A Special Report – Sponsored by Pfizer

No. We’re not leaving yet. 

Don’t get excited.

Remember our last report? When we talked about my lack of fitness, my bad back, and Dr. Liu’s general impatience with her husband? She even made a special appearance as Captain Kirk, reminding Scotty that she had fired Bones because, in addition to her overall leadership duties, she was now the chief medical officer for the Enterprise.

Turns out all that was more important than I even thought . . .

You see, a few days before our prep trip I (bravely) went in for my yellow fever vaccination. That weekend my back hurt and I had little energy (as noted in the last post) – leading to Diana being distressed with the sad state of her riding partner . . . 

Two days after the trip I was really achy. Which made perfect sense to me because two days after the trip was five days after the yellow fever vaccination. And the nurse had told me that you can get “achy and stuff” (pretty sure those were her exact words) five to ten days after receiving the vaccine. 

Diana, for her part, thought that was hogwash. 

“I didn’t feel anything like that after I took the vaccine,” she said. “You’ve been feeling crummy all summer. I think you have lyme’s disease.”

”I don’t have lyme’s. The nurse told me I might have this side effect. Obviously, that’s what it is . . .”

Time passes. I feel better, but I am headachy, I have to walk home from a run because I couldn’t make myself go anymore, I have trouble sleeping, and my back keeps hurting. (To be fair, not all these things happened at once, and there were lots of time intervals in between when I felt perfectly fine.)

Fast forward to last Friday. I wake up super sore. Which I immediately ascribe to the landscape blocks I carried the day before. (This is what happens when you get old. You get incredibly sore from carrying moderately heavy things . . .)

Side note here . . . It turns out that working all day in a 95 degree house because you have to have the house that hot to separate the honey you have absconded from your bees from the beeswax they put the honey in is not really the ideal thing to do for an already-achy, feverish body. But that’s another story . . .

The next day – it’s Saturday now – I feel even worse. Achy. Feverish. Lethargic. And now I’m back in Minneapolis to go to the State Fair and it’s 95 degrees – everywhere, not just in the house . . . Ugh!

Dr. Liu has seen enough. (This is the part that is sponsored by Pfizer). She takes out the Doxycycline – and I know better than to argue now – even though I’m sure that I have a virus and I’ll be better in a week to ten days.

Diana tells me that if it’s lyme’s I should start feeling better in a day or two because Doxy works fast. When Monday comes and I’m still achy and feverish I think we have firmly established that I have a virus. Otherwise I would be feeling better by now . . .

Dr. Liu does not see it that way. She does not want to travel around the world with her already pathetic husband – who now has some chronic disease that he refuses to deal with . . . And she’s concerned that come Friday our Dr.-Liu-sponsored health insurance will come to an end and her husband will become a permanent drain . . .

By now I’m in Duluth so Diana can’t order tests for me. But, fortunately, our good friend – Dr. Rhett Bonner – comes to the rescue. And wa-la – I’m in getting blood drawn that afternoon. (Did I mention how afraid of needles and blood I am? I am very brave – as I already noted . . .)

The results? Positive for lyme’s. 

“Keep taking the Doxy,” says the doctor . . .

I have a very smart wife. Remind me of that next time I go astray . . . (But don’t tell her I told you that . . .)

The good news? Maybe after I take enough Doxy I’ll be able to keep up with her a little bit again . . .

The train is leaving soon . . . We’ll let you know . . .

So that’s the news from Trip Central. Where the women are smart. The men are – well – below average? And preparations are ongoing . . .

(Don’t complain about the lack of pictures. I didn’t know I was going to have lyme’s and I wasn’t wearing my cool helmet that records everything . . .)