A Week of Diarrhea Will Sure "Wipe" You Out!

As it turns out, I was probably too sick to attend the Fujimoto workshop mentioned in the previous post anyhow. That afternoon, as I was at work, wishing that I could be at the workshop, I began to feel very fatigued and my muscles started to feel sore. But I attributed this to having gone running the day before for the first time in a month as well as increasing my dumbbell workout on the same day. The next day, however, I woke up feeling even worse. I took my daughter to her Sunday morning taiko class, but realized that I had something serious and after I got home, I spent the rest of the day in bed. (Oh, except I did drag myself out for the Eitetsu Fu-un no Kai concert.) When I checked my temperature, it was 39.5 (Celsius), which is pretty high, for those who don't know Celsius. Warning: those of you easily disgusted may want to skip this next section...

And then the diarrhea started, and kept going and going and going. I was on an hourly cycle of bed, toilet, bed, toilet for 3 or 4 days. I had no appetite and was eating nothing, so after a day or so, I guess I was having the equivalent of anal dry heaves. For at least a week, nothing even remotely resembling solid feces came out of my back side. Yes, I know it's disgusting, but I warned you.

Finally I went to the doctor. After describing my ordeals and symptoms to him, he said, without hesitation, "This is almost certainly a case of food poisoning. Have you eaten any kind of questionable food lately?" I thought back to the day before the full blown sickness began, and sure enough, I had bought an egg salad and chicken sandwich at a Family Mart convenience store for Saturday's lunch. That had to be it, because before that I felt fine, and that evening I ate dinner with my family and none of them became sick. Curse you, Family Mart! I'll have to get a letter from the doctor and then go and ask the shop for reimbursement for the doctor bills.