Clinical Trials, Christmas Prep, and Mall Crud

This year’s edition of mall crud is viral gastroenteritis and it is a particularly violent strain. At first I thought I was having bad reactions to the clinical trial medications, just as they were icing in and really helping, so I had to stop taking them. That is until my husband started getting the same symptoms a bit more intensely and then gave it back to me. I spent 14 hours this past Monday in the bathroom what can only be described as violently diarrhomiting. I was so worn out, dehydrated, and sore that I had to call off my part time seasonal shifts at the mall for Tuesday and reschedule my study appointment from Monday to Wednesday. I was feeling much better Wednesday other than the whole not eating until late afternoon. I had partially rehydrated, but the lab work at study appointments has to be done while fasting, so no food for me, other than a few saltine crackers.

This is where things went very bad. I got nutritionally adventurous after the 2 hour drive back from the doctor’s office. I ate BBQ and it was amazing. Until yesterday morning when it decided it was going to come back up. I spent yesterday in bed drinking ginger ale and eating crackers. That’s it. With the exception of a long shower, I have been in bed for an entire 24 hour period because this crud will not let go.

Christmas prep has gone theoretically well. The shopping portions are completed. The knit, crochet, and tatting portions are ongoing. For the better part of a week, none of these tasks has been worked on due to the health adventures above. Multiple projects are in progress, multiple projects have not been started yet, and multiple projects have been completed. I am feeling much better today, but lesson learned – I will not be going on any culinary adventures for a few more days. I will consider it a massive victory to eat food, take meds (including the study meds), and it all stays in my system. I scored a partial victory last night by keeping my thyroid medication down.

Today’s agenda includes crafting and rehydration. That’s it. I will have Pandora open to the Christmas station while my hands are busy with the Christmas present completion with frequent ingestion of ginger ale, crackers, maybe some rice Chex cereal, and some bread. There is a massive amount of cleaning to do as well, but I need to not be that daring yet since I’m scheduled to work tomorrow and Sunday. The energy level is not any where near back yet.