It was the beginning of the end of the year. Christmas was just around the corner. It was a Wednesday, 8 days before Christmas. I had, just the day previous, been appointed as the Director of a halfway house. I started feeling a headache coming on. I never get headaches, so when these symptoms start I tend to take notice. The headache was soon followed by a sore throat. No real problems though. I continued to work as usual. Thursday was fine, as I swamped my system with enough honey infused hot lemonade to flood the Grand Canyon. Friday was a bit different. As part of my new position, I was charged with driving across the state to evaluate potential residents for our facility. I woke up with a squeaky, pinched voice. It sounded like I was going through puberty, in all honesty. But I hopped in the car anyways, and drove the 240 miles necessary to go to the hospital where the potential resident was staying. My voiced squeaked and cracked slightly through the whole interview, and by the time I left it was getting to be painful to swallow. Saturday was much the same; my throat progressed to being more pained, tighter, and more swollen. I bowed out of choir Sunday morning. I was excused by my mother from helping prepare the house for our annual Caroling Party, so I slept for 2 hours. I had trouble eating because of the pain of swallowing. When I went to bed, I could feel my throat closing up, the pain increasing with each swallow. I began to hang my head over a pail, letting my mouth leak out instead of attempting to swallow. It was still too painful, so I ended up in Urgent care at 11pm where I was diagnosed with... an idiopathic acute viral infection. Well, I sure am glad you could at least tell me what was attacking me! A bunch of liquid OXy later and I could just barely tolerate swallowing. My administrator told me to stay home, and even rearranged a number of my appointments to be followed up on, in an abbreviated fashion, on Tuesday. Finally, more than a week after the headache started, I felt almost normal. It took until Saturday for there to be no noticeable pain when I swallowed. The headache had abated by the end of Christmas day, and I was no longer tight voiced.
There were a number of traditions I missed out on this year; The LDS Sheboygan Ward Christmas Day Polar Bearing event, the day after Christmas Ice Bowl, and Caroling. It was a rather disappointing Christmas for me, at least socially.
However, I had a wonderful holiday season. I was sickly, tired, and fatigued, but I was happy and excited. Drugs, disease, and buckets could not sway me!
(Written 12/29/15)
No comments:
Post a Comment