Following one of the best weekends of my many days, I was struck down by a bout of influenza. I woke up around 4 a.m. Monday morning with a little anxiety about a pain I was having behind my breast bone, above my heart. I had been aware of the pain throughout the night, but it was the wild thoughts of a festering tumor in my chest that eventually pulled me out of bed all flustered and panicky. I immediately began searching the web for a diagnosis of my symptoms. I came to a site that offered just that; and after spending 50 minutes answering over a hundred questions regarding every aspect of my health, I was prompted to enter my credit card number and pay $25 before receiving my professional diagnosis. I was perturbed. But I was thankful that I wasn't some senile old person who was having a truly life threatening occurance. The massive questionaire did calm me down a bit, as I realized that there were a lot of "conditions" that I didn't have, like irritable bowel syndrome or genital warts and the like. Anyway, after searching some more, I willed myself to believe that I was having a very bad case of acid reflux. My symptoms were exactly those associated with the problem; and considering I had basically fasted through several hours of work and a bike ride on Sunday then gorged myself on Pollo Rey, it seemed to make perfect sense-it was definately acid reflux. I'd buy some Tums tomorrow. So I slept better after that. Monday morning, before work, I came to suspect that my poor ol' body was dealing with more than just a little acid reflux. Muscles I hadn't used in a while were sore like I had just spent a day at the gym. Soon after I arrived at work, I knew I shouldn't be there, as my skin became clammy and my entire body was weak. I really really didn't want to relive what I went through last year around this time, so I really really wanted to go home and rest/sleep. Unfortunately, we were already missing an employee that day, which left two regular employees (Sandy and I) and Mike (who is often running errands, and isn't often available to help with customers). Instead of going home to rest and head off the sickness before it got too bad, I worked harder than usual. Whenever there was a lull in business, however, I would sit down and read a magazine with my weary head resting in my hands. When I finally got home Monday I made myself the food item I was first able to eat after suffering through mono last year-mashed potatoes and gravy. Sure enough, I felt better instantly. I drank a lot of water, took a couple acetemenaphin, watched tv, and went to bed early. Before bed, I began to perspire quite a bit, which was reassuring, because I correlate sweating with a fever breaking. In the morning, after a decent night sleep, I felt quite well. Today, I've just tried to take it as easy as possible. I did make a visit to Fern's around 5pm in order to sample her Martha Stewart inspired scalloped potato dish with thyme seasoning. It was excellent and happened to be a form of that food which seems to work so well for me when I'm sick-the tuber. Fern and I went for a walk into the North End to her landlords house in order to drop off her rent check, and then made our way to the Flying M where I bought a chai tea, chocolate chip cookie, and read the paper. It was good to be somewhere I often go when I'm not sick just to help me forget about my current state for a moment. I went home soon after Fern left to meet her sister, who was celebrating her 21st birthday at a downtown bar or two. I spent some time researching music online. I listened to quite a bit of new music on Amazon.com and read several interviews with the Shins and Modest Mouse. I was very surprised to learn that Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse was a huge Shins fan back when the Shins were just upstarts, and that Isaac is more or less responsible for getting them signed with Sub Pop. Its very interesting, because both bands are on the top 5 list, if not top 3 list, of my favorite bands, but before today I had no idea that there was any connection between the two. And their sounds are pretty different.
Anyway, Eric just got home. He asked me if I had felt cold/clamy when I got sick, and I said yes, and then I asked him if he has a sore throat, and he said yes, so now he's worried that he's coming down with the same thing I have, which wouldn't surprise me. The only good news is that this flu seems to be on the verge of ending after only a couple of days. And, of course, I'm pretty sure by now that I don't have a tumor. Which means I'll sleep just fine tonight.