It's Not Swine Flu

Shortly after I got to work on Wednesday the chills and aches began. I bravely put on my rain poncho (the only additional layer I happened to have in the office) took my allowed allotment of extra-strength Tylenol and continued working on some health statistics for the Hill. A few hours later the sweats began at which point the poncho was removed. By the time we sent my numbers off, I felt good enough to cheer Allen and the rest of "Bad Air Daze" while wrangling Owen at the softball season opener against the "Reg Soxs."

After a brief celebration we went home to discover that I had a 102 degree fever. It broke a bit after Owen went to bed, but returned around 3 am, breaking again around 5 am. I woke up for work, and a series of meeting, with little trace of the previous day's issues, but they quickly resurfaced as soon as I got to work. I went home and continued the series of peaks and valleys well into the early hours again (this time reaching all the way up to 103 degrees).

Friday we decided I should stay home and try and get a doctor's appointment, which isn't the easiest thing to do at 8 in the morning on the holiday weekend, particularly when your illness concerns 2 specialties. Multiple calls later, OBGYN decided that it was an internal medicine issue, but internal medicine wasn't sure what to do with me. My fever having broken again, I'd decided to forget the whole thing, but alas Allen was there on speaker phone when they called back and informed me I should go straight to the ER.

I protested, but Allen insisted, so off we went. Upon arrival, ER took one look at me and escorted me to to Obstetrics. Upon hearing my symptoms, Obstetrics moved me to an isolation room, put on a mask and order a swine flu test. Eight hours and once incredibly painful and intrusive procedure later (with nary a temperature above 98.6 recorded officially the whole time) I was informed 1) that the baby was fine; 2) that I officially didn't have swine flu; and 3) they had no real idea what was causing the temperature spikes (which recommenced shortly after we tucked in Owen that night, who was still wired from hours of play with Grandpa Fawcett).

Saturday continued to be unpleasant but on Sunday I rested comfortably (thanks to Mom Mom who kindly watched Owen for the day). Now I'm feeling much better and ready to celebrate Memorial Day with friends.