Losing my Appetite in the Great Blizzard of '09.

Last Tuesday night two things happened. The first is that about 16 inches of heavy wet snow dumped on Madison and the rest of Southern Wisconsin. Overnight we went from almost no snow on the ground to more snow than we ever have in some winters. The other thing is that I dreamed about being sick and then got up at 3am throwing up with diarrhea. My GI tract emptied itself quite quickly and I developed a fever of 100 degrees.

7am Wednesday morning: the snow was still coming down. All the schools were closed, the city buses stopped running, the roads were terrible, and most people couldn't even get their cars out of their driveways. A citywide snow day! While I lay miserably on the couch nauseous and feverish, Dave went out to shovel and take some pictures. Above you can see the backyard garden. Good thing I harvested the last of the arugula and the beets the week before! The snow on the gate is especially cool to look at - it was balanced perfectly on the clothesline too.

The chicken coop has a nice insulated roof now!

The chickens, it turns out, are not fans of snow. They haven't left their coop for over a week. The morning after the snow, they poked their heads out the door, took stock of their run, and decided that inside was much better. I can't blame them. After the storm it got quite cold, with night temperatures below zero, so I didn't even open the door to their run. They don't seem to mind too much. They're still laying well and they seem happy.

Like the chickens, I've been pretty cooped up. I ran a fever for a full day. The next day the fever was gone, but I had absolutely no energy and though I didn't throw up, I was nauseous and didn't really eat anything. I went back to work the next day, but still had waves of nausea throughout the day, and it dragged on for the next few days. Today I'm finally back to normal.

Losing my appetite was not an easy thing for me to deal with. I love food, and it was scary to find myself with little or no interest in it. It reminds me of when I was a singer with laryngitis..... not fun. On the bright side, the things that did taste good tasted really good - warm milk with bread, satsuma mandarins, peppermint tea, turkey broth..... these simple foods are just perfect when you're sick.
share on: Facebook