This morning and the rest of last night were a continuation of the awful throbbing headache and pain that has been gradually worsening over the past few days. After the second shot of morphine last night I passed out, only to be awoken 30 minutes later by another phlebotomist who needed an additional blood sample for an additional culture. An hour after that the nurse’s assistant came in to check my vitals, and an hour after that yet another blood sample was taken. An hour after that it was 5 a.m. and the painkillers had worn off, so I hit the nurse call button for some help. Not too long after that the sun came up and I realized that my humble hospital room has a fantastic Colorado view. I enjoyed it long enough to snap a picture, then pressed the nurse call button to see if I could get somebody to shut the blinds – the light was provoking an already very tender headache.
This afternoon my fever went back up, but my headache has subsided for the time being. I took advantage of this mild respite by taking a shower and asking for my sweaty sheets to be changed. There’s definitely something to be said for being in a room with its own bathroom and somebody that can help me out when my head hurts so badly that I can’t stand up.
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The nurse just came by and did a Tb test –just a shallow injection under my skin that looks like a mosquito bite – if it turns red that’s bad. Then to make sure it’s a fair study they do the same test for Candida (yeast) on my other arm because everyone has that and it should definitely react.
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I still haven’t found out what’s wrong with me, so far the battery of tests that have come back are all negative. The leptospirosis test takes 48 hours, so I won’t know if that’s what I have until late tomorrow, but Courtenay looked it up on Wikipedia and has expertly decided that despite my abnormally long incubation period, I probably definitely have leptospirosis. (My uncle – the ER Doctor in Hawaii that deals with leptospirosis frequently – called to give me the same opinion).
My parents are looking into flying out here. Hopefully I’ll feel a little better by this weekend and they won’t have to sit around worrying about me.
Maybe I don’t even NEED that PhD program, I’m a doctor already!
been following your blog and hope you recover well. hopefully it isn’t anything too serious man! get better
Hope you wake up feeling a little better at least so you can enjoy that view. Wish I was coming tomorrow!
I bet you never thought ‘frolicking under a waterfall with the Canadian triathlon team’ would have been on your “Things to avoid as a pro triathlete” list. Actually, that probably should be on your general list of things not to do. Heal up and maybe your mom can watch every Harry Potter and all of the Lord of the RIngs movies with you. That should pass the next 2 days quite quickly.