Down With the Sickness: I'm Sick, and Most Likely, You Are, Too

On Sunday, I went to see In Flames. I knew going into it that there was a chance of getting sick. Why? Because its cold and flu season, and I was about to go into a hot, sweaty, and closed-in environment for 5 hours. To help stop this, right after the show I drank about 24 ounces of Orange Juice and took a nice long shower before going to bed. The next morning, I felt fine. A little congested, but fine.

Tuesday became a different story. While I felt fine the entire day, the only problem being a stuffy nose, by the time I got home I started to feel violently ill. By 8PM, after being home for 2 hours, I took my temperature again. 103.1 degrees. By 10PM, it had rocketed to 104 degrees. I packed up an overnight bag and started to take a bus to the hospital when I ran into a neighbor who was able to give me a ride. She stayed with me until I got out of the hospital. On top of that, one of my best friends also came out to make sure I was OK. She got there at midnight, and she had work the next morning. I am incredibly thankful she was able to stay up with me and give me a ride back.

I spent nearly 5 hours in the hospital. At first, they thought I may have had the flu. After doing a flu swab, they found out it wasn't. Instead, it was an Upper Respiratory Infection (URI), and I knew I was in trouble.

By 2AM, I was discharged with my temperature dropping down to 99 degrees. They gave me some Motrin and I went to bed when I got home. And this is where my troubles began.

I won't go into all the details. I spent all of Wednesday sleeping on-and-off, battling a temperature of 103 degrees that wouldn't go down, sometimes reaching even 104.6, a dangerously high level! For over 24 hours, nothing worked. I drank as much water as possible, took Tylenol, cold showers... nothing worked.

Thursday saw an early repeat. After spending an entire day in bed and drinking Orange Juice, I finally decided to just drink something I would enjoy. Who knew that Sunkist Orange Soda would not only taste worse than usual thanks to some digestive problems, but it also made me feel better and lowered my temperature. A lot. I went from 103 to only 100.

Today, I feel a little bit better. I'm still sick, not quite ready to work, but I should be good to go Monday.


This may sound a little familiar to you. You may have heard from a friend that "something is going around" and that a lot of people are getting sick . The truth is, yes, a lot of people are getting sick, but I doubt everyone has the same exact thing. I've talked to people who have had the flu, but also bronchitis and other diseases that effect the respiratory system.

So, what is causing this? Easily, its not washing your hands, taking good precautions, and of course enclosed working environments. People who are sick are going to work because, in many cases, they need to in order to survive. Someone going to work sick and harmful to the entire office environment, and some places are now mandating that if you're sick, you must stay home.