The day before we left for our Easter break (last month), I woke up with a horrendous headache, which turned out to be symptom numero uno. It was followed by chills, sweats and a few instances during which I had to examine the inside of my toilet several times. No fever, though. Whatever it was, it didn’t last long. I slept most of the day but woke up the following day feeling fine and ready to leave. So we left for the Maremma. And I was indeed FINE. I forgot all about it. In fact, when we returned to Florence I didn’t even post about it…
Uhm, yes, I have a point in writing this today…please be patient. 🙂
Here in Italy, this past weekend was the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S.…a long holiday weekend that lasted until Tuesday, day before yesterday, that is.
On Monday evening, Stefano and I had dinner with friends, a lovely dinner followed by games. We had fun but got home quite late…and totally exhausted. Early the following morning I woke up with an awful headache. Mamma mia! I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but in the end I gave up, got up, took a couple of Tylenol (yes, it was THAT bad) and went back to bed. When I woke up a few hours later, I still felt absolutely awful, so Stefano brought me a cappuccino, which we thought might help get rid of the headache (caffeine, y’know… 🙂 ).
It didn’t. On the contrary, it…er…set me off. I mean, I had to rush into the bathroom to inspect the inside of my toilet, just as I’d done a few days before Easter.
I spent the rest of the day in bed, mostly sleeping, with Stefano and the kitties by my side. Chills alternated with sweats. But I had no other symptoms. No fever, etc. At the end of the day I managed to drink some water and eat some crackers. Ahhhh, much better.
Yesterday I felt a bit weak, mainly from not really having eaten anything the day before, but otherwise fine. Stefano left for work, I got up as usual, tended to the kitties, had breakfast and even did some light housecleaning.
Today I feel like one of my gorgeous blooming flowers (see photo, taken this morning). Like Wonder Woman. As though nothing had ever happened. Weird, huh?
Now, something similar (in fact, it might have been the exact same thing) happened to me in November, 2010. Coincidence? Possibly. But I’m beginning to think that it might be a virus of some sort…a virus that is normally dormant but that wakes up whenever I get overly tired. Incidentally, I should mention that the main reason I’m posting today about these really insignificant health episodes is so that I’ll be able to look up the “when and why and how” here on the blog, if I ever have a reoccurrence at some point in the future…hey, you never know…
A final consideration: one of my best friends (who is healthy) has the same thing. Two days before leaving for Spain, where she spent the May 1st weekend, she complained of having a super headache and quite a bit of nausea. She left for Spain anyway (that’s my girl!!!), but her symptoms disappeared only a couple of days later. Before leaving, though, I know for sure that she was running herself ragged and was very (and this is the KEY WORD —>) tired.
I think I’ve finally connected the dots. This nasty bugger inside of us wakes up whenever she and I don’t get enough sleep…whenever we’re a bit run down. So, I reason, we simply have to make sure we get enough sleep.
Easy peasy or…easy pansy! 😉