5
 
 
  
8:52 PM, Tuesday, May 4tth, 2021:
 
The last 24 hours man...
 
So if this is what they call "fatigue"? I have never been fatigued. If those were "chills"? I have never had chills. Because last night was so comically intense as well as the first 12 hours of today, that there was only one thing I could compare it to: Skin Deep. My favorite John Ritter movie. Him dealing with the after-effects of elctroshock treatment was what I went through for 4 hours last night...
 
 
Such an underated movie. Oh how I miss Ritter. Christ has it been nearly 20 years since he's been gone? Goddamn.
 
So within 30 minutes of the second shot, it felt different. While driving HOME I knew I was in for some shit. I was still pretty good the remainder of the day, just a little tired (what I would call fatigued), but I knew the following day was gonna be rough and I also knew to expect chills...
 
...which I got at around midnight when I desperately had to pee. Which meant some logistics that you almost wish had been filmed. So I start shaking, wake up Talya and I try to explain the situation - but I'm laughing. Because here's the thing: there are no other symptoms. Usually when you get chills, you have a sore throat or congestion or general miserableness - but this was just like a video game. Or, as I show in the video: someone just randomly shocking me. So after every bout with the "shakes" I would just giggle. It was honestly kind of fun. Until I realized I really, really needed to pee and I didn't know how I was going to get to the bathroom because the shakes were coming so fast.
 
Talya asks if I want a bucket and I said "not unless you have a hose to attach, 'cause that's gonna get ugly." We're both laughing at this point and I do finally make my way to the bathroom, shakes and all. Once back in bed however I try to get comfortable and the part of "chills" I'm used to continues. You get comfortable and then if you move any part of your body to a minimally cooler place? BOOM: more shakes. This was funny for about a half-hour. However, it did what no "chills" have done to me: it continued NON-STOP from 12am-4am. If I had thought of it, I would have asked Talya for a sleeping pill or something to just get me through this because it was wildly unnecessary to just be exhausted all night. I will definitely be giving Talya a sleeping pill for her first night. 'Cause fuuuuck this.
 
Which means this morning, not only was a tired because of the shot, but because of shaking for that many hours. But tired doesn't really describe it. The only thing I could imagine was how really, really, really sick people talk about being bedridden and having no energy. Like, wanting to walk the roughly 8 steps to the bathroom and having to focus all your energy on the THOUGHT of how you'll move your feet and where you'll put your hands and then MAYBE 3 minutes later attempting it.
 
Every moment I was upright, my body was like "oh fuck no... get, down. On the ground. Now." That in and of itself was kinda humorous. In the hallway, holding myself up, I just wanted to sit on the floor. But knew that no one would be able to get me up if I did. So I stayed in bed and around 2pm? I pushed myself to walk. I did pretty well, I walked nearly an entire mile (improvements to my energy level seemed to improve every 30 minutes) but I made the mistake of walking AWAY from my house for a 1/2 mile and then realizing "oh man, I need to sit." ...and you can't really do that. So I pushed through to get home and then collapsed. Only now, nearly 6 more hours later do I feel as good as I did at 2pm and I can certainly see light at the end of the tunnel: thus I'm writing.
 
But that was my experience and I'm thrilled. Again, having all of these symptoms without ANY actual cold/flu symptoms is really pretty fascinating. It's like taking a drug. It's nothing I've ever experienced before in my life... and I kinda dig that. It's a story.
 
And The Journey is nothing if not a whole bunch of little stories. This was story #2130.
 
Adam