… since yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n
At around 3 pm, I started feeling really … funky, shall we say. The throat started itching, and the stomach started fluttering. It took all of 20 minutes for sickness to descend upon me like gangbusters. Once I admitted to myself: “Huh, I think I’m getting sick” – all bets were off. Couldn’t fight it. I was sitting at my desk shivering, my teeth chattering, and then I would get waves of heat going over me. Not a good sign.<\/p>\n
So I left work, feeling like my legs were not up to the task of getting me to my bus. It was bitter cold, and snowing. I trudged along towards Port Authority, gritting my teeth, bearing it.<\/p>\n
And then – as I strolled past the entrance to Port Authority – which is always jam-packed with people – suddenly I was aware of little black dots, swarming around in my peripheral vision. And I got this odd sensation of light headedness, which broke over me in a flash, and before I knew what had happened, I fainted. I’ve only fainted once before, and the main sensation I got when I fainted that first time (which was on a subway platform) was embarrassment. Like: oh my God, I just fainted … in front of a crowd … I’m okay I’m okay I’m okay …<\/p>\n
So if any of my New York readers were standing in the line for taxis outside Port Authority yesterday – and happened to see a woman in a sheepskin coat, a giant white scarf, and a white wool hat with a Boston Red Sox “B” on it, stop in her tracks, and then crumple to the pavement face down<\/i> … that was me.<\/p>\n
I have a dern black eye from where I landed. grrrrrrr I guess I should be thankful I wasn’t wearing my glasses.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness for the nice lady-cop who helped me. I woke up and there was a freakin’ crowd of people standing over me, looking at me with concern, and also glinting with gleeful curiosity. I felt like crap, and I also felt so embarrassed I wanted to disintegrate into the pavement to escape the shame.<\/p>\n
“Miss, you just fainted.” said lady-cop, helping me to sit up.<\/p>\n
“I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.” I insisted … wondering … why my right eye hurt … But no. Really. I’m fine.<\/p>\n
I felt nauseous. But the thought of throwing up in front of the uncaring masses was far too daunting – so I held it together. I started to feel weepy, too … which infuriated me. I held that shite back as well. Lady-cop helped me to my feet, holding onto me. I said to the lingering crowd around me something like, “Please stop staring at me … ” (heh heh) Then kind lady-cop walked me to my bus around the corner, holding onto my arm. She made sure I got where I needed to go.<\/p>\n
By the time I got in line for the bus, I was in full-blown flu mode. My eye hurt. I feared getting onto the tiny bus, because I feared nausea would come over me in the Lincoln Tunnel or something, a horror not to be contemplated. I breathed in, breathed out … I was close enough to home. I kept the image of my warm kitchen forefront in my brain. Every time I remembered: “Uhm … did I just FAINT IN FRONT OF PORT AUTHORITY??” I would feel a wave of nausea … so I forced myself not to think about it.<\/p>\n
I got on the bus. I sat down. And promptly passed out. I have no memory of the journey back across the river. As far as I was concerned, the bus was in a standstill the entire time. And I woke up far far past my stop. No idea where I was.<\/p>\n
grrrrrr again.<\/p>\n
Got off the bus, wintry blasts of air, the green spire of the Empire State Building my only guide … If I kept that thing in view, I could make it back to my apartment. Which is just what I did. Eventually, I figured out where I was and got back to the abode.<\/p>\n
Then followed an evening of misery. TMI now coming at ya, but fuck it, it’s my blog: It was the kind of evening where you seriously do not know whether to sit on the toilet or kneel beside it. In the middle of all of this, I got my period. I felt like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse were visiting my body. My periods are terrible, and get worse with every passing year. I have to take days off of work, shit like that, it’s a total drag … so I completely fell apart for a good couple of hours. Moaning like a stuck pig, clutching the porcelain.<\/p>\n
That wave thankfully subsided. I felt shaky, and every time I looked in the mirror, I saw the purple bruise under my eye, and promptly felt like a lunatic. I kept shivering at the thought of what if I had fainted (ONTO MY FACE) while wearing the glasses. A narrow escape.<\/p>\n
I had some Thera Flu. I drank a gallon of water. I went to sleep at 7 pm. And woke up at 5 am. I still have a cold, but the crazy stomach bug has passed. I feel ravaged. I look like hell.<\/p>\n
I started laughing, though, over my non-breakfast at 5:30 am, of orange juice and water … about the fainting. What a spectacle. I wish I had a video of it. It must have looked hysterical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
… since yesterday afternoon. At around 3 pm, I started feeling really … funky, shall we say. The throat started itching, and the stomach started fluttering. It took all of 20 minutes for sickness to descend upon me like gangbusters. … Continue reading