Fall Break is suppose to be fun, not a train wreck

The last week and a half has been a mixture of mountainous highs and valley-like lows. I was expecting a few good times and a few bad times and got the extremes of both.

It all started the Thursday before last. Upon finishing my news anchoring at WCRD, I was free for the weekend. Unlike most weekends however, this one was going to be extra special because it was Fall Break and my girlfriend and I had made plans almost six months earlier.

The original plan was to go to Brown County for a few days and camp, hike and fish. My girlfriend was even able to plan out a nature photo shoot for her work. Earlier in the week though, we decided that while camping in October sounds fun in the middle of the heat of summer, that the reality of camping in 40 degree weather isn't all that great. So we decided we were just going to make a day trip out of it. Drive down to Brown County early Friday, grab dinner with her parents that night, then drive to Purdue late that night to visit some other friends for the rest of the weekend.

On Thursday however, a tanker truck carrying liquid propane crashes into an overpass at the intersection of I-69 and I-465 in NE Indianapolis, shutting down the ramp we need to easily get to Brown County and just overall wreaking havoc on traffic around Indianapolis.

Then that night, while we're out with a bunch of friends, my girlfriend starts having some really bad pains in her back and kidneys. She didn't think much of it since she gets them every so often so we continued hanging out with our friends and thinking about the weekend ahead.

We awake the next morning only to find that not only is it raining cats and dogs in Muncie, it's also pouring in Brown County. The problem was though that we couldn't just scrap our original plans of getting dinner with her parents because the dinner was to celebrate their 25^th wedding anniversary. On top of all of it, my girlfriend started running a fever. We both we back to bed and grabbed a few more hours of sleep.

Friday afternoon, we embark on the two hour journey to Bloomington for dinner. Right from the start, everything that could go wrong went wrong. It would pour rain for a few minutes, stop, then the clouds would open and bright sun would cover the earth, only to hop right back behind a cloud and have it start pouring again. It made everyone crazy drivers and drove me bonkers.

We thought things were getting better because the traffic heading into Indianapolis was light. However, the second we got onto I-465, traffic came to a standstill. It stayed this way for the majority of the time we were on it. Because of that set back, we ended up driving on I-65 through downtown Indianapolis during rush hour, causing another traffic headache.

By the time we reached Bloomington, our two hour trip had become a three hour nightmare. On top of it, my girlfriend's fever had come back and started to reach a higher level than would've been liked. Luckily though, we were treated to some delicious steak at the end of it.

After dinner, we headed from Bloomington to West Lafayette to visit a friend of mine who is now teaching at Purdue. The trip there went extremely well and we had a great time that night.

The next day was going really well as well, until late-afternoon, when all of a sudden I felt like all of my energy had been drained. Throughout the day, my girlfriend's fever had stuck around. We both ended up taking a nap in the middle of the get together. Our nap became something much longer and we didn't wake up until much later that night. Once we were up and about, the nausea set in. Despite the fact we hadn't eaten since morning, we couldn't bring ourselves to eat anything without the urge to throw it up. We both we went back to bed, hoping it would be better in the morning.

It wasn't.

The next morning, a whole slew of symptoms came on. It was official, we were both sick with something, and whatever it was, it was nasty.

We spent the entire next day battling with body aches, headaches, nausea, exhaustion, sinus pressure, coughing and fever. I was worried because I had a major paper due the next day and had planned to spend the majority of the night working on it. On top of that, I had a test and another major paper due the day after my first paper.

We got back to Muncie and I went to the library, but was fairly unproductive.

Bright and early Monday morning, we were up and at the Health Center on campus. Despite walking in only five minutes after they opened, the place was packed. We waited around awhile and both saw the doctor and were told what we had: H1N1 a.k.a. the swine flu. I wasn't allowed to attend class until my fever had been gone at least 24 hours without the help of fever-reducing medication. On top of that, I had to seclude myself from my own house because I had over 20 roommates who I didn't want to expose to my illness. So that afternoon I packed up everything I would need for the next few days and moved into my girlfriend's apartment.

Part of me was a little excited though. This gave me an opportunity to work on stuff that I had been putting off and guaranteed that no one would come around to distract me because no one wanted to get sick.

My thoughts of motivation and productivity were quickly dashed though. By the end of the day, I barely had enough energy to get off the couch, let alone write an email or research a paper.

I slept for 13 hours that night (with a little help from NyQuil). I felt slightly more refreshed Tuesday morning, although all that sleep made my neck a little stiff. However, by mid-afternoon, my fever spiked. My hopes to be 100% by Wednesday were in vain. By the end of the night, the stiff neck had become more serious and I was having problems turning my head without moderate pain. I used Icy Hot patches and ibuprofen to help it, but none of it seemed to work.

By Wednesday morning, despite making sure I fell asleep in a comfortable position, my neck had become worse. Eating became a chose because opening my mouth past a certain point made my neck hurt. Luckily though, my fever broke mid-afternoon and I had hopes to be out and about by Thursday night.

Early Thursday morning, I was awoken by the pain in my neck. It had gotten to the point that it hurt to breathe out of my mouth. Something was seriously wrong. Being stubborn however, I refused to go to the Health Center and instead took some pain killers I had left over from a previous prescription. They barely touched the pain.

That afternoon I finally broke down and went to the Health Center. I was no longer sick with any of the flu symptoms, but I couldn't turn my head, breathe out of mouth or eat. The doctor prescribed me Vicodin and muscle relaxers. I was happy to possibly be relieved of some of the pain, but was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to be out and about for at least another day.

I went home, took my meds and was knocked out for the rest of the day. By Friday afternoon, when I finally got up, my neck was tremendously better, although nowhere near perfect.

That night I had a small get together for my girlfriend's birthday and reconnected with all those people I hadn't seen in almost a week. On Saturday I volunteered with my fraternity at the pledge drive for Indiana Public Radio, and enjoyed Halloween festivities that night.

But now here I sit, at 5am Monday morning, pulling an all-nighter, trying to catch up on the massive amount of work I have left over from this past week.