Weekend at Eric's
I suppose I shouldn't be so flip in referring to the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, but that's the kind of guy I am. The whole story starts last Wednesday night (although technically, this has probably been going on for most of the month, if not longer) after my exam in Government & Nonprofit Accounting, when I was struck by fever & chills of such intensity that I wasn't sure I'd be able to drive home. I managed to do this, fire off an apologetic e-mail to Stacy regarding Thursday's linkagery, and then collapsed into bed with water and Tylenols. I slept for about thirteen hours, woke up still feeling like crap, drank breakfast, took meds, and went back to bed after informing my Auditing professor I'd have to make up that night's exam on account of illness1.
Friday morning came, and I felt somewhat less crappy, but noticed that while the general whole-body achiness had subsided, my lower left leg was swollen, noticeably warmer than the rest of me, and painful to the touch. I was chatting with P at the time I noticed this, and we agreed it was time for a visit to the VA. Now, I thought this would be a simple matter of dropping by the ER, waiting a few hours, and then going home with a Z-pack, so I didn't bring anything but my Pixi and the Kindle. So of course, after spending about seven hours hanging around the ER waiting to be seen, they wound up sticking some Vancomycin into my arm, doing an ultrasound on my leg to look for clots2 and admitting me to a bed in one of the medical wards.
And that's where I stayed until late Sunday afternoon when they turned me loose to go home with a fistful of Bactrim and some antifungal cream to deal with the athlete's foot that had served as breaching charge for this particular bacterial attack. In the meantime, lots of reading, sleeping, watching the NCAA womens' hoops tournament, sleeping, and more sleeping while the staff dripped more vancomycin and saline into my arm. Not so much eating, though, since the VA still adhere's to the ADA's "balanced diet" stupidity, and I wasn't having any of that. Managed to keep my blood sugar in the normal range without my regular meds and without insulin for the weekend.
1He scheduled the makeup for this Wednesday night during the Government & Nonprofit Accounting class I have with him. This ought to be interesting.
2The radiologist didn't find any. I was almost disappointed. Almost.
Friday morning came, and I felt somewhat less crappy, but noticed that while the general whole-body achiness had subsided, my lower left leg was swollen, noticeably warmer than the rest of me, and painful to the touch. I was chatting with P at the time I noticed this, and we agreed it was time for a visit to the VA. Now, I thought this would be a simple matter of dropping by the ER, waiting a few hours, and then going home with a Z-pack, so I didn't bring anything but my Pixi and the Kindle. So of course, after spending about seven hours hanging around the ER waiting to be seen, they wound up sticking some Vancomycin into my arm, doing an ultrasound on my leg to look for clots2 and admitting me to a bed in one of the medical wards.
And that's where I stayed until late Sunday afternoon when they turned me loose to go home with a fistful of Bactrim and some antifungal cream to deal with the athlete's foot that had served as breaching charge for this particular bacterial attack. In the meantime, lots of reading, sleeping, watching the NCAA womens' hoops tournament, sleeping, and more sleeping while the staff dripped more vancomycin and saline into my arm. Not so much eating, though, since the VA still adhere's to the ADA's "balanced diet" stupidity, and I wasn't having any of that. Managed to keep my blood sugar in the normal range without my regular meds and without insulin for the weekend.
1He scheduled the makeup for this Wednesday night during the Government & Nonprofit Accounting class I have with him. This ought to be interesting.
2The radiologist didn't find any. I was almost disappointed. Almost.