Here’s a little message for those of you who know what I have been going through for the past several days: don't read this part of my diary entry (unless you are dying to know how I feel about what I went through) or else you’ll just be bored. I am going to take the privilege of being the owner of this webpage to the extreme today because I believe I just came through the worst illness of my life and I would like to talk about it. I’ll try to make a long story short, but the meaning of that word is up in the air.
I had been fighting off some sort of ailment since the week after Thanksgiving and I am certain it was able to penetrate my immune system last Friday (December 3) when I broke down into tears because I screwed up my dynamics exam. Speaking of that test, my professor didn’t even bother to grade it. I guess he didn’t think it was worth his time (and he was right). Anyway, when I came home from the last Society of Women Engineers meeting last Tuesday night I wasn’t feeling very well. I went to bed early, but I couldn’t sleep because I had a raging fever and very intrusive dreams. When I was telling Stuart about these dreams where the people were talking to me and I couldn’t ignore them it sounded like I was hearing voices! Somehow I dragged myself out of bed for my last classes of the semester on Wednesday, but I had another night of feverish sleep that night.
When I woke up on Thursday morning I was convinced I had picked up some for of the flu from Danny in class (he had been sick the previous week), but I changed my mind when the next stage of my illness started shortly afterwards. Even though I hadn’t had anything to eat in the previous twelve hours my stomach decided it wanted to try and expel whatever was lurking there – twice. I spent the whole day in bed and I didn’t put anything in my mouth except water. The next morning I had a repeat performance – twice – and I was ready to do something about it. My roommate Gina took me to the infirmary where they gave me a shot (coincidentally in my butt, and it hurt very much) to stop the nausea. Both the nurse and the doctor ignored me when I told them I was feeling sick when they were talking to me. As I was paying my bill on the way out I threw up in the bathroom. I had lots of people’s attention then! Wasn’t that a wonderful experience? I spent the rest of Friday on bed as well. On Saturday morning I was not feeling queasy (a new experience for the time being), but I had no strength because I hadn’t had any nourishment for the past several days. As soon as I started eating my strength came back.
Too bad all of this was going on while I should have been studying for my final exams. I listed my exam schedule in my last diary entry and it is killer. I was finally able to study for a significant period of time yesterday, but I was already so far behind by then. My first exam was in space system design tonight from 5:30-7:30 PM. The funny thing is that my professor wasn’t even there to administer his own test! That is very typical of this professor, but doesn’t it seem a little ridiculous? Anyway, that test is over now and I shouldn’t worry about it anymore. I have three other tests that are going to need a lot more worrying before the week is over. I am almost back to normal, healthwise, but I was getting tired during the exam tonight. Never have I been as sick as I was these past few days and I don’t expect to recover that fast, but it is annoying when you have stuff that needs to get done. Here are a few of those things.
I guess I should get back to the studying grind. My two hardest exams are on Wednesday afternoon and I am very scared about both of them. I don’t know if I am going to be able to update my diary again before the end of the semester and I can’t access Tripod while I am at home because we have an annoying web service that blocks the pages. If I don’t get back to you guys before January have a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
