Hi. My name is Amy, and I seem to have a major problem staying well this winter.

I appear to have caught the same stomach bug that Heather caught. So much for my promise of a Wednesday night update—I spent most of Wednesday night praying to the porcelain god. It got bad enough (fever of 101, bits of blood coming up) that we got to make an emergency visit to the hospital in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

We got there, and they did some tests on me to determine how dehydrated I was. When lying down, my heart rate was very fast and my blood pressure was around 110/80. When I stood up, my heart rate accelerated even more (to somewhere around 135 bpm?), but my blood pressure dropped to 90/60.The end result: IV time.

They pumped two liters of saline, plus some anti-nausea medication, through the IV. I didn't realize that IV fluids were cold, and thus would make me feel cold. They brought me warmed blankets. I think I slept while the second liter was being administered.

The strangest feeling was when the nurse told me the second bag was done. I opened my mouth to say something, then realized that I no longer felt like I had to peel my tongue off of the roof of my mouth. Perhaps there were benefits to this IV thing after all…

So, they sent me home. Feverish and all. And I slept…and slept…and slept. When I woke up, I was disoriented because of the fever, which stayed around 101 all day. I chatted with a few friends online and suspected that I didn't make much sense.

I finally asked the wondergeeks to bring me some aspirin. Sean came to my rescue—bless him for not commenting on how scary I must have looked. I don't remember what time he came here; I was asleep until he knocked on the door and went back to sleep shortly thereafter.

I woke up again, a little after eight, sweat-soaked and tired. I took my temperature to be sure. 99. Good aspirin. Ate some soup—the first solid food I've kept down in 48 hours.

Tired. So tired. I've been awake for, probably, three hours today, yet I feel like I could sleep many more hours. I'm not sure I make much more sense now than I did while I was running a fever. It's probably the exhaustion.

Most of today was spent in bed; I worship the embracing warmth of my down comforter. I would lie underneath it, my head resting against the pillow in one of just a very few angles that would keep my neck from aching, and my mind would drift of its own accord. I can only liken it to trying to watch a television that is set to change channels every 5-10 seconds. My mind would play snippets of thoughts or conversations, barely grasp the drift of where it was going, and then it was off on the next tangent.

I'm trying to decide if I should attempt to go to work tomorrow. I think I'll lay off the aspirin, and use that to make my decision. If my fever returns without it, I'll stay home another day. Luckily, tomorrow is Friday; I'll have the weekend to rest up, either way.