Oh my...I kept debating on whether to update tonight because I wanted to get to bed early but honestly, if I wasn't doing this I'd be staying awake some other way even less productively than I am now.
This week I went back to school. Well, I went to my internship and then sat on my couch for class. My internship rocks. It's with a youth advocacy center that researches, works with a plethora of youth related service organizations and also goes to the Capital to let politicians know what they're doing when they write out policy that effects people. My supervisor seems great and the Executive Director has already talked to people about finding me a job somewhere in Louisville, this man is efficient. In related news, I have an interview tomorrow across the bridge in Indiana for a case management job. I'm crossing my fingers that my days of getting punched and spit on are behind me. You never know when those days are behind you though, really. So overall the 'work' week was pretty rad, aside from minor technical issues. I bought a new laptop for school since my old one decided that it doesn't like being on for longer than twenty minutes again. The new one is definitely not as fancy but it just needs to get me through the school year without costing me any more money. That is my only hope for this laptop, my expectations are low.
So by the time Friday comes around I'm feeling positive about life, I love my internship, my classes seem like they are going to be interesting and I am even getting a short visit from my Aunt. All awesome things and then suddenly in the middle of a meeting with a very reputable and enormous foundation I get distracted by weird tingling in my legs. Then I get the tingling in my arms and hands. I start guessing that maybe too much caffeine, I'm dehydrated, I'm having an aneurysm, the usual. I leave the meeting still feeling mostly normal except for the weird tingling. I stop and get gas, continue on home and by the time I hit my house I'm feeling really warm and my head is swimming. I take my temp, pretty mild and take some aspirin. An hour goes by and my temperature goes up by 2 degrees. Odd but still functioning and not craving brains yet. My Aunt visits, I feel hot but can carry a conversation and I'm happy. Then the aspirin begins to wear and the headache returns along with pain in my lower back and up my spine. I take some more aspirin and nap on the couch. Jason and I then go to a cookout to see friends, one of whom that was in town from New York that he doesn't get to see often. After an hour at the cookout I'm back to feeling completely miserable and on the verge of tears because there is so much pressure in my head and neck. Jason takes me home and we have a conversation about going to the ER. I don't have health insurance right now so that seemed out of the question. Instead we go home and I lay in bed and cry because I feel so awful while he runs around the house looking up phone numbers to nurses hotlines and getting me cool washcloths for my head. The pain has traveled from my lower back to all of the joints in my body and my head is on the verge of exploding like Gallagher and his watermelons. My temperature gets up to 102.6 and we finally contact a nurse. I talk to her briefly and her suggestion was to see a doctor in the morning unless the pain gets so bad I can't touch my chin to my chest. She also mentions meningitis. Yikes. My fever persists, chills, body aches and it looks like the flu but there is zero nausea or vomiting. Jason continued to check on me, got me aspirin and read to me (the Hobbit) and yes, he is amazing. I woke up a few hours later in a pool of sweat with what felt like the worlds worst hangover. Saturday was rough but not near what I was experiencing the night before so I'm guessing whatever it was had passed. I avoided seeing a doctor and I probably won't until my insurance gets reinstated sometime this week. Mostly the experience made me angry that I had to choose between obscene medical bills or silent suffering in my home with the possibility of a serious virus infiltrating my body. Luckily it appears that it was a 24 hour bug though I still continue to have some discomfort in my joints. At one point while I was laying there with tears streaming down either side of my face I thought that I was maybe just going to not wake up because I had West Nile or meningitis. It is entirely possible that I had West Nile, some people get it and don't even show symptoms, others die, depends on your immune system. Anyway, I didn't die though at times I was sure I was going to and I live to fight another day. And kill any damned mosquito that I lay eyes on.
Next week is my first full week at my internship and school. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and re-familiarizing myself with excel spreadsheets! Yay! Ugh. Maybe school will get me back to writing in one consistent tense and proofreading the things other people see. Don't get your hopes up.
Have a wonderful week. Maybe this time next week I'll have some more great news and less dramatic stories about my physical health.
:)
Also my best friend Jen, is awesome. (there's your shout-out you nerd)
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