So when I came to...

I told the story of my evening last night to a friend, and she pointed out that whenever you begin a sentence, "so when I came to..." it couldn't be a good story.

Last night was WEIRD! That's the only way to put it. Totally out of the ordinary for me.

I don't get sick. As a general rule, I'm extremely lucky in the colds department. Three weeks ago I came down with a doozy: coughing and sneezing and running nose for an entire week. It was probably the first time in three years I'd had a cold like that.

And I fully expected that pattern to hold: cold, 2009, check. I'll look for you again in 2012, thank you very much.

Yesterday during work I noticed that my throat was really dry, and I was starting to get cotton throat. I drank a lot of water, sucked on some hard candy, figured it would be the end of it. When I came home from work, I walked the dog for about 30 minutes and felt progressively worse on the walk. When we got back home, I actually laid on the couch for 45 minutes before making my dinner -- I had a huge headache, my neck hurt, it was uncomfortable to swallow, the whole gamut.

So I tried to get to bed before 10 p.m., took a half dose of NyQuil for good measure, and set my alarm clock to go running in the morning.

At this point Mike came home from the Penguins/ Capitals game. I stirred a bit, noticed I felt worse, went back to sleep. This patterned kept repeating on the hour every hour until about 3 a.m. I'd wake up in a cold sweat, try to drink some water but my throat felt completely closed, I tossed and turned. At one point, he asked how I felt, and I told him my symptoms. I followed it with, "at least I don't have a fever."

He reached over, touched my forehead, and said, "You don't feel hot?"

I found my thermometer, and indeed, 100.6. Not the end of the world fever, but a high temp.

Around 3, I was moving around a lot and he woke again, too. I was really achy, hot, then cold then hot again, my head felt like it was going to explode. We took the temp again and it was 101.2. That's the wrong direction, ya know?

I started to feel nauseous and stomach crampy, so I staggered to the bathroom. Where I promptly blacked out.

So when I came to...

I don't remember this, but I must have had some sort of consciousness when I was falling, because when I gained my senses, I wasn't lying flat, and hadn't hit my head or anything (thank goodness), but was more slumped on my knees, and bent over resting on my elbows. And I was DRENCHED in sweat.

Poor Mike. He got me up and changed and dressed himself and wanted to go to the ER. But you know how when you've been drinking too much, and you throw up and then that makes you feel all better? I obviously had NOT been drinking, but whatever happened to cause the faint was, like, the culmination of whatever sickness I had. I cooled down, the nauseousness went away, and my temperature was back to normal.

I convinced Mike to just let me try to sleep it off, and he obliged. I was hoping to sleep until noon, but no such luck. Still, I am feeling better. Now it's just the pressure in my head and a sore throat, but otherwise, no temperature or anything bad like that.

Was that just one, big, long, pity me post?

Hm. Well, I guess that's the power of the pen.