Blowin' Chunks

I woke Wednesday feeling incredibly sleepy, foggy, and lethargic. I was still up before 5:30am purely out of habit. If left to my desires, I am almost certain that I would’ve slept another two hours. But there were mountains to climb. So climb I did. I completed my exercise routine all the while cursing my aching hamstring. I had been altering the Advil/Tylenol doses religiously but for one reason or another it seemed to stop working. Ykraps and I hit the door at 5:45am for our morning walk. It was a much nicer morning with the promise of more normal weather in the offing – sunny and low 60’s. It was still pretty chilly this morning. Nevertheless, our walk was an enjoyable one. Usually, by the end of our walk I have shaken any remnants of the sleepies. However, most of the time they don’t get a chance to persist that long. Today seemed to be a different story. No matter what I did, I felt incredibly drained – on empty. After my return to the house I was struck with a bout of diarrhea. Uh-oh! Am I sick? Crap! Though tired, I didn’t really feel sick, although my gut felt a little bloated. I figured it related to something Mindy fed me and shrugged it off. I delivered Mindy’s coffee before returning back downstairs to meditate and ready for a run. Once again, I used most of the meditation time to stretch and massage my hamstring. It ached enough to cause concern. I dressed semi-warmly to combat the chill, but skipped the hand and ear covers. I was quite comfortable in that regard, however, my leg was cramping considerably. I ran at a much slower pace than usual doing what I had to do to lessen the pain. When I returned from my run neither of the kids were up and moving about. When Jacob finally appeared he looked like death warmed over. He was begging not to go to school for being too sick. Mindy, since last week, has chalked up his symptoms to spring allergies. I wondered if there wasn’t something more to it. His pleading continued even as his mother seemingly headed off for school. He then turned to me and asked if he could phone his daddy and possibly stay home with him. Suddenly, Mindy made an unexpected return. I let her know that Jacob was too sick for school. She quickly called her mother to ask if Jacob could stay there today. As expected, she agreed to have him over. After all, she has Bella every Wednesday already. Today she’d have them both. Jacob seemed pleased. Soon they all three left. I took my time getting ready for work and enjoyed every minute of it. I remember beginning to feel a little queasy and still rather bloated. But like I often do, I shrugged it off and went about my business. I left for work around 8:10am arriving a short time later. The work day went as expected with the normal interruptions and meetings. I still couldn’t shake that bloated feeling deep in my gut, and began feeling a little feverish too, but not to the point of total discomfort. However, that all changed on a dime. Come staff meeting time, I went downhill fast. By 1pm I felt terrible! Now, not only was I feeling bloated and feverish, but also nauseous. Every joint in my body ached to high heaven. Whatever it was, it had me. Still, I went back to my office hell bent on finishing my day as normal. I worked for about thirty minutes as if nothing was wrong. Come 1:30pm I had little choice but to push my door closed and lay my head down on my desk. That, I figured, was the best way to spend my lunch hour. But no matter how or where I laid my head I couldn’t shake that nagging nausea. I was sure that I was gonna blow chunks at any moment. Searching for any relief, I pulled an old shirt from my filing cabinet to use as a pillow, and quickly stretched out across my two guest chairs. I must’ve slept for about 30-40 minutes. But instead of waking feeling better, I felt worse. Determined not to barf, I threw myself to the floor searching frantically for a position that would curb the spins. I never did vomit, thankfully, but instead wallowed in misery. At one point I mustered enough energy to get up and head towards the bathroom. Those that encountered me for that brief moment knew something was amiss. A couple of folks approached me and offered to call Mindy to come fetch me or even drive me home themselves. I declined their kind offers, but at the same time knew that I didn’t belong at work. After all, I wasn’t being productive by any means. But for lots of reasons, I really wanted to finish out the day as planned. I’ve always prided myself on not missing work. Like I view a lot of things, I see it as a slippery slope. Once one begins cutting corners, soon the entire essence of the product is totally gone. Funny thing, writing this I realize how over the top that thinking is, but I am who I am. Back in my office I tried to work on a few issues, and actually did make some progress, but no matter what I did I couldn’t get beyond the feeling that my belly was about to blow. It came in waves. By then it was just before 4pm. I couldn’t take it any longer. I grabbed my keys and gym bag and rushed out the door, down the elevator, and out to my car. I sat in my car for a few assessing my ability to drive myself home. I was confident that I could make it as long as I allowed some fresh spring air to slap against my face. The Trooper started rough, like it did when I was having the manifold gasket issues. As Ipulled out of my parking spot and glanced down at my dash I was astonished to find that my check engine light was on. Are you firkin kidding me? Not again! I couldn’t worry about it then, however. I felt terrible. My only goal in the entire world was to get home and get my putrid butt into bed. I made it home by 4:20pm. Like a marathon runner views the finish line that’s how I saw my bed. I was curled up and under the covers in no time flat. I didn’t bother to remove anything but my shoes. Mindy & the kids arrived home a short time later. Mindy, of course, had Olivia in tow, and I could hear her cute little bursts of words all the way upstairs. Olivia has a hard time differentiating the name “Mindy” from “mommy” and often uses the two interchangeably. I must’ve heard her calling for Mindy a hundred times. It was darn near constant. Mindy visited my bedside a number of times bringing me whatever my heart desired. But more than anything, I simply wanted sleep. She brought me meds, crackers, and orange soda. The orange soda was the only thing that sounded remotely good. I hadn’t eaten all day, and was also very thirsty. Mindy was in and out of the room a handful times through the evening. I lost complete track of the time. However, I did have CNN spinning on the TV, which I kept a loose ear towards all evening long – something I rarely do. I remember commenting to Mindy how much of a chatter box CNN has become. There’s just so much going on at the same time that it’s not even funny. TV news has sure changed! I’m guessing around 8:30pm, I finally pulled myself out of bed and made it downstairs wrapped in a comforter to help ward off the chills. I was determined to try and eat something. Mindy made me a bowl of chicken broth. It was good. Afterwards, I felt exhausted and once again craved sleep. Unfortunately, the weight of the chicken broth in my gut helped usher back in that uncomfortable feeling of being on the verge of blowing chunks. Mindy watched American Idol elimination night from bed. I turned an eye and ear on occasion, and saw Brooke get eliminated just as we both predicted. Neil Diamond was the guest mentor. During a commercial break his Columbus concert was smartly advertised. I mentioned to Mindy that I’d like to see him. You either like him or hate him. I like him! Idol over – lights out. More … I had a rough time sleeping. I’m not sure exactly the time, but I‘d guess before midnight, we were woken by the sound of Bella blowing chunks in the bathroom. Mindy’s motherly instinct took over and was there at her side in a flash. We were both impressed that she had the wherewithal to make it to the bathroom. Learning that she had diarrhea earlier in the day, we now knew that Bella had the crude too. In an odd way, it was somewhat of a relief for me to now know that we must have a bug rather than a disease.