How cruel fate can be, stacking the cards against you right at the time when you need a helping hand, if anything. Thrilled to leap right into the weekend as soon as my feet hit the pavement on Friday morning, I found myself feeling progressively worse and worse. Soon the pain began pounding on the walls of my stomach, and then radiating upwards to my head, where it chose to take up residence for a good long while. By the time night fell, I knew that my fun plans had a snowball’s chance in hell if I was feeling so wrecked this soon in the game. No more Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, no more Wachusett Mountain Apple Fest, and to make matters insufferable, there was also to be no more baking until I could be certain I wasn’t contagious. What agony! Perhaps the worst part of falling ill isn’t the symptoms of sickness themselves, but the limitations they present when others would rather quarantine you than have you potentially infect them, too.
Hoping desperately that there was an easy way out of this weekend-killing malady, I bundled myself up like a mummy and dashed over to the health clinic, seeking answers that perhaps could rescue my plans.
Conferring first with the kind nurse about the potential to shake this off in an hour or two, I could see a sad but knowing look in her eyes, despite the warm smile she donned to ease my worries. It was all but a foregone conclusion, but since I had come this far, I still proceeded to see the doctor and get the final word on my condition.
Examining me carefully from afar, it seems as though he had hastily made up his mind on a diagnosis before I even had time to sit down. Of course, I’m certain that the blood-shot eyes, crazily tousled hair and bright red nose made things pretty obvious, but I was disappointed to receive so little attention in my time of need. Asking quietly and as sweetly as I could muster, I asked about the possibility of going out this weekend, maybe seeing some people… Or a couple hundred people… But it was no use. Advised immediately to stay in bed, sleep it off, and get lots of warm fluids, this girl got a one-way ticket back to her dorm room. No, it was nothing particularly serious, but it simply wouldn’t do to have me running around town and potentially making things worse, for myself and for others.
And so I missed out on all of the fun happenings I had so looked forward to and I’m sorry to everyone I didn’t get a chance to meet up with. There will be other times, as I keep reassuring myself, so I just hope that I can shake off the last of this cold and start running at 100% again. At least I know that even if I didn’t get the magical cure I was hoping for, the clinic staff here are quite friendly!