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- The Sickness Saga
The Sickness Saga
The cross-shared, real life tale of me being sick, for, like, three months.
J Steele
March 09, 2026
January 24
Been sick for the past 4 days. Throat was bothering me enough to change my voice for most of today. Then I ended up straining my voice yelling because of a video clip (emotional flashback + stress meltdown), so lost some of it. Fun.
My cat's been sleeping most of the day, so he's fine. Missed his treat time about 30 minutes ago, so I'll give him head scritches and drop a few noms into his dish after this.
January 26
It seems that my building just lost heat, and it's supposed to get down to 5*F (-15 C) by morning. No, I don't know how to make the degrees icon.
And I'm still sick.
Not good.
January 26
UPDATE:
The building owner checked it out. A chip in the heater blew, and there's no way to get it replaced tonight. So, no heat until hopefully sometime tomorrow. Had to see if I still had a space heater (fortunately, found!). Should be okay for the night. I want to say something about still having power and hot water, but I very much don't want to jinx anything at this point. Also, heated up a frozen pizza, so the oven heat should help a little. Added a pan of water to the bottom rack. Pizza took longer, but the hot water will help the oven take longer to cool off as well (didn't leave it on, though; that's not safe).
January 28
Update
They fixed our heat yesterday. So, that's working now. Hot water isn't up to par yet (it runs out fast), but we're giving that a while to see if it improves. Also, I'm still sick. Incrementally getting better, though, I think.
January 31
I'm back, with another...thrilling...sure, we'll go with that...update.
So, we-in the building-were mistaken with the heat and hot water situation.
The heat seemed to cut out again yesterday. Got a hold of the landlord, and was given a story about the heat shutting off, going down a couple of degrees, then coming back on. Except over the next 6 to 7 hours the heat went down from 70F to 64F (slow, but it didn't look like it was going to stop). Then, though, around 11:30pm it finally kicked on...with super strength, because it shot up from 64F to 75F before midnight. I turned my thermostat to 70, and cracked a window because the heat was making the place really dry, which made it hard to breath (I'm still sick). It seemed to help some, so I closed the window. The temp is 70F now, so looks like it has stabilized. Just, no idea what happened. The landlord will get his guy out sometime over the weekend.
And...the hot water is still not working, and the landlord says it won't be until sometime next week because his "guy" can't get to us before the weekend is though. The water pressure has returned (which was completely gone when it first went out), but it's barely warmer than what come out the cold tap. Been heating water with an electric tea kettle (yes, we have them here in the states) and some pots and pans just to wash dishes.
Don't ask about a shower. No pressure for it before. No heat for it now. And I have a history of primary Raynaud's syndrome (look it up). So a cold shower is, medically, not going to happen.
On the plus side of things, I at least have enough soap for the dishes, and myself. So I don't need to worry about running out while I'm sick enough to actually need to consider whether I should go out to get more or not.
Everyone I could have infected while out but won't be, totally needs to send me some thank you cards and a Krackel candy bar.
Also, I'm craving a Krackel candy bar.
Double-also but off topic, why don't they make a peanut free Chunky bar? I miss chunky bars since I can't have peanuts anymore. They were one of my favorites. They could use pecans, or maybe cashews. Those would be good alternatives. I don't think almonds, though. The texture would be off.
In other news, my voice isn't back yet, and I'm starting to think it might be gone forever. I've lost a lot of range, especially a lot of my upper register. But even my lower notes have taken some damage. My throat singing, on the other hand, has never been better...mostly because I could never do it before. Now, it's pretty much the only music I can make that doesn't cause me pain. I'll make a dr's appointment as soon as I can get some clothes washed...which might be a while because I can't get to the laundromat at the moment, and that sucks because I'm down to pretty much nothing left at all. The water's too cold to hand wash (see "Raynaud's" above).
Anyway, I'm going to hop off the net, here. I'll either get out my sewing machine so I can make some valentine heart-shaped cat toys; or I'll pretend to get drunk on half-caff coffee and try to write for a while. Or, I'll heat more water and try to wash some piling-up dishes. Or just none of the above. Haven't decided just yet. And yes, I'll grab pics and post about the cat toys if/when I make them. I don't do dinky sizes, I over stuff, I don't skimp on the catnip, and I've never sewn a cat toy my cat's attack mode hasn't loved...bought a few, but never sewn.
February 7
Update: Still sick.
Doctor's appointment next week, though, so hopefully find out what's going on. I think it was either a flu or a cold that changed into a sinus infection, but no doubt they'll order some tests to find out for sure. Also, my voice still hasn't returned. It's okay, though. I miss being able to hit high notes, but this new voice knows how to sing metal, so I'm good for now. Might try to keep it if I can. Just need to find more videos to yell at, and with everything still happening in the world that should be no problem at all.
Think this is what actually happened to Tom Waits' voice? I think so.
