After the unusual mouth swelling, my stomach started to hurt, and yesterday I threw up and had diarrhea at work (not fun). I went home, crawled into bed with severe chills, and continued alternating vomiting with diarrhea. I couldn't keep the smallest sip of water down, and got very dehydrated. After a few hours of that, my lips and mouth were very dry, and I started to actually become delirious. My wife drove me to Sibley Hospital around 9:30 PM, and I threw up again in the car, fortunately into a plastic bag. I was very worried because my brother had similar symptoms, and ended up with part of his intestine removed, and a colostomy, so I thought maybe there was a blockage, or my appendix or gall bladder were about to burst.

They took me back into the ER pretty quickly and started IV fluids and anti-nausea meds, which was a huge relief. IVs usually freak me out, but I welcomed it this time. Unfortunately, my room was very cold and I was shivering uncontrollably. They piled around 5 blankets on me, which helped, but man, that hospital is cold! I tossed back a disgusting "vanilla" Barium drink, and was then given an abdominal CT scan. The good news is I didn't need surgery! I do have some gallstones, and will probably have to have my gall bladder removed at some point, but basically I had a really bad viral infection in my GI tract. It's not the H1N1 virus, fortunately. They sent me home at 3:00 in the morning, and we saw a deer walking in the middle of one of the streets near the hospital.

Today, I'm resting and drinking clear fluids, and taking antacids and anti-nausea medication. Believe it or not, I think we're still going to go on a small trip this weekend, just to get out of town and relax a bit. My wife is taking care of all the details, I'll just be along for the ride. Going to take a nap now, and looking forward to a piece of plain toast for dinner!