Anatomy of a Lousy Two Weeks

Here's what I think happened.

The fever was a by-product of my body trying to fend off this rather nasty cold that is finally starting to abate. As soon as that fever went away, the fuse started burning for when the cold itself would hit. Then, on Sunday, the caffeine I'd been utilizing to function through the fatigue, er, backfired. Nastily.

It was my own fault. I had a yerba mate in the morning, a Thai iced tea with lunch, and a dark chocolate bar in the afternoon. The waves of dizziness and nausea started about three hours later. Sleep helped some, but I was still pretty light-headed on Monday (but managed to put a severe dent in a shadow-mage-creature-thing anyway; how else would you celebrate president's day?). I made a helpful discovery on Monday, though: the dizziness was worse in warmer areas than in colder ones. So I turned the heat down five degrees below where I usually keep it. Today, only one major bout of it, and that was after taking a nap wrapped up in a warm shawl... apparently I would have been better off shivering.

It usually takes three days for caffeine withdrawal to go away completely for me... The first day it was easy to avoid it, as just the thought of it made me nauseous. Today was a mite worse. Nothing with large amounts of caffeine in it sounded good, but something with a small amount did, like very pale milk chocolate... Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust myself to STOP if I allowed myself even a small piece, so I didn't (also helps that there's no chocolate in the house right now). Tomorrow should be easier, as I will be busy pretty much from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Still, the waves of dizziness were more enjoyable than the cold, though less enjoyable than the fever. And they seem to be 90% gone now. Every so often I catch the tail end of one, but it's nothing like it was on Sunday.