This blog post will be medical with descriptions of symptoms so if you prefer the blog about farming you may want to skip this one.

So my adventure began abruptly early in the morning of February 8, at 2:30 to be exact. I woke up at work suddenly with gas, copious diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain and chills. This continued off and on for 8 days. In testing it was determined that I had Norovirus. I got this from work since Tom and I had not gone anywhere for 2 days prior to its onset, it has a brief incubation period and is human only transmission.

After the eight days I continued to have the same symptoms but only at work. I thought maybe I was getting reinfected. But copious testing showed that I had large amounts of Blastocysts. It is thought with the disruption of my intestinal microbiome from the Norovirus the Blastocysts were able to proliferate. You can get Blastocysts from people but it is much more likely I got them from our animals.

So 2 weeks ago today I started a 10 day course of metronidazole. This same day I had a class at Seattle Childrens. It is probably one of the last ones they had before all were closed due to the pandemic. My fellow classmate and I decided to take advantage of being in the big city and hit up Total Wines. I was able to find all the missing ingredients to finish my Downton Abbey cocktail recipes. Here is my score from that day.

But the cruel irony is that you can not drink alcohol on this medicine. I made it to day 8 when the side effects of nausea, abdominal pain, gas and diarrhea got bad enough that I had to stop last Thursday. There was also fatigue and weakness. I was able to help with sheep shearing and eat the British breakfast. That was the last meal I had. I went to bed for the next three days and had to miss work. I was able to stay hydrated with water.

Finally on Sunday my symptoms start to improve but I noticed some neck tightness. That tightness quickly got worse so I was having severe spasms which persisted despite immobility, heat, oxycodone and Flexeril. I could not lay down or sleep and spent my time on the recliner with my neck perfectly still. Thankfully Monday morning I was able to get in with my massage therapist and pick up a refill of Methocarbamol. The massage helped briefly, but this muscle relaxant was helpful. Tuesday I saw the chiropractor which hurt but that night I was able to lay in bed and sleep some. I still was only able to nibble small amounts of food and had lost 7 pounds in less than one week.

Today I had another massage. That helped and I was able to get off the relaxant. I ate a whole meal this evening and finally had a cocktail, a John Collins with the Genever gin I had bought 2 weeks ago.

My neck is still stiff and sore so I need to be careful. I am going back to work tomorrow.

I am not sure why I wanted to share this except that it has been quite the odyssey. If my health allows I will continue the farm blog soon. Tom has been wonderful doing all the chores and cooking even if I only ate a bite or two. I sure he will be glad I can start helping out again. The farm list to-do is long.