We interrupt your life for this brief but intense illness....
Thu, Aug. 18th, 2016 06:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So there I was at the office on a Thursday morning. Suddenly I became nauseated. My head began to hurt like hell. I had the dry heaves. I headed home. That was Thursday, July 28. I haven't been back to the office--or pretty much anywhere except the hospital--since then.
What started out as food poisoning--or so I thought--turned out to be a much more serious illness. By August 2, I was at Swedish First Hill Medical Center being treated for a mass of symptoms: headache, stomach ache, abdominal pain, nausea, fever, coughing. I was tested more thoroughly than I have ever been in my life. I was fed via intravenous nutrition. I was a mess. For 11 days, I was in the hospital; during some of that time I was just completely out of it. By the time I left, I was healthier, though not terribly well-rested. And I never got a firm diagnosis of what had gone wrong. The best the doctor could do was give me a vague diagnosis of "viral enteritis," which basically means something was in my gut trying to kill me. Obviously, it failed.
I've spent the last few days at home, trying to build strength and stamina, resting, and trying to eat a little more healthily. I'll start back to work--from home--this coming Monday. I see my doctor today for a follow-up. It all feels so surreal. Being unable to walk a distance. Being unable to do things for more than, say, an hour at a time. Having lost some manual dexterity and having to practice my handwriting. I'm going to need more sleep and more recuperation time. Happily, I have another few days before I try to get back to work. I hope I can do it.
What started out as food poisoning--or so I thought--turned out to be a much more serious illness. By August 2, I was at Swedish First Hill Medical Center being treated for a mass of symptoms: headache, stomach ache, abdominal pain, nausea, fever, coughing. I was tested more thoroughly than I have ever been in my life. I was fed via intravenous nutrition. I was a mess. For 11 days, I was in the hospital; during some of that time I was just completely out of it. By the time I left, I was healthier, though not terribly well-rested. And I never got a firm diagnosis of what had gone wrong. The best the doctor could do was give me a vague diagnosis of "viral enteritis," which basically means something was in my gut trying to kill me. Obviously, it failed.
I've spent the last few days at home, trying to build strength and stamina, resting, and trying to eat a little more healthily. I'll start back to work--from home--this coming Monday. I see my doctor today for a follow-up. It all feels so surreal. Being unable to walk a distance. Being unable to do things for more than, say, an hour at a time. Having lost some manual dexterity and having to practice my handwriting. I'm going to need more sleep and more recuperation time. Happily, I have another few days before I try to get back to work. I hope I can do it.
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