Illin'

Those of you who have been following my status updates on Facebook lately know that I had a lovely bout of what I thought was food poisoning on Sunday night. I spent all day Monday in bed recovering, and then worked all day yesterday. Was working a full day after being so sick a good idea? Perhaps not, but there are no paid sick days when one is a babysitter, and I couldn't stand the thought of watching another full day of bad daytime television.

So off I went, first to sit for the 2.5 year old girl (M) I sat for last year and her 6-month-old brother (Z), and then to sit for a 5-year-old boy (J) and his 3-year-old sister (M), both whom I had also sat for last year.

Despite having no appetite, I was relatively functional at my first home - kicking a ball around the yard, playing with play-doh, having an in-depth conversation about the difference between sticks and roots and branches (M: "You can pick up sticks, but you can't pick up roots!" - brilliant, that child is).

As I headed to the second family's house, I wasn't feeling quite so hot, so I picked up some saltines and ginger ale (lunch of champions) on the way. Munched on those while older brother T and his friends ate birthday cake, and then hung out with J & M while T and his friends went to see a movie.

After walking to J's favorite ice cream store, J telling me he felt like he was going to throw up, getting their ice cream to go, and then walking (a little faster) back home, we got inside just as the thunder began. Unfortunately for J, the thunder in his belly was also doing some work, because he ended up as I had a few nights before. Poor kiddo.

So I finished babysitting around dinner time and was amazed at how much better I was feeling (though exhausted after not a lot of food and quite a bit of energy output caring for these kiddos). On the way home I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some chicken soup. Ate the soup for dinner, watched the game, and fell asleep happy and optimistic that I was moving past this illness...

So imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up and opened my eyes and immediately felt dizzy. At first I chalked it up to not enough sleep, so I rolled back over and fell back asleep for another hour. But when I woke up the second time, I experienced the same thing - a generally woozy feeling that increased the more I tried to sit or get out of bed.

After another sick day in bed, I went to see my doctor at the end of the day (Sidenote: Special shout-out to TG, as I am 100% convinced that getting to the doctor would not have been possible had it not been for a tip I received that anti-nausea medication might help my woozy body. I took some a few hours before my appointment, and by doing so, gave myself the strength and ability to get to there in one piece).

Because I was able to report to my doctor that the anti-nausea medication had helped to make me less woozy, she determined that my sickness earlier in the week was probably a virus and not food poisoning, and that it had traveled around my body and landed in my ears, causing the dizziness. The technical term for this: Labyrinthitis. The name makes it sound so cool and interesting, but it really REALLY isn't.

Really.

Here's the best part: it can last for a few days, or a few weeks - so there's no way of knowing just how much fun I'm in for in the near future.

For now, I've stocked up on some "less-drowsy" anti-nausea medication and ginger chews and am hoping for the best...