great trip! and now I am sick.
I always do this – I mean to get home from my vacation and write about every single detail – but mostly without fail I don’t! This entry is no exception. I will try to detail my trip more later. It was a lot of fun though.
They bad part is how sick I have been since I got home from the Philippines. I was fine on my flight from Manila to Narita, but about an hour into my flight from Narita to LA – I became violently ill. I spent most of the LONG flight hunched over the airplane toilet….it was disgusting and miserable. I never thought we would land. I couldn’t even keep water down. I kept trying to drink water so I would stay hydrated – but mostly because I’d rather throw up something then nothing – and that was the point I was at. By the time I got ot LA the last thing I wanted to do was to get on another flight to Phoenix…but I tredged on and just focused on how good being home would feel. I was really worried because I had developed a rash on my toes while I was in the Philippines and didn’t know if being sick was related to that.
I went straight to Urgent Care when I got back. The doctor there had no idea what the rash was – and thought that probably I had the flu and they weren’t related. He had blood and urine samples taken to be on the safe side. He gave me some anti-nausa medication and told me to go to the hospital if it got worse over the weekend or to come back if I was still sick in 24-36 hours. He didn’t give me any anti-biotics because he said he didn’t know what he was treating. So this was Thursday – I had been sick since Wednesday afternoon.
He called me the next day and told me the my white blood cell count was really high, indicating I was fighting off an infection and my sickness was probably not the flu. Over the weekend I had trouble breathing, still was sick, and had occasional (okay , occasional only because they is how often I ate!) diareah. My fever has been from 100-102.5 I called him on Monday and told him how I was feeling. He told me he was at a loss because he didn’t know what else he could do to figure out what was wrong. He did think I should come back in so he could check out my rash. He told me he wouldn’t be there on Tuesday, but I could come in and be seen by another doctor there. Monday was my first day back to work and it was awful. I was exhausted and felt beat up by the time I got home…and I only lasted 6 hours.
On Tuesday I was feeling somewhat better – far from good, but a little better. I chose to call in sick and stay home and rest. I didn’t want to keep pushing myself. I thought since I was doing a little better there was no point to go back to urgent care…I was improving. By Tuesday night I wasn’t feeling that well again. Wednesday was up and down….I was back to throwing up and diarea. Today had been hell. All day. The later it gets the worse it is. I came home because after I ate dinner I spent the rest of the time in the bathroom throwing up. I barely made it home where I left a trail from where I parked my car to the door. I am okay right now…not throwing up – but hell what do I have left to throw up….not that that usually stops me.
I know I am not pregnant…but this feels like what other expecting mothers describe as morning sickness. Twice over the weekend I tried to go to dinner with a friend that was in town…the first time I stared at the menu very sick to my stomach and decided against ordering anything. The second time I ordered a vegeburger and when it came I almost threw up at the table and gave it to one of the girls who had only ordered and appitizer of 6 oysters. I am trying to eat normally because not eating or eating bagels wasn’t helping much. I have an appitite, I just can’t stomach eating….or not eating – that is just as bad. I know my body and if I stop eating it will be another week of sickness adjusting back to regular food. It is a catch-22.
I vow tonight (although it is an everyother day vow anyway) to call a dr tomorrow. I need to find a regular doctor here…I can’t afford $50 copay to go to urgent care everyday.
A lady in a different workgroup in Philidelphia was telling my boss that last time she got back from the Philippines she was just like this and it took her 2 months to get it out of her system…I honestly don’t think I have the strength to go 2 months like this. It has been 9 days and I am tortured! It looks like the San Salvador trip may be in 2.5 weeks….I can’t go to San Salvador like this! And I refuse to miss out on going if that is when we are going. UGH!
So that is my post trip update for now….I think I am going to be sick again in a minute.
I have my 2nd interview for the analyst position tomorrow at 1400….must be well enough not to puke on anyone! It is with one of the same managers and we are phoning in to one of the Pittsburg directors….as I think she is the one the 2nd interview is with. At least I can’t puke on her if it is over the phone. It is just that when you feel like crap you usually come across as crap and I don’t want to do that.
Ok – if anyone got through all of this without getting sick themselves…bravo. And if you have a medical license please feel free to tell me how to get better!