On when I had Meningitis. Part 1

I started this post and then my energy kind of fizzled out. It does that lately. So I guess this'll be a multi-post entry. Here goes:

So, somehow...someway, I caught Meningitis. Here's the long, gory, entry I promised:

It all began on a Tuesday. I woke up with a small headache. I took some Tylenol Sinus and felt a little better. I began to feel worse on Tuesday night: my head hurt, I had some body aches, and I felt as if I had a fever. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling achy all over and with a stronger headache. I thanked God for our jacuzzi tub, filled it up, and took a long bubble bath. I felt a little better afterward, but didn't have any headache medicine to take, so I gave the boys a "free day". I called my sister to tell her I didn't know if I would be going to church that night or not- she was planning on going with me. Chris came home from work, he gave me a neck massage and I took a small nap.

I decided to go on to church with my family. We stopped by to see my dad on the way, and I took some Aleve Sinus. The box said to only take one capsule every 12 hours. I was hurting so badly by that time that I took 2 and put 2 more in my purse for later. 2 hours later, my head was still hurting, along with my neck. I took 2 more pills and found a comfortable chair to rest in until church started.

Met up with my friend around 7 o'clock and we headed upstairs for service. My head and neck were still pounding. I commented to my friend that Chris really must have hurt me with his massage. I made it through the service. By the time it was over, the edge was gone from my headache. I met up with Chris and the boys and we decided to hit up El Sombrero. I still felt horrible, but eating out seemed much better that going home to cook. On the way to the restaurant, I stopped at Publix to pick up some Excedrin, thinking that I I had a migraine instead of a sinus headache, since the Aleve didn't work. Took 2 Excedrin Migraine pills before we ate. I had no appetite. I think I just ate a few bites of my tostada.

After dinner, my head was pounding worse than before. When we arrived at home, I put the kids to bed and took 2 more Excedrins. By this time, I was so hyped up on the caffeine from the Excedrin, I knew I'd never sleep. And I still had a headache. The night wore on. I didn't sleep at all. The last time I looked at the alarm clock was 4:30. I must have drifted off just before Chris' alarm rang.

I woke up around 7 o'clock in the worse pain I've ever experienced. EVER. My labor pains before Shaun's birth had nothing on this headache. I stayed in bed and just cried. Shaun woke up and came in my room. I scared my poor baby half to death. He's not used to seeing me cry. He asked me what was wrong, and I just cried harder and told him that I couldn't take care of him and Jordan that morning. That I was sick. That he should just let Jordan sleep and play XBox...but with the volume turned down. He looked at me with panic in his eyes and told me to call Daddy.

I called my sister instead, thinking that maybe she could run me to the doctor before her husband went in to work. As it turned out, her husand went in early that day. I asked her to call the hospital and try to get in touch with Chris. She helped me out, because she's the best sister ever. Chris called a few minutes later. I told him he needed to come home and take me to the doctor. His response? "Why?" I told him my head was killing me, and he exclaimed, "You mean you still have that headache??" He came home to get me, and made arrangements for the kids. He was on call that day and was only able to leave work until 4:00. I told him we would have plenty of time...it was only 10:00 am, after all. Turns out, I was wrong.