Sick. AGAIN.

Fortunately *this* death held off until Spring break started so I won't have to take time of work. I was doing ok earlier this week-just really bad allergies that actually required me to get eye drops. Stupid Richmond. However, I took a turn for the worst Friday morning. My chest was super congested and I had a 101 fever. I knew those symptoms didn't really come with allergies, so I decided to go to my most favorite place on Earth: Patient First.

I got there at around 6:30 and didn't leave until around 8:30. No, it wasn't because of a long wait-it was because it was apparently time for me to fall apart.

I went into the examination room and after asking 879 times if I was pregnant or nursing and when the last date of my period was, the doctor decided he wanted to do some blood work AND get a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia. Sounds pretty easy, right? Yeah no.

Apparently I have the tiniest and deepest lying veins in the history of medicine. They stuck me in the right arm, left arm, right hand, left hand, and even my right middle finger before realizing that maybe the whole blood taking thing wasn't going to work out. So, they sent me off to X-ray where they had me stand up and breathe in and out lots and lots of times-not the best thing for someone who is having trouble breathing and who had just been treated like a human pin cushion. BTW, getting stuck in the hand HURTS. A LOT. Especially when they have to do it TWICE.

So, I passed out.

That's right. I keeled right over onto the poor X-ray technician, probably exposing much of my upper half. After sipping some orange juice and resting, I managed to stand up long enough to get my X-rays and waddle back to the examination room.

They had me put on my sweatshirt and a blanket with hopes that warming me up would make my veins more accessible. Didn't work, but luckily they figured out it wasn't worth it before sticking me again.

The doctor came back in and chatted with me for a while. We talked about how Richmond is seriously the worst place in the world when it comes to allergies. He actually said to me, "And I know you know, because you were 'Made in Richmond,' as I saw when you were X-ray." Nice bedside manner. Anyway, it was ruled that I have allergies on top of a nasty case of bronchitis. I was given a decongestant and a packet of antibiotics and sent on my way.

My fever finally broke last night. I realized this when I woke up in a pool of my own sweat actually feeling like I wasn't being roasted from the inside out. My coughs are being quite productive (yum!) and I can kind of take a deep breath without dying. God bless modern medicine.