Christmas Fever

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The plan was set. My first Christmas away from home was going to be huge.

A few weeks before Christmas I was to help Jen start redecorate her flat, rearrange furniture, fill gaps and paint walls all between shifts I get from a temp hospitality agency I’d signed up for. She’d then be able to decorate her flat and make it all Christmassy. Christmas eve I was going to be at the hostel, partying with the roommates before heading down to the Roseleaf bar where Jen was working til close. Christmas day we were going to have a nice roast lamb, and I was going to surprise Jen with the near impossible to find bottle of red wine we had both shared at a restaurant back in Lochinver. Not only that, I also got the white Christmas I wanted that most Europeaners told me probably wouldn’t happen. Yep it was all in place, until we had to actually start working on the flat.

Jen had managed to pick up a chest infection which pretty much ruled her out of doing any work on her flat for the week. This wasn’t an issue, I gladly started removing screws and what not, filling them all in and sanding them back. This was all well and good, except Jen wasn’t really in a state to go and buy any paints or supplies. By the time she was ready it was about a week out of Christmas, and of course the exact paints she was after weren’t in stock. After a bit of a compromise she got one colour, and decided she would get the second colour later in the week. It was also about this time that I started to get a little scratchy in the throat. Normally this doesn’t bother me too much, I’ve had these things before and had them not develop into anything either.

On Sunday I got started on all the painting. I sealed all edges with masking tape, checked all the gaps and ran through the first coat of paint. We were a little ways behind schedule but at this stage I would have had enough time between shifts to finish it all anyway. So on Monday I go into my four hour catering assistant shift feeling a little sore and worse for wear, and though my throat was sorer too I dismissed the aching shoulders and headaches down to the work I did the day before. But as the day drew on the headache turned into a massive migraine and I was barely able to think. As soon as I got back to the hostel I was in bed asleep. Jen finished work early that night and told me to come over to check me out (She’s 6 months away from being a qualified nurse). Turns out I had a pretty massive fever. Thank god she was around, because not only she get me out of the fever, she also let me stay in her flat away from all the people at the hostel.

So on Tuesday I’m feeling ok and I do the same shift again, but I’d decided to a doctor on Wednesday anyway to try and get sorted for Christmas. And I was out as quick as I went in, the doc had a quick look at my throat and saw there was no puss, said it was viral and there was nothing we could do, and then sent me on my way. The next day my throat was absolutely covered in puss and this time I went to the out of hours GP at the hospital here in Edinburgh. This time the nurse was brilliant, very sympathetic and mentioned that it may be viral but she’d give me penicillin (for free!) anyway. She also mentioned that there was a possibility that it could be Glandular Fever. And this is when my ears pricked up. The next couple days on to Christmas day I didn’t improve with the penicillin, and to be honest I felt worse. So another run to the out of hours GP but this time I got a doctor. He checked me out again and was adamant that it was a bacterial infection, and that the one week dose I got may not even be enough. A huge relief, I had spent the better part of six days fighting infections, migraines and fevers with no sign of any let up, and I really didn’t want to have Glandular Fever leading up the Man United – Liverpool match or the trip to Estonia.

So as it turns out, my first Christmas away from home will be a memorable one even if it is for all the wrong reasons. Merry Christmas guys! Hope you all had a better one than me!

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