Why I am glad I don’t live alone.

Here is it, the middle of a Thursday and I’m at home. I’m not supposed to be at home; at this moment I should be eating soup and melba toast at the table in the music department lobby, having taught a couple of students this morning, looking forward to attending Spanish class at 1:00 p.m. After that there’s another student to teach and then an hour and-a-half of choir.

But I’m not at school. I’m at home in my bathrobe and pyjamas, this time not of my own choice. I’m sick. The night before last I went to bed as I normally do after having had some gastric distress (which wasn’t all that distressing). In the middle of the night I woke up, went to the bathroom, came back to bed and my teeth were chattering and I was shivering uncontrollably. I could not get warm, not even with my husband spooning me (he claimed I was burning up). So he got me some aspirins and made me take them.

I woke up a couple of hours later, this time drenched with sweat, and got up again to use the toilet. Then, hearing water running somewhere, I wandered around the house until I found the culprit, the toilet in the bathroom downstairs, and fixed it. Then I sat in the kitchen, my cheek pressed to the kitchen table, stripped to my tank top, and waited for the sensation of burning up to pass. It was worse than any hot flash I’ve ever had.

Then I went back to bed.

A few hours later it was morning and I got up again to use the bathroom. I was so dizzy as I came out that I decided it would be better to lie down than to lose consciousness and fall down, so Hubby found me spread out on the floor and had to help me back to bed. And I have been there ever since. I came downstairs briefly when Grandpa Mike came over last night (he stays with us every Wednesday night) just to say hi and to look after a load of laundry I had put on (I’d “soiled” some pyjama bottoms from the gastric thing), and he commented to Hubby that I must be really sick, since I didn’t even crack a smile.

I stayed home all day yesterday, sleeping, waking, drinking juice or water. Hubby made me white rice for supper at my request, and for lunch today I finished the leftovers. I sat down at the computer twice for no more than a half-hour each time, and just had to go back to bed. Even now I hear its siren call beckoning me.

I did just have a bath, though and I have the sheets of my bed airing. If I had the energy, I would change them. I don’t. The saddest part is that I will miss my Spanish class this afternoon, and we just started learning the imperfect tense the day before yesterday.

Sigh.

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