Do you remember the entry I made a few weeks ago. It was the one that detailed my vacation week in Florida. Part of that trip included a deep sea fishing excursion. If you also went to my webshots photo album you would have seen a picture of one of the fish I caught. I named him Ralph. Remember? That fish (the group's catch) was divided among the fisherwomen, place in zip lock bags, filled with water and then placed in the freezer. That was on Monday. By the time Friday rolled around and it was time to depart, there were several icy fish cubes encased in zip lock bags. Felicia and Kathleen agreed to transport my fish back to Texas. I wondered how frozen the balls of fish would stay during a 10 hour road trip in a cooler. I was assured by both Kathleen and Felicia that upon their arrival in Houston the fish was still encased in their icy cubes. Tim made a journey to the Dallas/Fort Worth area the next week, but "forgot" to bring my share. So, last weekend Felicia, Margaret and Kathleen all traveled from Houston to Austin and Felicia arranged with Margaret to deliver my fish to Jenny's baby shower and hand it off to me. Sure enough, we transferred the icy fish cubes from Margaret's cooler to my cooler, placed it in Elizabeth's TV room and there it stayed until I took it home at 2:30AM and placed it and the freezer pack in Jen's freezer. The next day, Sunday, I packed the car and the last thing to be packed was my ice chest with the fish inside it. After a 3 hour car ride I got home at around 4PM. I had two zip locks of fish and one of them had become partially thawed. So, I filled my ice chest with cold water and defrosted it the rest of the way, baked it, made some rice and had a very tasty meal with a side of apple sauce. I prepared part of it for lunch the next day.
After lunch on Monday, I started feeling yucky...really yucky. I actually began feeling queasy before lunch, but refused to give into it. By the end of the day I was sick. I somehow made the hour trip back to Arlington, exchanged the company truck for my car, and drove home. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and went to bed. My muscles were achy and I was having a difficult time sleeping. I felt hot, so I took my temp and it was 101'. I woke up Tuesday morning and still felt crappy (hint, hint). I made myself get up, take a shower, and get ready for work. My temp was down to 97.3'. So, I went to work. I still was not up to 100%, but by the end of the day I was almost feeling my old self again. All this time, I kept thinking "I hope the fish didn't do this to me". I tried to blame my illness on other things. When I got home, I went straight to bed.
I decided I needed to throw away the rest of the fish. I was bummed.
The next morning, (this morning) I got an early call from Kathleen. I told her that I think the fish made me sick. She said; "you were sick? so was I, we must have caught a bug from Jonathan and Kayleigh." She had the same symptoms as I. Oh joy, joy, joy! I don't have to throw away the fish. And that is how my week has gone so far.
I really don't think that the bug Jonathan and Kayleigh had could have survived that long--it had been 2-1/2 weeks since Jonathan had it and two weeks for Kayleigh. The maids had even been to clean our house after they had recovered. Theirs was definitely a classic tummy bug (throwing up and diarrhea but no fever), which are generally communicable for only short periods of time, I think.
I'm sorry to hear you were sick! That's just no fun at all. But glad to hear that you're not going to have to throw away the fish. I think there have been a few bugs going around lately. Perhaps your late night on Saturday night made you especially susceptible . . .
Posted by: Elizabeth at August 26, 2004 08:42 AMI think you may be right. Kathleen got it too! I was just so happy that it was not the fish. I seem to be all better now, so it didn't last very long.
Posted by: me at August 26, 2004 09:46 AMTwo days for me, too, and the progression of the illness was identical to yours. I didn't take my temperature, though, so can't attest to that. By Wednesday morning, I felt good as gold!
Posted by: Kathleen at August 26, 2004 03:36 PMFortunately, I did NOT get sick and I stayed up until 2:30 am as well so who knows where it came from.
Posted by: Cynthia at August 31, 2004 04:12 PM