Fever day

Yesterday I had a fever. I rarely get sick, so when I do, it is a noteworthy event. All I had was a fever—no sore throat, no upset stomach, no stuffy sinuses—just body aches and an elevated temperature.

I came home from work mid-morning, swinging by the pharmacy to buy a thermometer. (My old mercury thermometer had broken sometime between my last illness and now. Now I've got to figure out how to dispose of it properly.) Digital thermometers are quite fascinating. Even without my glasses on, I could watch, cross-eyed, the temperature rising, until the beeps indicated the correct temperature was recorded. So every 15 minutes, except when I was asleep, I took my temperature, watching it rise to 100.3. No shaking down the mercury to the bottom of the glass tube hoping the thermometer didn't fling out of my fever-weakened grip. No more squinting and rolling the thermometer back and forth trying to catch the light just so to read the temperature.

My bedroom is on the south side of the duplex, and, during the winter, the overhanging tree loses its leaves. Noticing the bright afternoon light turn into the dark evening as I lay in bed reminded my of long afternoons in sick bay at boarding school. Afternoons when you're ill always seem so long. Then, even though you've been sleeping most of the day, your body still knows it's time to sleep at night. 3:00 AM 99.5° 5:00 AM 97.1° (or maybe a little higher) 7:48 AM 98.6° On the road driving to work 98.1° Just now 98.1°