I am sick

I went to the doctor on Friday for a sinus infection. I was given an antibiotic and sent home. This weekend I have been very sick with a slight fever, nausea, diarrhea, and body aches. In short, I have flu-like symptoms.

This morning I got a coworker to cover my classes (Thank you, Jeremy!) and I went to Student Health Services on campus and got tested for the flu. The tests came back negative for the flu but Student Health Services doesn't test for the H1N1 virus. I think that the decision not to test for H1N1 is political. Is the test more expensive? Is it more invasive? Is it difficult to administer? Who knows? Even if the answer to all these questions was yes, wouldn't it be worth it considering the attention that H1N1 has received? But that attention is precisely why, I think, they are not testing for it. If they don't test it, they can continue to tell the public that there are no confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus on our campus. I think that I am right about this and it makes me really upset. Anyway, the nurse told me that my terribly upset stomach could be a reaction to the Z-pack that I was given Friday.

On a bit of an unrelated note, I really don't like this nurse.

That is her - with the feathered, fake-red hair.

I dread the possibility of getting treated by her every time I go to Student Health Services. I don't know what it is about her – it could be her total lack of sympathy, or maybe her I-know-more-than-you way of communicating (something that grates against my own I-know-a-lot attitude), or maybe it is just her SUPER thick southern accent. Yes, I am prejudiced – I don't like the way that "Southern" sounds. It is tomorrow, not tumorruhh; and nine is not said non. Sheesh! I could go on and on with words that are butchered like that, but more than the accent I don't like being told that what I call diarrhea isn't actually diarrhea (My explosive, uncontrollable, loose bowel movements weren't diarrhea!? Yeah, because if it was diarrhea it would have been just watery. Whatever.), that my stiff neck and body aches aren't really body aches because they don't hurt enough or because there are some joints that are not in pain, and being asked to define a runny-nose (What do you mean, runny-nose?) makes me feel like maybe she shouldn't be a nurse. I really don't care that she is a nurse, I just wish that she worked someplace else.

But, enough about that. I still feel really sick. I came back home, stopping only briefly on the way so that I could buy some Ghirardelli chocolate squares (the ones with the caramel filling). And that was it. I was here at home, I drove to campus to get a check-up, I drove to the store, and I came back home. And somewhere along the way, I lost my phone charger that I know I had in my back-pack. The only place that I had my bag was at the clinic, but when I called they said that they had not seen anything like it. I know that I had my bag open there. It is the only possibility. I am tempted to go back and look for it myself, but it is a long drive and I will be on campus tomorrow anyway. I hope I find it then. Where else could it have gone?