Day 5

[chiaroscurokept]

The Mysterious Eternal Illness (hereafter "MEI") sucks. I don't want to do anything but sleep (Because it hurts. I don't think it's mono).

Here are my symptoms:
--body aches
--constant headache (on and off since Saturday)
--nausea
--slight sore throat
--slight congestion in throat
--slight runny nose
--slight sneezing and coughing
--hot flashes
--chills
--fever (Teresa said I had one Monday night and I think it broke while I slept, so it wasn't there when I saw the nurses).
--swollen lymph nodes

Health Center diagnoses: Allergies

Allergy symptoms:

• Sneezing, the most common symptom, may be accompanied by a runny or clogged nose
• Itching eyes, nose, and throat
• Allergic shiners (dark circles under the eyes caused by restricted blood flow near the sinuses)
• Watering eyes
• Conjunctivitis (an inflammation of the membrane that lines the eyelids, causing red-rimmed eyes).

Notice how two (I'll grant that allergies can give a person a headache) symptoms match and they completely ignored everything else I told them. Their half-ass explanation for the rest of my symptoms was "Whenever something is different with your body, these things might happen." But then they admitted that the rest of the symptoms might be from a virus--you know, something contagious--but whatever. Have some allergy meds.

I've never really had a problem with allergies, besides a little sneezing. I understand pollen levels vary, but I shouldn't suddenly have a huge reaction. I usually get allergies in June. The nurse told me that things bloom here earlier (by two full months?) despite the fact that I got sick in Manasses, three hours north, where things were not blooming yet.

May I point out that it's thirty-odd degrees today and I'm burning up? Yeah.

Pah.