Oh...and our hot water's working again.
February 11
Update: Still sick.
But I had my doctor's appt. yesterday. Not a sinus infection like I was afraid it might have become. Just a long lasting virus that hasn't learned how to read the eviction notice yet. And the person who saw me said that there have been more than a few cases this year of colds and flus just hanging on longer than usual. Treatment is cold meds, cough drops, hydration, rest, and call for another appointment if it isn't gone or gets worse over the next couple of weeks. No real word on the laryngitis, but I'm assuming it's pretty much the same advice for care on that.
March 5th (After Feb 25, when it appeared that I was finally no longer sick)
Guess who's sick again. Was up half the night with chills that wouldn't go away for hours, then overheating and coughing the rest of the night.
Just. Freaking. Awesome.
Blurred image of thermometer reading brought to you by thinking it was in focus when it was not.
I'll go to the hospital if it reaches 103 or 104. Until then I have tylenol, vitamin c drops, and maybe a ton of dirty clothes I don't have the energy to hand wash but a clean throw blanket to wrap up in and a cat who's been cuddling my head when I lay down. It's not a plane through my window or radio active monkeys, but it's still always something, isn't it?
Edit, 6:43pm: It went up 3 points to 100.7F, but not 3 degrees. So, keeping an eye on it and trying to stay warm. Will see what happens. Almost tylenol time (because after taking my temp I popped a vit C drop-yes, I know, useless, but I like the citrus-and don't want nasty acetaminophen taste right after).
March 7
98.8°F. So, no fever now. But my ear aches like mad, and my eye is red as hell, and my sinuses feel like garbage. I'm guessing I have a sinus infection that's causing conjunctivitis-otitis (combo eye-ear infection), but I'm not a doctor. If I can't get to someplace that can check me out tomorrow, I'll go Monday. More than likely Monday unless I want to walk because the buses don't run Sundays, but I'm seriously doubtful that I'll have the energy to do that.
March 9
Update:
Went to the ER this morning. I was right except maybe/maybe not about the ear. I do have a sinus infection, which caused at least an eye infection. The doctor couldn't see far enough into my ear to tell if that was infected (that's not unusual for my ears; they can be infamously difficult to exam sometimes), so he couldn't tell about that. But in any case, he prescribed an antibiotic.
Went to the store/pharmacy after to fill the scrip for the Z-pack (that no one remembers if I'm allergic to or not, including myself, but I guess we'll find out because I just took the big first dose).
Also grabbed some over the counter decongestant (generic) which I've also just taken, and a bottle of saline eye drops that I'll use later (Refresh brand, if anyone is interested).
Also grabbed some yogurts to keep the inside-me-biome (say that with an Irish accent; it doesn't change anything, but it's fun) topped off when the z-pack hits. And sodas because throat-as has some hurt-as, and sparkling water-as does nothing for it.
Then on the ride home the bus driver had to break hard, and I yelled "Welcome to splash mountain!", but I don't know why other than it just seemed appropriately weird at the time.
The bus was full.
But I was in the front section, so anyone I didn't turn around to see who thought it was dumb can suck it, including the lady who got into a yelling match, as she was getting on, with another lady who had just gotten off at the same stop.
And I will include a bonus suck it also-too, to the extremely old guy whose nose wouldn't stop dripping which made it look like he was furiously drooling, who started creeping on a lady by saying she had a nice tattoo when she was nearly completely covered, and my very confused autistic brain needed to know what the hell he was going on about so I followed his gaze. There was a hole in the leg of her jeans, and a small area of coloring was showing through. Then I followed his gaze-trail back up to see him staring at her like she was a steak he wanted to butter if he were strong enough to cut a pat off the yellow stick...yeah, that seems more euphemistic than I intended. Just take it at face value and nothing more.
She was probably in her 20s. He was probably in his second time seeing the entirety of the universe play out before he watches it collapse and restart again.
I don't know if anyone heard me call him a creeper through my mask, but I called him a creeper...through my mask. I hope he heard, the 9,000 year old nasty, probably on the epstein files, cross hat wearing but that sure wasn't a "christian" look on his face, Dracula Rises Never Again because viagara doesn't resuscitate the dead wannabe who should have been hooked up to a nasal suction device instead of dripping on cheap store sushi...I'm sorry sushi lovers because I'm one of you, but you didn't see what I saw and I may never eat sushi again for probably ever or a couple of months when I get most of the images out of my head.
He did, though, bless my friend, who was nice enough to come with me, when my friend sneezed. So, that was good...still really gave me the ick, though.
Anyway, that is all.
BUT, IS THAT REALLY ALL?
IS THIS THE REAL ENDING OF OUR HEROIC TALE?
IS THIS WHERE IT ENDS?
I mean, I fucking hope so, other than coming back to say I'm not sick anymore.