Being sick sucks

Yesterday I lived off of Tylenol Cold and Sinus and Advil to keep the encroaching crud at bay. The LT's sent home one of the other girls on my shift with the Crud, which is what they call the bad cold that most people get down here. I stuck it out until this morning.

Most of yesterday was spent showing the new guys around, and doing a building inspection. This is just checking the emergency exit lights and fire doors to make sure they work and aren't blocked, and to check the fire extinguishers to make sure they are still at the correct pressure and that they are all there. After that we did a drill on the stretcher, since some people didn't know how to work it. I got to play patient as they wheeled me into the hospital.

I ran out of Advil in the early evening, so sleeping didn't go so well for me, and I woke up at about 0500 and couldn't get back to sleep. I did the morning chores and then talked to the LT and went to medical at 0730. My throat was so sore I couldn't even swallow. The doc did a strep test, but didn't expect anything since strep isn't something that happens down here very often.

Well, guess what??? I have strep! Lucky for me and the rest of my crew, I don't have to be back at work till noon on Sunday. The doc gave me some throat lozenges, some ibuprofen, and some penicillin. I took a full gram this morning, and another 500 mg at lunch, and i need to take another 500 mg at dinner tonight and then again when I go to bed. The script is for 500 mg 4 times a day for 6 days. Hopefully that'll kick it out of my system for good, and I'll be healthy again by next week.

The doc did say that with that much penicillin in my system by lunch today, I shouldn't be contagious, so I kept my appointment with the hair dresser for a trim. She cut off 2.5 inches, and my hair is much nicer now.

After going to medical this morning, I went back to my room, took some ibuprofen and took a shower. Then I promptly fell asleep until noon, when I got up and ran over to the galley for lunch and my hair cut. Now I'm about to go back to my room to sleep till dinner. I was hoping to be able to go over to the New Zealand base tonight (they run shuttles on Thursdays) but the store over there isn't open, and I'm not feeling up to it anyway.

The ibuprofen is working well though, cause my neck is much less sore (my glands were HUGE!) and my throat is much less sore.

When we woke up today it was Condition 2 all through town, which means be careful where you're going, cause visibility is low and the wind is high. By the time I left for lunch it was Condition 3 (which is considered normal), though I didn't see much difference. I'll make a post on the differences between Conditions 1, 2, and 3 later on. For now, it's back to bed.