Ugh

The last month at work has been... busy.

On the upside, my next pay will have something close to a million dollars worth of overtime on it.  Or, at least, that's how it feels.

After many late nights and many weekends, the big deadline for what we were doing was Thursday morning.  And wouldn't you know it?  It actually all paid off.  Everything was pretty darn okay as a matter of fact.  Thankfully, what happened next happened next instead of before.  Because if what happened next happened before this would be a different story.

I didn't sleep very well on Wednesday night, so I was going into Thursday feeling off.  Chalked it up to work stress and getting stuff done.  So when I started to feel less than stellar after lunch, I assumed it was just me coming down off of all the stress and nerves.  Kind of like back in school when I would push through exams, and then get that kind of weird hollow feeling when it was all over.  Though, come to think of it, that hollow feeling may have just been my brain releasing all that knowledge that I'd been building up as I wouldn't need it anymore.  Stupid quadratic equations, I'll show you!

At 4, I had a bit of acid reflux.  I bought some Tums, which helped, but didn't really make it all better.  I practically ran to the bathroom when we got home.  It was kind of like getting all the side effects of lactose intolerance without the deliciousness of ice cream first.  Robyn went to the store and I fell asleep on the couch around 5:15 or so.  I got up later and had a small amount of soup, which did not go well.  Went back to sleep.  Then I got up to go to work, because it was Friday.

Again, I figured that my upset stomach and insane fatigue was a result of coming down off of work stress.  The grogginess I was feeling on Friday morning was probably just because I had overslept, pushing my internal clock off balance again.  Stomach was still pretty rough, but I'd felt worse, so I went to work.

I made it all the way to lunch.  I know that because I went to the lunchroom with a co-worker, took two bites of a delicious pork chop My Lovely Wife had made for me that I couldn't eat the previous day, and declared myself unable to eat anything more.  I don't just give up on meals.  It's not something I do.  I've pushed mealtimes back, and I've only had light snacks instead of full meals, but I don't give up on them.  It's very un-Cho-like.

I went home shortly after that (which was kind of sucky because there were still things that I had to get done that I had to leave with co-workers) and slept for most of the afternoon.  Well, I slept when I wasn't otherwise occupied.  And by occupied, I mean releasing the demons that had moved into my guts.  I may be painting an awful picture here, but I had to live through it so I feel that you should suffer too.

And that's how I spent Friday.

This morning, I woke up a little before 6, unleashed an unholy fury, and called Tele-Care, for those of you that aren't aware, is a service offered in New Brunswick (and elsewhere too I'm told) that allows you to talk to a nurse over the phone to help you determine the severity of how badly off you are.  If you've never called Tele-Care, let me make this perfectly clear: it is a service that I believe is worth the tax dollars being spent on it, and I tip my hat to the staff that answers the phones 24/7.

That being said, it is also the most awkward experience I've had in a long time.  When I talk on the phone - which is as seldom as possible - I give as little information out as possible.  I mean it.  When I participate in customer satisfaction surveys, I'll only give a "thr", "fo" or "fi" on a scale of 1-5.  So I had to crush every impulse to say "no" when the nurse was asking me for personal information, which is very hard to do at 7:00 in the morning.

The upshot of that call was that she suggested I should probably see a doctor within the next 24 hours.

I got my stuff together to go to the emergency room, though some members of my family who shall remain nameless tried to convince me that I should just wait and go to the clinic later.  I said that I'd go to the ER and if the wait time was super long I'd leave and go to the clinic.

The waiting room was practically empty, though the triage nurse said that they'd been super busy all night.  Only waited for about 30 minutes or so before I saw a doctor.

My view on Saturday morning
I'm feeling better now, thank you.  Not great, and not normal, but better.  Diagnosis was some kind of stomach bug. I now have some pills which give me a headaches, drowsiness and dryness of the mouth.  Other side effects include a general curbing the demonic possession of my intestinal region.

What I've learned from this situation is that I'm becoming a fan of the show "The Glades", which I may re-watch some day when I can stay awake through an entire episode.  

Oh, and also that Dolly Parton's boobs are huge.  My Lovely Wife started watching "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" when I fell asleep during "The Glades".  All things considered, not a bad way to wake up.

Comments

  1. I don't know if I'll be calling TeleCare again after my last experience with them.. They basically convinced me I was in imminent danger of suffering a stroke and urged me to call an ambulance. Needless to say, that freaked me out, especially being pregnant and all. I didn't call an ambulance, but my boss drove me to the hospital as a alternative. Turns out, I'm ok. Also turns out, doctors laugh at you when you say TeleCare advised you to go to the hospital.

    Hope you feel better now :)

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    1. Telecare was more of the "okay, based on the description of your issue, you should see a doctor in the next 24 hours". That's a pretty big window, but I figured sooner than later was better. I was right!

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  2. If this starts happening often, ask your Dr to try you on Nexium. Suffered many years and many trips to ER. They tried Demerol and it didn't even faze me or the pain. Morphine kept the pain at bay but was very paranoid when taking. The pain was like someone reaching into my gut and twisting, it would shoot through me into my back. Don't know if you remember when I actually had to bring hot water bottles in to help my back. My DR tried me on Nexium and have never had a bad episode since. I do not take it everyday but when I feel it coming on will take for 3-4 days then I'm fine. You feel hungry but can only take a bite or two. Feeling like your constipated but have diarrhea. Pain so intense you are rocking with it. And yes sleep like crazy when not on the toilet. You may want to mention Nexium if it continues....Donna Larent.

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    1. I'm sorry, I have to ask...why would he need Nexium if it turned out to be a stomach bug? And why are doctors giving Demerol and morphine for acid reflux?

      Also, Weh-Ming, were you on an IV?? You have a picture of an IV! It's scary! (I would have put up a picture of Dolly Parton's boobs instead.)

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    2. I was on an IV, I was a wee bit more dehydrated than I thought I was. Thankfully, it has passed.

      And I would have posted a pic of Dolly's Bosoms, but my phone doesn't have a wide angle lens.

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  3. I'm going to be blunt, because it's what I do:

    If they put you on antibiotics, still watch for blood or mucus in your poop. It seems some antibiotics these days (ciprofloxacin, for one) can make room for c.difficile to invade. Not saying it will happen, just watch for it. It happened to me when my salmonella was misdiagnosed. That was two months ago and I'm still recovering. Blerg.

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  4. Oh Weh.....you are still my favourite guy with an ad ..... stomach demons and all - how have you been? of course other than being 'infected' and hopefully by 'infected' we are not talking about 'infected' the way the Walking Dead talk about 'infected.' Now that i have managed to put 'infected' in a sentence 5 times and it made sense, I can die knowing that my life served accomplishment and purpose. Miss our conversations...this feels so one sided....hope the fam is well and not 'infected' like you,,,okay now i am just showing off...

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    1. Everything is good now... thankfully, we once again managed to evade both getting sick at the same time. In a one-bathroom house, it could be...tricky.

      Congratulations on your infection rate!

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