living in the woods

I slept most of the day Tuesday, felt a little queasy. My husband asked if I was pregnant. He got THE LOOK. I finally found a thermometer and had a temperature of 99.1, body aches and pains, very tired. The bed was my favorite place. On Wednesday it was Motrin that kept me out of bed and working a little - I only took a couple of naps, it's a good thing I work at home! Thursday morning my temp was 99.8, still with same aches and pains and fatigue. I told my boss of my symptoms and that I was thinking of going to the doctor, she said that one of our coworkers had those symptoms and ended up in the ER with a blood clot in the leg (one of the hazards of sitting and typing all day). Thanks for the scare.

At the doctor's office I apologized for not having much to go on, just temp and aches. After answering all the questions and a cursory exam, she said it sounded like a tick bite, and did I ever go into the woods. She almost got THE LOOK, but she didn't know. "I LIVE in the woods and voluntarily go into the woods hiking etc. almost every weekend." So this time a skin exam and discovery of what she said looked like a tick bite to her (she had seen 100 of them). Four vials of blood later I left to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription for antibiotics.

The girl at the pharmacy window said I was not in the system and was I supposed to have something called in? She definitely got THE LOOK. She scurried off to check the voice mail. After 30 minutes of waiting (not too bad for Wal-Mart), I finally got home and hit the hay again. The doc said I should feel better almost immediately after taking the antibiotics if the diagnosis was correct, but we wouldn't know the results of the blood tests for a few days. I felt so much better by Thursday afternoon, I did 3 loads of laundry and actually cooked supper for the first time since Monday.

So living in the woods isn't all scenic vistas, wildflowers, deer running through the yard. It is bears and snakes and ticks, oh my!