Floored unknowingly

I woke up with a rather bad bout diarrhoea this morning. Surprisingly, it did not hit me until I woke up for work. By the time I left for home, I had four runs.

I went to work despite the malady, having to make one more detour along the way. During the class, I had to will myself not to have to make another run.

Meanwhile, during the course of the morning, I started shivering and the body started aching. By noon, I was shivering so bad and feeling so cold that my hands were beginning to have pins and needles sensations. Blood flow to the extremities was now reduced because the body needed to preserve core functionalities. Blood is thus kept to the critical organs.

My head was already throbbing by then and all my major joints were flaring up with pain. Big time! When I left the university to take a cab to the doctor, I was shivering in the noon sun. To think I'd pull on a thin cotton shirt in 10 deg C New York and yet be chattering my teeth off in the 30 deg C heat of equatorial Singapore.

The journey to the doctor was ok enough; the cab driver and I chatted some and that took some of the discomfort off my mind. And when I arrived, that was when hell literally froze over. I was thankful to get the final seat outside the clinic but I was shivering. I could tell my mouth was getting parched and the head was spinning and throbbing in pain at the same time. The body could not tolerate being in any position at all because the joints were all screaming out in sharp pain. The skin was all tender and even the wind makes the body hurt.

And then the guy beside me asked me, "How do you spell 'cough'?" Simple enough question. I was tempted to say, "Cof," - imagine in my miserable state, I still had my sense of humour - but I thought this was my ticket to a return favour. After a while, I asked Mr Cough to look after my seat and belongings while I took a quick visit to the 7-Eleven next to the clinic to get some water. I was drying up and I knew it.

7-Eleven charged exorbitantly for the distilled water they put on sale. Oh, what the f***. So what if it is $1.80 for two 500-ml bottles when it should be no more than $1? Get it first and regret later. Lugging the two bottles out - trust me, in that pain, a litre of water ain't light load - I started sipping on a bottle. I guess it made good sense then because I was feeling a little nauseous and I didn't think I'd enjoy puking water all over my because I drank too quickly.

Finally, after waiting a good 50 minutes, the clinic opened. By then, I must have gone to hell and returned a few times. The registration was fast enough and I was third in the numbered queue and sixth overall (3 appointment cases, who did not need queue numbers). I waited for another good one hour to see the doctor. There was a baby on check-up, who was first in the numbered queue and this brat was screaming on and off at the top of its lungs. I wish I could go up and kiss it, so it knows what it means to be sick and miserable. And the parent was such an idiot. I believe that while the baby was being examined, the grandmother joined in to see the doctor, making the "first" consultation stretch into almost 25 minutes. Why are babies so troublesome?

Mr Cough was pretty fast. When he was out, I was feeling so weak it took me some effort to pick up my heavy bag and file to get into the consultation room.

After I described my symptoms to the doc, he started checking me. My fever was 38.8 deg C. My stomach was full of flatulence. My body ache and headache and the whole pain works were due the fever. And then he felt my arm and said, "Odd. You're burning up and yet you feel so cool all around." He then took my temperature from the right ear (the first was from the left) and it registered 38.7 deg C. So he was convinced that my fever was really bad. And I'm convinced I'm one cool guy, even if I have fever.

Doc then said to avoid coffee, tea, milk, oily stuff and just eat whatever I have a fancy in. If I don't feel like eating at all, it was also fine; he recommended isotonic drinks if I wanted to have them. And the diagosis? I got a particularly virulent strain of the gastro-entritis virus and it was through close contact with someone with that virus. The fever was a result of the viral infection. At that moment, I thought I should go on a witch-hunt.

I came home at around 4 pm, cleaned my hotspots with a cold towel and went to bed. I never slept so well in my life, I bet. I know I was in a really bad shape because I would never have gone to bed without showering first, but the condition I was in made showering literally impossible. How does one shower when in such pain, such cold and such unsteadiness?

Few hours of deep sleep and a few trips to the loo (to pee) later, housemate returned and asked if I would be interested in some soup. Soup? I think I could but I don't know if it's going to agree with the stomach. I finally got out of bed at around 7.40 pm for two bowls of water-cress soup. It was a little too rich for the weakened system, I guess. I just expelled it half an hour ago. It must be the soup because it was rather rich - meat stock - and I hadn't eaten since noon.

After the soup, I slept for another two hours, got up and medicated. Then I decided a shower was in order. After ablution, the sweat began. I was sweating non-stop. The fever broke. I took the opportunity to do up the laundry as I waited for the sweating to abate. And to keep myself entertained, I blogged.

My shirt is rather soaked at this moment. I'm going to change and then go back to sleep. I'm not going to work tomorrow.