Bob & Anna's excellent adventure

We're in Toronto right now, staying at Anna's mom's place. Anna had some appointments, and I came down to be with her. (All is going well with that, if you know what I'm talking about.)

So I left work yesterday morning, 7 am and arrived in Toronto just in time for her appointment at noon. I started getting tired right then, but didn't think that to be out of the ordinary, as I'd just worked a night shift then driven 5 hours. After the appointment, we had some running around to do, which took most of the afternoon. Once we got back to Di's house, we made dinner and flopped on the couches. Around then I started to feel unwell, like I might be getting a fever. Not a cold or flu, just headachey, with chills and hot flashes. I checked my temperature and it was normal. Went to bed at 8:30, but didn't sleep well at all. I developed an intense headache and was up to pee every 20 minutes. At 1 am I checked my temp. again and it was 39 C--I'm to go to emerg if it goes above 38.

Of course, Toronto had a big winter storm last night. After a few phone calls to figure out where to go (closest hospital, Princess Margaret?) all three of us piled into the car and headed off into the snow and freezing rain. We went to Princess Margaret, and were told to head off to Toronto General Emergency, just down the road. Thankfully the ER was slow, and it only took us an hour from the time we walked in the front door to the time that I had a room of my own.

It was 3 am now, and in addition to a fever and splitting headache, I was very tired. At least I had a bed! Poor Anna and Di spent the night on chairs! For me it was blood tests, an IV and some Tylenol to bring down the fever. I slept fitfully, but the fever broke. By 7 am the blood tests had come back negative and my temperature was normal, so I was discharged. We're still waiting for blood and urine culture tests, but for now we're back at Di's, resting, recovering.

Tomorrow we drive north again. I won't be back in to work for the remainder of this night shift.

Slowly, I'm learning that I need to slow down. No more working out two or three days in a row, followed by a day of rest. Now it's more like workout lightly one day, rest for two. I think this is due to my low blood counts, but last night's tests didn't show neutropenia. The other lesson learned is to keep all my medical info with me. I've been feeling so great over the last few months that I've not been carrying anything--maybe some anti-nauseants, but I haven't even taken any of those recently. Contact names and numbers, names of prescription medications, etc. I must carry those with me.