Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Drowning My Sorrows


I'm sick again. I've lost my voice, everything in my head is malfunctioning and I'm all achy with fever. Whatever this bug is, it makes me ferociously thirsty. I've been doing my best to drink the pain away. In just three hours I consumed 196 oz. of liquid. Thank goodness there is an awesome sale on V8 diet Splash at the grocery store right now. I also cleaned out our limeade, the 3 64 oz. bottles of cranberry juice, a full box of mandarin orange tea and a full box of hot chocolate. AND I'm still thirsty.
I feel so bad that my mind started thinking of Thucydide's description of the plague in The Peloponnesian War. From Chapter 49:
[2] As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath.
[3] These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress.
[4] In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later.
[5] Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But internally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. What they would have liked best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much.
[6] Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its height, but held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when they succumbed, as in most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the internal inflammation, they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal.
[7] For the disorder first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and even where it did not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities;
[8] for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Others again were seized with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or their friends.

6 comments:

jenaprn08 said...

Awful! I wonder what the illness actually was...have you called your doctor?

Sarah H said...

Hmmm, you may feel like trash but your mind still seems to be working to be able to recall that literature. :-)

Dan said...

Have you been performing all of the required libations and sacrifices? That might be your problem.... Hopefully you escape with fingers, toes, eyeballs, etc. intact.

Kristen said...

I can't even believe that you drank that much is such a short amount of time. That is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. Sorry that you're feeling sick, though. If you're looking for more liquids, we've got an old 2-liter of Sprite in our fridge if you're interested...

Anonymous said...

You're my kind of woman. How many girls can quote Thucydides?

Abby said...

She probably pulled it from one of y'all's many books.