Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

I had a decent night’s sleep last night, with only mild sweating. This morning, I awoke feeling tired, but thankfully free of headache.

The sickness therefore appears to be a thing of the past, but the healing is only now beginning. I have sores, scabs and welts all over my body; weeping wounds in places where I’d really rather not have them. Now I have to keep this lot clean and uninfected over the coming days, hopefully avoiding too much scarring in the process.

It feels good to be on the mend and have my energy mostly back. I was able to visit a supermarket and pick up Eloïse from play-school today: simple outings, but pleasurable for one who has not been outside in quite a while now.

Last night was difficult. I was exhausted at the time of going to bed and woke up every couple of hours, soaked in my own sweat. My head felt leaden and dull.

I eventually rose around 07:00, as Sarah was having a lot of problems with Eloïse. Lucas had had a fever all night, too, so we were concerned about him.

Within minutes of being awake, yesterday’s brain-pounding juggernaut made a prompt return and had me all but incapacitated again. The headache continued to worsen until, at about 08:30, I was forced to go back to bed, where I slept until about 10:00.

Things were no better when I rose for my second attempt at the day. Given that this headache was so painful, now into its second day, and persisting long after classic chicken pox symptoms had all but disappeared, I began to reluctantly suspect some kind of secondary complication.

The fact that my head was pounding over the entire area of its upper hemisphere, rather than in one localised area, led me to conclude that there was probably pressure over the surface of my entire brain. With this in mind, I suspect that the symptoms of the last couple of days have actually been those of mild encephalitis. That’s my belief, anyway, as the circumstances and symptoms match perfectly.

Some time before noon, I was forced back into bed yet again, where I fell asleep for somewhere between two and three hours. When I awoke this time, however, I was a little less sweaty and my head felt somewhat lighter.

Since awaking that final time today, the force of my headache has been stable and manageable. I’m optimistic that the end of the illness is in sight, but I won’t know for sure until I see how well I sleep tonight and how I feel tomorrow.

Lucas’s fever has been fairly stable throughout the day and he doesn’t seem to be in too much discomfort. Poor little fellow, having to deal with chicken pox so early in life. He won’t even get immunity from the experience. At least I can rest easy after this is over, secure in the knowledge that this particular illness can’t afflict me again.

So, we’re less concerned about Lucas now, which is a worry we can really do without.

Hopefully, tomorrow morning will bring the realisation that I’ve enjoyed a good night’s sleep, awoken amidst dry sheets, and am free of headache and itching. I’m optimistic about my chances.

Each day seems to bring with it a new phase of illness.

After being plied with various gels, ointments and powders yesterday evening, the itching was more or less under control when I went to bed at midnight. I had started to feel tired only an hour or so earlier, which struck me as strange after just an hour of sleep the previous night.

Sarah gave me a homeopathic pill (Rhus toxicodendron) as I went to bed. The next thing I knew, it was 05:50 and I was waking up to pee. I couldn’t believe I’d slept without interruption for almost six hours, which immediately forced the realisation that I was no longer itching at all.

I peed and went back to bed, sleeping for another couple of hours.

When I finally got up, full of optimism, things took a turn for the worse. I felt drained of energy and a headache was quickly coming on.

Within a hour, the headache had become a real brain-burster. My head felt like a watermelon that had been thrown off a cliff onto a lava field. The same headache has had me incapacitated for most of the day. I’m enjoying a period of respite as I write this.

The spread of welts seems to have slowed to a crawl, perhaps even stopped. Maybe that’s because there’s nowhere left for them to go. I have a couple on my fingertips and elsewhere on my hands. They’ve also made it down to my ankles and even between my toes. I didn’t know chicken pox ever went down to the extremities like this.

The welts on my fingertips are very small and aren’t quite breaching the skin’s surface. They feel like splinters or very minor burns.

Buckets of sweat have been coming out of me today. The diarrhoea was also back this morning. The symptoms at this stage are thus very similar to the first couple of days, when I still thought I was coming down with stomach flu. Maybe the virus is withdrawing with the same force with which it took hold.

I’m cautiously going to say that I’m probably over the worst of this now, but who knows? Some of the blisters are looking opaque now. Yesterday, they were transparent. Hopefully, they’ll all start to scab over soon. The ones that had burst or been scratched open are already starting to crust over.

I still look like the arse-end of a mangy dog and that’s not going to improve overnight. I just hope I can emerge at the end of this without too many scars.

The pox continues.

All other symptoms have now given way to unbearable itching.

The welts continue to appear and are spreading to new areas of my body. Imagine the worst possible place for a bloke to develop itchy, inflamed sores that ooze sticky moisture if you dare to touch them. Yes, I even have them there.

I managed only an hour of sleep last night. The itching was light when I went to bed, but developed into a raging onslaught after just a short while. I made several attempts at going back to sleep, but just moving around in bed was producing enough friction and therefore also skin irritation, that sleep remained somewhere beyond my reach.

I eventually got up at 04:00 and lay on the couch, watching TV. I wasn’t any more comfortable, but at least my mind could contemplate something other than the state of my skin.

I’m not sure how many more days of this I’ve got ahead of me, but it’s probably at least a couple more.

I’m a frightening sight at the moment, it has to be said. If I am disturbed by what stares back at me when I look in the mirror now, imagine how I must look to perfect strangers. I look like a monster.

My body, too, looks repulsively diseased. It really is a disgusting sight.

On the positive side, at least the splitting headaches and dizziness have stopped, although I actually preferred them to the itching.

Praise goes to Sarah, who is currently single-handedly holding this household together. Not only I am unable to help, I’m an extra person that she has to help, so she’s quadratically busy.

Thankfully, she was able to get some menthol talc and calendula cream today, which actually does help calm my tormented skin.

All I can do is continue to kill time until the virus has had its fun with me.