My weekend in pictures (ok and some words, obvioiusly!)

Well, as I am sure many of you know from my mother's Facebook updates, this weekend has not been the most pleasant of weekends.
On Friday, I was happy and looking like this (the bubbly person that most of you know me as)......

and today, still - I look more like Tad does in this picture (sorry for posting this pic, Tad but I didn't have any of me looking sad!)

Somehow, throughout the weekend I caught a nasty bug of some kind. It began to get worse on Saturday afternoon. I took a bubble bath (complements of the gift that Connor's parents gave me) and attempted to rest. I was feeling feverish but don't have a thermometer. This was the last Saturday of break and me being the one to never miss a party, I decided to try going out to hang out with my friends for a bit - it is some of our friends' last weekend in town as they are all headed back to school. I actually felt ok - I had taken an ibuprofen and think it was helping with the fever. Well......once the ibuprofen wore off, that's when the fun begins. I split from the group and walked home (did I mention it had started pouring outside and I had no umbrella?!), I was shivering, my body was aching including my stomach. Like I said, I didn't have a thermometer but I am pretty sure that by the time I got home, you could do this with an egg but on my stomach.....

Long story short....Saturday night was miserable. Fast forward to Sunday.
I wake up still burning up. I ended up talking to my roommate Tad who was still at his uncle's house and he tells me that he has a thermometer in his room and I can use it.
This particular thermometer reads 37 degrees...that's normal body temperature in celcius. Mine read 40! That's a fever of 104.1

Really having no appetite, I have been trying to stay hydrated as best I can and this is why my nightstand looks like this....

However, there is a problem staying hydrated when you 1. have a high fever and 2. are making frequent trips to the bathroom (and I'll leave the rest to your imaginations). So as Sunday passed I was getting weaker and weaker. Standing up was difficult, my calf muscles started to cramp from lack of water. I just didn't know how much more I could handle. So my amazing mother called around to the insurance company to figure out what the options were and the best solution we came up with was to go to the emergency room - we took this measure simply because it was Sunday and EVERYTHING else in Spain is closed.
Yep, I went to the emergency room in Spain....

No, I could not have gotten there without my driver and translator...

My amazing friends Pablo (on the left) and Bern (on the right) went with me and sacrificed most of their night to stay with me (I could only have one visitor and so unfortunately Pablo ended up waiting outside...what a trooper - though he is very outgoing and made friends with a dog...haha and his owner, of course).
After some heckling about my insurance, the woman finally took my info and got the ball rolling. I was asked preliminary questions and got my temp taken and blood pressure as well. Then we were sent to another waiting area.
Here's my awesome sticker to prove I was there

Finally, I was seen by a doc and she poked and prodded, listened to me breathe, nearly gagged me with a wooden stick. Then another nurse came in and drew blood and made me do a urine sample. Now, think about this - I have been sick, I am severely dehydrated, I didn't have to go to the bathroom at the time and what?! you want me to produce urine on the spot?!?! Well, sparing details, I managed just enough. :-)
Then we waited some more.....and we waited....and we waited. It was forever long. Finally the woman came to Bern and said that she didn't see anything too abnormal in the tests but she wanted to do a chest x-ray. I looked at Bern and said "a chest x-ray?! there is nothing about me that is making my chest hurt or anything near it?" Well, anyways, here is my pretty hospital souvenir...in addition to the sticker, of course. That big white patch on the right is supposedly mucous.

After taking the x-ray, we waited again. Finally we were called into the consulting room and I was given the diagnosis of broncopneumonia.

I went in there with symptoms of a high fever, abdominal cramping, dizziness, inability to keep anything in my body etc....and I come out with pneumonia and some prescriptions for some antibiotics. I just don't get it.
Well, Sunday night was horrible as well. I think my fever broke at some point in the night as I woke up sweating more than if I had just run a marathon. I changed my clothes only to wake up an hour and a half later to the same situation. I finally gave in and just showered at 2am because I felt so gross. And beyond that point and into today, the bathroom and I have become one (once again, I'll spare details and encourage you to imagine what you like). Today (Monday) was supposed to have been my first day back to work but instead of spending my day with little kiddies...I spent my day with these guys instead...

Yes, that is my collection of medicines for my "pneumonia" which I am hoping will miraculously cure these other ailments from which I am suffering.
Tomorrow is a new day - I am not going to school tomorrow either but I hope to be feeling a little better. Thanks for all of the love and prayers that you have shared with me. It has been hard to be really sick and be away from home but knowing all of the support I have makes it that much more bearable.