Feverish Jiberish

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Ever woke up one morning and wished you hadn't? That's exactly how I felt the Monday and Tuesday that just passed. My throat was parched, like I had just ran a triathalon non stop and badly needed rest. The only ironic thing was that I had been resting for the last 8 or 9 hours at least. I felt so hot, yet so cold. Like I desperately needed a cold shower, but at the same time, wanted to cover myself up all over because goosebumps were crawling all over my skin. It was agonizing! My head felt like it was floating, and I couldn't move a muscle since I was aching all over.

I didn't think it was that bad, since I didn't feel like I was having that bad a fever. My body didn't feel that warm at least. So I just slept in... it was only towards the evening that I decided to go see a doctor to reassure myself. Julien wasn't too worried, since I could still hold a proper conversation.

At the reception, I realised that the staff nurses were wearing masks over their faces. You know, that ones that surgeons have on. Which was odd, because it's not usual practice for them. So then this old nurse calls me up to the reception and asks in a low serious tone:

Nurse: Do you have any symptoms of fever or flu?
Me: Yes
Nurse: ...... (her eyes almost popped out of their sockets) please hold on.

She then scurries off and disappears behind a door, leaving me dumbfounded, wondering if I had just contracted some terminal fever or something... I mean, how bad can a fever be right? THEN the news came on.... (yeah, they've got tv at the clinic). Apparently there's this new bug called the swine fever or swine flu (I can't remember which one) going around. There were some pigs in Mexico that were sick and this was transmitted to humans. It's been spreading in the US, and so far about 2 people in Singapore have it. Apparently, the government wants to take action to prevent this from becoming an epidemic in Singapore, like SARS that spread like wildfire then.

My jaw dropped..... so then they called my number, (I think they had me jump the queue). To cut the story short, I'm okay, it's apparently just regular high fever of about 39 degrees. The doctor had told me however, that if I start to develop the other symptoms (a long list of other things), then it would be a one way ticket to Tan Tock Seng hospital for me. Dang!

I'm good so far... just want to get well sooner. The weather's just been too disagreeable lately.

It's Wednesday and I tried to go back to work but ended up taking the 2nd half of the day off. Sniff...

I WILL SURVIVE!