So sick.

I spent the first half of this weekend moaning in bed. I fell asleep Friday night at 9 p.m. and woke up at 1 a.m. feeling all dizzy and nauseated. I thought it was because I'd taken vitamins on an empty stomach, so I ate some cookies and went back to bed.

When I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, I felt weak and was still nauseated. I made some Cream of Wheat in the dark (Rick was sleeping. He sleeps in the living room, and the apartment has a kitchenette that's in that same room). It didn't help. I found I couldn't stand up straight. Every time I tried, my stomach muscles would tighten up and I would double over. I was too tired to read. I know! I didn't think it was possible, either. At lunchtime, I made some chicken soup. It kind of made me want to puke, but I knew I needed nutrients.

Then I called my doctor to make sure it wasn't a reaction to the amoxicillin. He said it probably wasn't, but I should go to the hospital to get tests to make sure my abdominal problem wasn't something serious (it was too late for me to make it to his office before it closed, not to mention the can't-straighten-up problem). Some of my symptoms were consistent with hepatitis, too. After he hung up, I was so tired I fell back asleep. I went online and it looked like hepatitis wasn't a real emergency, so I went to sleep again. I couldn't imagine walking to a hospital, and it wasn't serious enough for an ambulance. Besides, my online research showed that a lot of my symptoms were also consistent with the plain old flu.

By eight p.m. I was out for the night. I slept the whole night through. My fever went down some, and my stomach wasn't perfect, but it was better…until I started experiencing gross new symptoms. I finally followed my doctor's advice and went to the hospital. They gave me an IV and everything. Ew. I HATE NEEDLES! My nurse was this tiny, sweet Asian woman:

"Don't worry. I have angel hands. Angel hands." I covered my face with my left arm while she worked on the right arm. "I'm not even doing anything yet. For the IV, they don't even leave in the needle anymore. They leave in a plastic straw." (PLASTIC STRAW? PLASTIC STRAW is not more comforting than NEEDLE!) "Now it's going to be cold. It's an alcohol swab. Now I'm going to use the needle. Hold very still. Okay, all done." I pulled my left arm away from my eyes, and she saw the tears that had been falling the whole time. "Ooh, I make you cry? I don' like to make people cry!" I ended up comforting her...which may have been a brilliant strategy on her part. Although I then saw some of my blood in the "straw" and I almost lost it.

After they diagnosed me (not hep.), pumped me full of fluids and gave me a prescription and a note to get me out of work Monday, I booked it over to Tom's for his Super Bowl party. It was fun watching the game with him and his friends, but I was so tired I fell asleep halfway through the game.

The next day, he stayed home from work to help take care of me. It was so sweet of him. Today, I had to go back to work. That was pretty terrible. The kids went nuts when I was gone. They ripped a poster off my wall, scribbled on another, threw books on the floor, graffitied a desk, stole my chalkboard eraser and ripped the classroom phone off the wall.

You know, they were naughty for me today (including the most ironic moment EVER when I had to stop a boy from using a book about Martin Luther King as a weapon), but for that poor substitute teacher yesterday? That must have been hellish. I only have to get through five months (from now to the end of June) and there will be two week-long vacations (one in February, one in April). I can make it. I can!