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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Norovirus

There's been an outbreak of gastroenteritis on campus. I am not one of the lucky few who hasn't gotten it. I'm still recovering. Tuesday night through Wednesday night is kind of a blur, with few clear memories.

I felt slightly ill Tuesday morning and switched to the BRAT diet for breakfast and lunch--a banana and ramen, respectively. I made it to all my classes and felt mostly fine. Then I ate dinner after my 7pm class, assuming that since breakfast and lunch hadn't made me sick, I would be fine. The burger was delicious.

Too bad I tasted it all coming back up for half the night. I think I finally hit dry-heaves around dawn. I was so, so thirsty by the time I dared try to drink some water.

I have really confused memories of taking my meds, and on more than one occasion trying to stand up only to collapse onto the floor. I don't know how long I stayed there each time, but I'm still vaguely surprised that no one walked past my room and called emergency or something the time I passed out in my doorway.

Today, Thursday, I didn't make it to classes. I'm wishing I could do the same tomorrow, but I have silly things like a housing fair I'm required to be at in order to recruit people for the house. It's three hours long. Normally I'd say, great, but I *also* have a TA session and a class tomorrow.

And today I can barely lift anything, barely walk any given distance. I asked multiple hallmates for help yesterday with things like getting a rice-based electrolyte powder from the health center, and then moving the crates that had my liter container in it for the aforementioned powder. I asked one of my friends to go to the kitchen multiple times for filtered water because going to the kitchen required climbing stairs, and after the first time in which I had to cling to the railing and then rest at the top, I didn't want to do it again. I still haven't tried it today.

I feel so weak and also like I can't afford the time. I have/had work to do, and it's all going to pile together again. I was on top of it until Tuesday night hit. Now I'm falling even farther behind.

And it is frustrating to have simple tasks make me short of breath within a few seconds. I went to plug my computer into the socket behind my bed because my hips were complaining about the chair at my desk. So I had to crawl under the bed a little bit, and by the time I pulled back I was breathing hard.

When I took a shower tonight because I started noticing that I smelled, I asked my hallmate/friend to check on me after ten minutes just in case I passed out or fell down. I didn't do either, but I did sway while standing in the shower. Had a hard time keeping my balance. Was grateful that even if the shower didn't have a bench to sit on, it at least was narrow enough to make catching myself easy.

I went through this last year, only I think most of the time it wasn't viral, since going on antacids finally made me stop having episodes. This time it was definitely viral. Lots of other people are sick. We even had warning, in the form of a public health advisory a week before.

It's just so difficult to avoid getting sick on a college campus. And I really, really wish it had picked another week to hit us.

I hate this. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Two days without full cognitive function, one of which didn't even leave clear memories. It might be another two or three days until I'm back to normal. I've eaten nothing but crackers today, and don't feel terribly hungry. I just want my body to be normal sometimes. Even if normal for me means pain, I at least don't usually have a hard time lifting things that are only a few pounds.

*sigh*

1 comment:

  1. Same here on the Sonoma State Campus in Northern California. I've been quite lucky in avoiding it. So far.

    Hope you're feeling better soon!

    ReplyDelete