A bit sick

I got a bit sick today, breaking my vomit streak of possibly seven years.

I don’t get really sick very often; colds a lot, but nothing major. The last time I remember vomiting was in sophomore (or possibly freshman) year of highschool, though there is a slight possibility when I was sick sophomore year in college.

During the night last night, I slept very poorly. I first fell asleep at midnight, but was awoken by Dwight on the phone just 40 or so minutes later. We talked till about 2:00 or so. I then couldn’t fall asleep again till about 3:30. I woke up again at about 5:00 feeling very uncomfortable and weird, not sick but generally awful. I then had trouble sleeping for the rest of the night, waking and sleeping on and off. I woke up fully when my alarm went off at 8:45. I then felt like I couldn’t really eat anything; just the thought of cereal made me feel sick. Apples didn’t sound too bad, so I ate two, just to attempt to get enough energy to make it through the day at work. I was thinking of cycling in, but I felt a bit tired and weak.

At work I felt very anemic. It seemed a lot of effort to work. After about an half hour there, I seemed to be fluctuating between feeling worryingly sick to feeling just a little weak. It continued to worsen, so I told the manager Paul I was feeling sick. I said I probably ought to be able to make it through the lunch rush, then he’d send me home as soon as possible. As time went by, it seemed harder and harder to work. I wasn’t getting much salads for a while, and was very happy to have only prep work to do. My head started feeling a bit feverish. I got some water and drank a little bit, but not much. My feverish feeling slowly progressed to feeling a bit woozy. My hands, legs, and groin area started tingling on and off (mostly the hands/arms). I began to feel like I was going to fall over. I started sitting down from time to time to rest a bit. Movement was quite difficult. I dropped an egg at one point cause my mind was a bit cloudy. I went over and told Paul I probably wouldn’t be able to make it much longer. He was busy and didn’t say much. I went back over to salads and tried to work some more. I made a few more salads, then realized I couldn’t make any more. I had a ticket with four on it, but I couldn’t do them. I sat down for a little while hoping that’d help but it didn’t. I went back to try to make the salads, and really felt like I would fall over. I couldn’t think very straight either. My stomach, which had been hurting off and on to this point not too bad, started hurting a lot.

I felt like I was going to throw up, so I went over to a trash can. After a minute or so, I did. Vomiting is always quite a terrible feeling, like I am choking and being squeezed to death at the same time, with an awful taste to boot. I felt like I would vomit so long I wouldn’t be able to get enough air. By the end I felt like I couldn’t vomit anymore, but my body was still trying. I gave effort to try to stop. Soon I did. Paul saw me throw up and told me to get out of there, that he thought I’d already left. So once i was done there, I took my cup of water, went over by another trash can (away from the salad station) and rinsed out that awful taste as good as I could. I drank a bit as well. Liz seemed scared that she’d get sick. I clocked out and left.

I still felt a bit woozy, but a whole lot better since I had thrown up. I was a little worried about driving in that state, but I ended up being fine. When I got home, I called Dwight to let him know I felt sick. I slept for a bit while he calle d Rockwood. Rockwood said he wanted to call off the show; other bands’d be able to play in our stead. So I slept for a while more. I then had some Royal cherry jello. It was quite delicious. I slept off and on a lot more. Now, after all that rest, I feel pretty much back to normal. I’ll probably have to eat something soon, as all I have is a box of jello in me.

I’m not sure what it was. Symptoms seemed flu-like, but it ended so quickly I don’t think so. I think it may have been something I ate or came in contact with. I’m not sure what, since I had so much contact with unhealthy type things during the day before. I had eaten leftover spaghetti, probably a week old, for lunch. I had came across a pan with some mold growing in it because it had food and water in it. I dumped that out. A mushroom patch I have also had mold on it, and I sprayed it off with a hose. I imagine lots of this mold got into the air, as it smelled bad, and was inhaled by me. After work that night, I had some cereal and orange juice. The milk used in the cereal hadn’t expired, but was still starting to get a bit old, and milk is quick to grow bacteria even before its expiration date. The orange juice seemed fine, but I had recently left it sitting out for about a day. I’m guessing the problem was one of the food items, hence the vomit. I probably still felt a little bad after the vomit because of the bit of bad chemicals probably left over in my body (I’m guessing it was toxins from the bacteria as opposed to an attack by the bacteria themselves). Who knows though: I’m gonna throw away the milk, orange juice, and left-over spaghetti to be sure. Too bad there’s no (cheap and easy) way to test them for the culprit.