Back from the Dead - I think - Rick Strahl's Web Log

Back from the Dead - I think

March 01, 2008 @ 6:16 pm- from Maui, Hawaii

Arggghh... it's been a week of hell being sick like a dog. I suppose this is a common thing - I got tagged by the flu this year but in a way that I have never seen before. The sickness literally knocked me completely offline for 3 days which is unheard of. Other than one time when I took a vacation in Baja I don't I ever been so sick that I've not been able to get online and take care of basic business. But it's especially frustrating to me because I so rarely get sick - but when I do it's usually a real whopper. All or nothing, baby!

The flu around here has hit almost every other person I know at one point in the last few months all with very similar results. When I was still laughing it off as 'no big deal' the day before I woke up the next with a 103+ fever that wouldn't go down for two days before I finally gave up and crawled to the clinic at Kaiser. I hate going to the doctor - and Kaiser in particular and they didn't disappoint with no diagnosis (the labs are 'inconclusive' it's not type a or b flu but it could one of 3 others. Pneumonia is also inconclusive - here are some antibiotics - have a nice day). Usually I muddle through any sort of pain and discomfort but after a day and a half of burning up and hallucinations I just let them do to me as they might. The flu never killed anyone did it? (of course it did!).

I'm still paying for that though now. The antibiotics did knock out the fever in a matter of a few hours which was impressive, but then comes the oh so pleasant nausea that goes with antibiotics at least for me. Since Wednesday I've been much better with no fever barely any coughing but the nausea that makes it nearly impossible to use the computer for more than a few minutes at the time. Apparently the 60hz refresh becomes a problem triggering a huge wave of nausea and hot flashes.

Originally reading text in a book also didn't work but that's relented so at least I can read. Talk about being bored out of your skull after a week of doing nothing but counting the dots on the ceiling <g>.

Here's something that's interesting though (at least to me): While I was toiling in bed deliriously I was definitely tweaking. You know that fevered feeling when you cannot shut your mind down no matter what you do. I'd start dozing off and fall into this weird delirious state where I'd be trying to arrange encrypted words into order before - i don't know swallow, take a breath whatever. I'm not kidding. So here I am at a 103 fever and trying to solve encryption problems in my mind <g> - wild. I'd wake look around and figure out that there's no need for that, doze back off and 10 minutes later end up at exactly the same point. Very bizarre. When the fever broke a little later I still had some of this but it ended up being code I've been working on and having problems with - it turns out working with digital signature validation etc. And I kept seeing the same code over and over.

Talk about 'dreaming in code', but this was definitely not a positive thing...

Incidentally as part of this weirdness came a solution to a problem I was having with this code resulting of mismatched XmlDocument configuration settings. More on that in another post...

The mind can play funny tricks on you sometimes. But it's really scary to be so whacked out for two days where no matter what I tried I wasn't able to reign in the mind. In those two days I never slept more than 2 consecutive hours at best. It's even more frustrating since I tried to put some of my meditation practice to use, but failed miserably under the circumstances. I suppose there's still a long way to go to better control <g>...

Anyway, it's good to be well enough to at least crank out this short post... and yeah, things are finally looking up.

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re: Back from the Dead - I think
by John Walker March 01, 2008 @ 9:51 pm

Rick,

You're in Maui and I'm right outside of NYC. Somehow the same strain of flu or whatever it was landed my way and I'm just getting over it. I had the same weird hallucinations, etc. I couldn't stop thinking (although I wouldn't really call it thinking, but perhaps obsessing) about code even while sleeping. Very strange experience indeed. Glad you and I are feeling better!

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Jeff March 01, 2008 @ 11:07 pm

The flubug has been hideous this year; I have been sick at least 4 times in the last 2 months...yech.

I was sick last week and was feeling better over the weekend. We had a huge swell hit Sunday afternoon (it was 2 ft at 11:00am, head-high by noon, and double overhead plus by the late afternoon), since i was feeing better I paddled. By the next morning I had that _dry scratchy_ feeling in my throat, which got worse as the week wore on. Today, I slept in until 3:30...that drifting out of consciousness sleep you were describing...blah.

Anyways, good to hear your feeling better I was wondering when you post again.

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Tom Pester March 02, 2008 @ 9:49 am

Get well soon Rick and I wish you a good rest

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Benjamin Eidelman March 02, 2008 @ 10:33 am

Meditation gets amazingly harder under that circumstances! Specially for rookies as me :)
I think meditation is better as preventive than as a cure. I think thats why ancient yoguis cared so much about body health,

Hope you get better soon!

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Peter March 02, 2008 @ 10:36 am

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid and had those hallucinations; it wasn't code for me, I used to see weird things in front of me and I would play with them. Ohhh, fun times :)

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Steven Smith March 02, 2008 @ 10:36 am

Glad you're feeling better, Rick!

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by William Plander March 02, 2008 @ 8:25 pm

"- here are some antibiotics -"

yeah had the same thing a couple of weeks ago. The flu didn't last long but they gave me the antibiotic "Bactrim". That stuff is mean...made me feel worse than the flu and for ten freaken days.

glad you're feeling better.

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by GlenH March 03, 2008 @ 1:43 pm

The flu shot was a real miss this year. Go to the CDC site, http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ and look at the current flu map...Florida is the only state not getting pounded. It's bad enough here that they have closed a lot of the schools.

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Tamar March 03, 2008 @ 2:11 pm

Rick - two words: flu shot. I started getting them when my doc told me he thinks everyone should have one.

re: Back from the Dead - I think
by Rick Strahl March 04, 2008 @ 11:55 pm

Ah yeah, well, when the doc sez - I'll better be on it. Seriously - the doctor will tell you all sorts of things to get you to pay for something you don't really need. The last thing I want to do is pump myself full of pharmaceuticals for every possible disease I *might* get which will surely guarantee I'll die young, right?

I'll take my chances waiting until I am about to die before I take any drugs. Screw the big pharmaceutical companies and their shady business practices... not playing that game.