Getting sick, especially with a virus isn’t my idea of fun and this was no exception. I am lucky that I do not normally catch viruses<\/a>, and I’m not at all sure it wasn’t food poisoning<\/a>. I’m embarrassed to say what I think the food poisoning came from, but if I’m sharing that I had the dry heaves<\/a> for over twenty-four hours, I might as well share the culprit.<\/p>\n

As you know, I am a connoisseur of most things chocolate<\/a> and that normally begins with chocolate milk<\/a>\u00a0at breakfast. What better way to choke down the daily meds than with chocolate milk, right? So, most mornings I drag out the milk<\/a> and the Hershey’s Syrup and make chocolate milk. For some reason, the most recent bottle<\/a> was about half full but wasn’t pouring. I did what I do when the bottle is empty and poured a little milk to mix it up. Then, I made my glass of chocolate milk.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I thought it was odd that half the bottle wouldn’t pour out\u00a0but really didn’t give it much thought. That is, until I had hours of the most painful stomach<\/a> cramps I can ever remember – except for when I had a reaction to lobster in Boston<\/a>, that was bad – and loads of time to contemplate whether I had a virus (always one going around, ever notice that?) or food poisoning. I think I’m leaning toward the food poisoning. I remembered my stomach bothering me for a few days before hand. I guess I’m a slow learner. I also can’t look at chocolate right now!<\/p>\n

I guess I’m sharing because I wouldn’t want anyone else to get sick. This has never happened before, and believe me, I’ve gone through more than my share of Hershey Syrup! Just be cautious.<\/p>\n

Today didn’t start off much better. It actually got worse as I now have an excruciating pain in my left shoulder and side from the way I finally passed out from exhaustion in my recliner. I literally cannot breathe. I can only take short breaths, otherwise the pain is intolerable. Let me be the first one to tell you that eventually the body decides it wants a huge breath of air and it grabs you and you can’t stop it. That being said, I actually did some screaming today. I wouldn’t normally admit that to anyone. I finally was at my wit’s end and decided after having not eaten since Wednesday night, to have ibuprofen\u00a0for a snack, along with lots of praying my stomach wouldn’t rebel.<\/p>\n

I finally have a little relief tonight. Meds plus a hot rice bag on my shoulder for most of the day have allowed me to almost feel human tonight. Human enough to realize that I am behind on a couple of book reviews and Etsy<\/a> orders.<\/p>\n

I really hope everyone else is having a better week than I am.<\/p>\n