02 July 2002 - 13:12

Guess what? I'm still sick.

This is Day 18 of being sick. I've seen two doctors (one at the hospital). Both said that I don't really have many symptoms and it should go away. For the first week I was sick, I just lay around and didn't take any drugs. Then I started gulping cough syrup (I'm on bottle #4 now). Then benadryl. Then sudafed. Now perscription antibiotics and perscription cough syrup (with codeine). I took all five at some point yesterday. I usually don't take any drugs. The worst part is, none of it seems to make much difference.

I tried to go to work again yesterday. I got nine hours of sleep, woke up at 7, had some oatmeal, bussed to work, got on the boat. For three hours I was awake and somewhat alert. My voice was shot to hell, making it difficult to work effectively

"Th.... *cough cough*.. th.... *choke* d-d-d-d-dolphins *frantic hand gestures* thedolphinsareoverthere!"

"Eclipse, did you say something?"

"*nodnod, point point* th-th-th *cough* dolph *cough*" etc.

But otherwise I was doing all right. Around 11 I had a peanut butter sandwich. Around 12:30 I suddenly started coughing and threw up on the boat. No one noticed. I stood up and went over to Raccoon and said: "... *frantic hand gestures* Eyeth... Eyeth.. *choke* Ithrewup..." She said "Huh? .... oh." and stopped the boat, allowing me to grab the boat towel and a cup of seawater and scrub it away. Unfortunately, some of it was on my shirt and could not be scrubbed away.

Raccoon said that she thought I should go home. Unfortunately, we were in Tampa Bay at the time, and it took an hour to boat home and unload the boat, and then another hour for me to take the bus back home. I called Wheel to tell him what happened. I got home and lay in bed. Wheel showed up with Junglefreak and a pizza. We went upstairs to watch Toystory. I had a piece of pizza. I went downstairs to get a blanket, since it was cold. I threw up the pizza. I lay in bed for a while. Wheel and Junglefreak took me to the hospital. I sat around passively. I got perscription drugs. I came home and lay in bed and took the drugs, and some toast, and some water, and a multivitamin. I lay in bed some more. The perscription cough syrup made my tummy hurt, but didn't make me sleepy and didn't make me stop coughing. I threw up again. I lay in bed some more. I was really bored. I fell asleep. I coughed a lot all night. I dreamed about coughing. Wheel couldn't sleep because I was coughing so much. Around 7 am he went upstairs to sleep on the couch in the lounge.

I've been in bed for 18 hours. I'm eating some oatmeal. I'm drinking some tea. I'm bored. I'm really tired.

Aren't you glad I haven't been updating more often?

I hope to see fireworks tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to get ready for Friday. I have to pack my things and I have to have cash for the Sarasota->Tampa airport shuttle, and I have to get the shuttle people to pick me up. And Friday I have to get up early and take the shuttle to TPA and fly to St. Louis and Jade will pick me up at the airport and take me to get shoes and things, and Saturday she'll get married and I'll stand around in a fancy dress.

It all sounds like a lot of effort. Lying here in bed, naked and bored and coughing, is much easier.

Damn. There's dolphin research not-being-done right now because of me.