Hey all,
well the past few weeks have been interesting. My 23rd birthday was October 10th... heres how it got started...
October 10th 12:01 AM: Its my birthday!! but I feel really tired, dizzy, and feverish... but im at Annas party with some of my best friends so im gonna push through and have fun!!
October 10th 12:00 PM: Im awake and feel like death has taken over me. If this is a hangover its the worst ever, but it has to be something else. I am supposed to be in nashville in 2 hours to go to a wedding then out for my birthday. Im going to take a bath first.
October 10th 2:00 P.M.: still in the bath tub, eyes burn, stomach aches, head hurts, can't breathe. I call Brad (boyfriends brother and one of my best friends) he is at work and i ask him if he can take me to the ER he calls his mom Carolyn.
October 10th 2:30 P.M.: Carolyn gets me and takes me to ER where they make me wear a mask and fill out lots of forms. Finaly I get to go back where a really nice nurse sticks 2 big metal looking pipe cleaners up my nose and then one giant q-tip looking thing down my throat. Fever is 100.3. blood pressure HIGH
October 10th 3:45 P.M.: I get called back again to sit in a room. Finaly I get ice chips!!! Carolyn and I are talking about random stuff. Doctor comes in and talks for I swear 15 minutes with a nursing student trailing behind him taking notes. Finally i get a diagnosis: the Flu... but not just any flu H1N1 Swine Flu. I laugh a lot at this point.
October 10th 4:15 P.M.: Billing lady comes to my room with a problem. My insurance isn't working... again... so she hands me a card and some info about how to get the bill paid for. Doctor follows with a note for my teachers... I can't go back till after fall break. great... midterms are next week.
October 10th 5:00 P.M.: Off to Kroger to get prescriptions filled and juice. Now here is where things get really interesting. Carolyn is fantastic she buys me groceries including a ton of juice, soup, sandwhich stuff, tissues, a thermometer, hand sanitizer, etc. I drop of my prescripts and walk around the store a bit. I go back to get my meds and my stomach is cramping really bad at this point. The lady rings me up at the register. $123.00 for my meds (remember insurance isn't working) and all of a sudden I realize why my stomach hurts. I go to the bathroom and sure enough, thank you mother nature, i started my period. This is the best birthday ever.
October 10th 6:30 P.M.: I head home, get my groceries upstairs and set up camp in the living room. Now something you need to know about my apartment. I am poor and therefore have no TV channels AT ALL. I only watch old movies and old episodes How I Met Your Mother and Greys Anatomy that i own on dvd. along with no cable i have no internet. thus starts the next week of doing nothing. nothing at all. That night my fever spiked to 103! then by the next day had gone back down and never again got over 100.9.
For the next 6 days I layed on the couch, read magazines, watched the same episodes and movies over and over, talked to David on the phone, dreamed about running, watched as I lost 7 lbs from not being able to eat, played with the cats, and slept.
David came in town on Friday and before he got here I had some massive cleaning to do. the apartment was a wreck and just a giant room of flu so i bleached everything, threw away my sheets and pilows, bought a ton of germ killing aids, and scrubbed every appliance and door handle I could find. While David was here we did a whole lot of nothing cause i was so tired but we did manage to make it to Nashville one day and it was the most fun ever! We went to our favorite pet store (its our weird couple thing we always go to pet stores) and then went and sat at the Corner Pub all day and just talked and had a few cocktails. then we met up with Joe and Paul (2 of my other friends) in hermitage and had a margarita with them! I also got some great news while there... Paul is looking for a roomie in December so I have a place to live in nashville if i want to take it! YAY!!! how awesome is that! Then this week Vanderbilt e-mailed me to set up my interview and campus tour for grad school! Things started really taking shape and I am more excited now then ever to take this big step. And I feel great! I am sleeping well and will hopefully be able to return to my workout routine tomorrow!
This entire saga just reminded me that you can have an awful bad run in with something (like the deadly swine flu) and feel like nothing is ever going to work out for you, but if you just have faith in God he will restore your health and open the necesary doors for you to follow your heart. =)
-Emma
