Hospital Adventure!

If you all remember from my last riveting post, I was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday's rides. For the others who have been sick on my trip, they got better pretty quickly. Unfortunately for me that hasn't been the case.

I rode Thursday in the van. I figured I'd give myself that day and then the day off in Roswell and I should be fine. And I did feel mostly better, except I hadn't been able to put or keep many fluids in my system for those three days so I knew that dehydration was a serious concern.

On Saturday (yesterday) I felt good in the morning so I thought I was okay to ride. I rode 30 miles in the humid heat. I'm pretty sure I sweated out any liquid left in my body. Around mile 25 I started feeling dizzy/lightheaded so I stopped, ate some, drank some, and then continued. At mile 30 I felt like I was going to vomit so I stopped and dry heaved a bunch. I immediately decided to have the van come get me. After a long ordeal of trying to get in contact with people despite spotty service, I got picked up.

I was miserable all afternoon. Anything going into my system was coming out of it. Finally, one of the leaders asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I decided I should. Another one of our riders had severe dehydration/heat illness/stomach virus and also ended up in the hospital. We drove from lunch to the host and then were going to wait and see if I felt better before heading out. However, I felt so crappy that we finally decided to go.

The nearest hospital was 40 miles away in ruidoso. The drive was beautiful and I felt a little better after taking a gu (hydration shot). Danie came with me while Skip and Erin did laundry. After about 2 1/2 hours of waiting I finally got back into the ER and got hooked up to fluids while they ran tests. I got 2 whole bags of fluid in me and it turns out I probably have an infection so am now on antibiotics. We left the hospital at 11 and didn't get back to the host til 12:30.

Today I just slept in the van and was on a pretty much all liquid diet. I'm feeling a downswing coming on because I experiemented with solid food so I'll probably head to bed early and at least for tomorrow I'll be in the van. I have to slowly reintroduce solid foods into my system and I want to make sure I'm okay before trying to ride again because I think by trying to ride early in my sickness it exasperated the situation. It sucks to miss most of a week of riding but in the end it's more important to me that I'm better the rest of the ride.

In other news, Roswell was fun. I went to the alien museum. The first 4 displays about the conspiracy were interesting but then the exhibits started to have the ring of crazy people. I also bought "Newsies" and watched that for a low key afternoon.

New Mexico is beautiful. We're in the mountains again and the views are unmatched. I just can't wait until I can see them on the ride. And despite my illness I'm quite chipper. And my brother is actively trying to buy a house now. And a dog! Big things are happening.