Saturday, March 20, 2010

Viral Meningitis: A Tale of Woe

BEWARE READERS!!! This is not a tale for the faint at heart! You will derive no pleasure from this post, instead, I hope to educate my fair readers and scare with you my tale of sickness in the hope that you may never experience such horror.

Monday: I found out that Antoine had the dreaded disease (aka Viral Meningitis). Soon I started experiencing symptoms. First is was a headache followed shortly by some dull neck pain.

Tuesday: I awoke with an earth-shattering headache and some intense neck pain (notice the change from the night before). That evening the diarrhea struck (I know, this is more than you wanted to know, but I must report the facts)...and with it the horrible stomach cramps. Now, I don't consider myself a baby when it comes to pain, but MAN those cramps were killers! They've got to be what contractions must feel like!

Wednesday: By 2am Antoine was running to the store to get me some Imodium, which helped slightly. My Wednesday was dominated by trips to the bathroom and naps on the couch waking up with said neckpain and said headache. I thought that was going to be the worst day...I was wrong!

Thursday: I woke up with nausea and of course, diarrhea. The naesea was so bad I sat on the floor of the bathroom at 5 am, Guillermo curled up at my feet, hugging the toilet. But luckily nothing came from the nausea, just an inability to eat or drink anything. My neck pain became worse, as did my headache and dehydration. At this point, Antoine and I decided it was time for me to make my visit to urgent care, to make sure this wasn't worse than I thought. At urgent care I received the same diagnosis as Antoine with the addition of a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine. That evening, while the nausea vanished, a new symptom appeared...chest pain. My chest tightened and it became difficult to inhale. I could only sleep sitting up and I barely talked at this point. I was sure Thursday was going to be the worst day...I was SO wrong!

Friday: When I woke up I felt a little less horrible than I had on Thursday. There was still the headache, the neckpain, the aches & pains, and the diahheria, but the chest pain and neausea had lessened. I was still pretty dehydrated and weak. Then in the afternoon, the vomiting began. Now, by this time I had pretty much nothing left in my stomach (due to the diahheria) except water and bile...so that's what came up! This was by far the worst I have EVER felt in my life! I was [this] close to asking Antoine to take me to the hospital. I could barely talk or walk! I didn't physically have the energy to lift my head half the time! It wasn't pretty.

Saturday: I woke up feeling the tiniest bit human! And hungry! At 4am Antoine made me toast (another reason I love him...I asked him if he could make me toast and he did!). I think today finally isn't going to be the worst day EVER and that's something to celebrate! Now watch, I've probably jinxed myself, but I hope not!

So there's the story of my sickness! I hope that it will serve as a reminder for you. The next time you hear someone say, "I have viral meningitis", you run screaming! And if that infected person is your partner, then at least don't kiss them or eat/drink after them! Lesson learned!

It was a horrible, horrible experience that was only made better by calls from my mom and dad, emails from my best friend, a care package from my sis (the movie Up with a smiley face balloon tied to it...how awesome is she!?), and the nursing and love of Antoine! Thank you all for your caring!!

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