OMG, what a whirlwind…this is a redo of the previous post.
Thanksgiving was light, wonderful, and relaxing.
What followed, on Black Friday and on into the next week was nightmarish, hellish, and decidedly less than wonderful. On the day after Thanksgiving, we went out for a finishing walk for our badges with the Lake County Forest Preserve. It was lovely at Ryerson Woods and lovely being with Julie and Paul as well. We topped it off with a visit to a Mexican restaurant in Lincolnshire.
The following Saturday was a day when we were seeing grandkids and I relegated myself to the background, fearing I was contagious, with the first flu-like symptoms I have had since 2019 or so…I had started the day with a bang, doing some decorating in the dining room, changing out the dishes (everyday Alsatian put away and Christmas Spode brought out), and around 12:30 pm, I felt weird. In retrospect, I should have seen the signs as my body went into highest energy mode right before crashing.
Things went from less than great to worse and the night was met with chills and an inability to get warm, coughing, and intestinal things best left to the imagination. This continued on through Sunday and each night I was so uncomfortable that I left our bed to go into another bedroom and read. Strangely, I could read because in retrospect, as I found out on Sunday, I had a low grade fever. A COVID test was negative.
Monday, I called the doctor and she told me it was probably the flu as she had lots of patients with those symptoms. She told me to call on Wednesday, if not better.
Wednesday, I called her and was requested to get to the lab facility with a sample. As it turned out, that sample ended up being dealt with in ways to make a fabulous sketch for SNL, the technicians being unpleasantly surprised and demanding that I have sample time in the bathroom, dispersing the item into small containers filled with colored liquid chemicals. I know this is TMI, but I guess the dear reader will have to just deal with that.
On Thursday, the results were coming in…negative, negative…then finally, POSITIVE! Campylobacter was the culprit, something that comes with improperly cooked or tainted chicken. As it happens, Paul, Julie, and I had the same food on Friday, and Paul had the same symptoms. My googling efforts reaped the info that women were hit less often than men…
I didn’t hear back from the doctor, but I realized that more often than not, you have to ‘ride out’ the symptoms. I did, and by Friday, I was much better and sleeping more evenly.
Monday, I called the health department after giving a heads up to the restaurant who staunchly defended themselves and said as well that they had had no complaints of illness from anyone. I reminded them that the flu is rampant, with the same symptoms, and that most people, were they sick, would not have been tested as I was.
It has been over a week and I am still not at 100% but my energy and appetite are back.
Today I was able to remove the netting from the pond and tomorrow, I will shake it out and store it.
I am glad that food poisoning is behind me. I am also glad that I was not contagious.
