of
entertainment or room service in case of sickness!)

When I was in Amsterdam I took myself to the hospital (last Tuesday),
but they sent me home with some lame prescription pain pills and they
said to rest. Which I have been doing, It just keeps hanging on! I
can say if you ever visit the Netherlands and think you might get
sick, bring your own good strong American pills and potions, because
holy shit Dutch cold/flu medication SUCKS ASS. Might as well rub
orange juice on your face and call that a cure. Bullshit. The only
stuff I could get that slightly worked was an expectorant called
Fluimicil and it tasted horribly of orange that morphed into chicken.
it didn't stop the cough, just made it more productive for about 15
minutes. I would have killed for some Theraflu.

Anyhow, today I felt well enough to actually sit in the comfy chair
in the living room, which is a Big Step for me right now. Never
having been quite this sick, I'm now realizing how much I take my
general good health for granted. I've always been a pretty healthy
person, so to get knocked down like this is pretty eye opening. I
will do everything to avoid it happening again. I've coughed so hard
that my stomach muscles and my diaphragm hurts. Ever had your
diaphragm hurt? Kind of wierd. Like your innards or your ribs are too
tight or something

There is one small upside. I haven't eaten almost at all. Though I've
been hungry, I haven't had the energy or the desire to do anything
about it. So I've lost 8 lbs! Before today I hadn't had a warm meal
since Tuesday and even then I only had three bites (we went to a very
bad Italian restaurant, so it was part lack of hunger and part, ew.)
I'm so hungry it 's insane but I need to go easy because i have had
some pretty fierce nausea as well and don't want to bring that back.

I will probably have to take a couple more days off work to ensure I
don't relapse. I'm getting pretty tired of my bed.