Life on Mars?

Well it's like I said, I need to blog about myself.

Life has been great as of late. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was quite sick for a couple weeks following my trip to Europe. I slowly and eventually felt better and better, and I can now happily report that I am about 98% good to go! I got a test on my stomach etc. and the doctor found nothing wrong with me. Apparently I just had some sort of virus and it's gone! Yay!

Here I am at the bottom of Notre Dame in Paris- There are a mondo load of stairs in that mother!
As annoying as the whole illness ordeal was, it has blessed me greatly! While I was ill (and traveling) I felt as though I had been separated from my life, like 2 months of 2008 disappeared. When I came out of my sick-coma I felt afresh and newly motivated to reinstate several good habits that had fallen by the wayside. I guess that's how life works. Sometimes we get so caught up in the nothing that we become stale, stagnant, and overly redundant.
Now I'm not saying that I have magically joined the gym and started working out, or that I haven't been watching my share of TV (see previous blog...), but I have made a few changes. With the re-introduction of a good habit or two, I have since been more grateful and all around chipper! I can only think of one brief cluster of time where I was sad since "the illness" passed (my professor seemed to be telling me I wasn't going to get a good grade, but he later said I would at least get a B so I felt better). That small nugget of Edward Cullen esq. EMO left like the rain in St. George and was soon replaced by the high that comes from flirting with a fresh crush on a tasty man!

One of my 2008 Valentines.
Life is short, life is long.
I have a few friends who are...Hmong.
So maybe I should wrap this up better somehow,
but I don't want to- I'm as lazy as a sow.

SICK SICK SICK forEVER!

Well I guess it's about time that I actually write a blog about my life-a.

Life is interesting. It's fabulous and wonderful...and long and hard. As of late I've been uber sick, I was bedridden for days. I didn't even leave my house for about 4 days, I only left my room to eat and take care of other necessities. It seems that I've been sick forEVER! To start I went to Europe: Amsterdam, Paris and London (That's a whole separate story I guess). The day after I got back I woke up with a medium-strength cold, but after a few days I was feeling well enough to enjoy social outings and celebrate Halloween! That period of "wellness" lasted for about a week, then it was followed up with a rousing new batch of knock-you-out cold for about 4 days- bedridden. I suppose I never really got over that cold- it was just trumped by another illness.

The other illness. Late Thursday night (November 6th) I was up late watching TV. At about midnight I started having some intense abdominal pain. After several hours of awful stomach pain I decided it was time to go to the ER and check it out. When I got to the ER I was feeling worse than ever, by the time I was in a ER room I was hooked up to an IV with some milk anti-nausea meds and saline water. Unfortunately the mild medicine didn't work and I had the weirdest loss of control-blank out episode things ever! Everything started getting blurry and I started shaking, that was followed by ridiculous vomiting. The blood tests showed nothing except that my white blood cell count was really high.When I still wasn't feeling better after several hours they gave me a pill and sent me home.

An EVIL pill. My new enemy- Zofran. Apparently I'm totally allergic to Zofran. Apparently no one else is allergic to it- about 5 nurses and EMT's told me so. They said they give it to hundred of patients and have for years, they've never seen someone allergic to it. So I was at home trying to sleep (it was 8 am at this point) and I woke up itching all over- I was covered in huge, raised, red and despicable hives from head to toe. My hands, feet, lips and chin were swollen. I called the ER and they told me to just take benadryl- and so I took benadryl, lots and lots of it.

After a day of lots of benadryl, pain, itching and twitching I decided it was time to go to the doctor. My regular doctor was overbooked so I had to do the walk in clinic. I saw this old guy (yes I know, that's "ageism") who just told me to keep taking benadryl and the rest was acid reflux- thanks a lot doc.

So I decided to ignore the clinic doctor and go back to the ER. This trip was much more successful. They gave me more saline water and drugs in my new IV and then it was time for the tests. First I got an abdominal scan via ultra-sound. I loved it! Ultrasounds are like spa treatments. They rub your tummy with jelly and tell you to take deep breaths in a low-lit room...ahh, it was soothing! Sadly the ultrasound didn't show the doctor anything and so it was CT-Scan time. CT-Scans are NOT as fun as ultrasounds. They take you in a brightly lit room and inject your veins with saline (which you taste on insertion) and then the worst part- iodine! Iodine burns your insides! It makes you feel all hot and uncomfortable! Ick!

Well anyways, it was worth it because the doctor was finally able to see that something was wrong with my tummy. My intestines are swollen to about twice the normal size! So, we don't know what's wrong, but something is wrong. They gave me pain killers, itchy pills and steroids (NOT the kind that buff you up, the kind that get rid of allergic reactions).

I went home, took all the drugs and past out. Every 4 hours I woke up and took pills, then I went back to sleep. I was in a sick coma for about 5 days. When I ran out of pills the hives were gone- thank goodness! I was tingly and disoriented, I felt that I would never feel better. I was grateful to be awake, but sad because I felt like I was going to be sick through the holidays and miss living my life! Yay for me, I am much better now. I still get winded easily and I am still dizzy and sometimes disoriented.

This Thursday I have to get a video of my insides! They're putting me to sleep, and while I'm sure it's not going to be fun- I'm hoping to figure out what's wrong with me!

Is is a parasite from Paris? Is it just a passing virus? Do I have a rare disease? I just want to know!

So like I said before, life is wonderful- but it is hard and long! I'm grateful for every day I have on this crazy planet. I know it's coming to a disastrous end, and I welcome that fateful friend Armageddon. I'm just happy to experience all that I can, while I can.

Sorry this was so long, I'm sure the others wont be so lengthy!