Teleidoscope

Wed, Feb 13, 2008

Fever

Posted at 10:07 pm MST to Miscellaneous

This is annoying. I thought I was actually getting better today. I did comparatively little coughing even when I was talking on the phone, and I found the energy (or cabin fever) to go out and run some errands. But I've eaten very little today, and nothing since I got home from my errands. And my shakiness didn't entirely feel like low blood sugar.

"I wonder if I'm running a fever," I said to myself. And was very surprised to find that I am, just barely, according to my mercury thermometer. Given that my normal body temperature reads low (or maybe the temperature in my mouth is low) except in very hot weather, I am probably running an actual fever.

Maybe it will burn out this stupid crud if I let it do its work.

It might be interesting to invest in one of those fancy thermometers that measure the infrared inside your ear, and see whether the low normal temperature is my mouth, or me in general.

I had an oral digital fever thermometer, but it died, so I'm back to the old mercury one that my Mom gave me when I went away to college or got my first apartment (I can't remember which). This thermometer was not bought in a store: one of my brothers was in the hospital, and the thermometer was sent home with him: they didn't have single use covers for thermometers in those days, so the hospital sold you a thermometer that stayed with you and went home with you.

I don't remember which brother this particular thermometer came home with. I think we accumulated a couple of them.

My younger brother had his tonsils out, I think.

And our youngest brother has a history of duodenal ulcers that put him in the hospital a couple of times when he was young. (And a few times since then, unfortunately.) That was kind of scary: one time they had to put about 8 units of blood into him before they got the bleeding stopped, and he was just a little kid at the time. By the time they were done, I'm not sure he was using any of his own blood. (We made jokes about oil changes.)

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