lymonostrepatitis fever

I wish I started this blog a long time ago. My life has been at least decently amusing and interesting over the years. So, this will be a blog of current events, as well as past experiences and stories that are sparked by things I see, things I think about, or just completely randomly :)
Moving on.

This has been a very different summer thus far. I stepped out of the world of college, expecting to fall right back into the routine of a typical summer--work a lot, spend time with my awesome girlfriend, spend all the money I worked for (some of that on the second item in the list), and ideally get enough sleep and have enough fun to get me through another 1-2 semesters at SUNY Plattsburgh. But this summer I was greeted with a great internship (more to come), a good paying job, and DISEASE.

It all started at my girlfriend's house with a headache in the back of my head/neck. Thought nothing of it. It quickly turned into restless nights with highs and lows between incredible fevers and disabling chills paired with total fatigue that couldn't be fed. A trip to the doc's gave me a positive for strep paired with little dots on my back (according to them, scarlet fever). "what the #$*%?" I thought (only in my head...of course), "how do you get strep in the middle of the summer?" but it's more common than you might think ;) (so I am told by my nurse mother)
So on the antibiotics I went...until it got worse. Fatigue turned into the pounding of my head attempting to put me to sleep, and fevers and chills turned into one minute I'm in the bathtub sucking down hot tea as fast as I can, the next minute I'm jumping out, sucking on icecubes, and turning on every fan in my house to cool me down.
So, back to the doc's. Still had strep according to the foot long swab gagging the crap out of my sick body. But just to be sure, the meds were renewed and blood was drawn. Unfortunately, the nurse couldnt hit my enormously large vein, and today (3 weeks later) my arm is black and blue. But anywho, they sucked my blood well enough to test it.
Doc calls. "Well, this is very strange, but you tested positive for mono as well, and due to the mono, you have a swolen liver (hepatitis)."
Meanwhile, I feel like a dumptruck drove on top of my head and stalled. I can barely eat, so I look like a pale, anorexic 12 year old girl, and lava plus global warming couldnt keep me warm, and if i froze my blood and went to live with santa I couldnt be cool enough.
But, I didn't lose hope, and I dragged myself down to the creek on my property and started taking pictures. Slowly but surely I felt better. I was engrossed in taking pictures, and couldnt think about the war that was going on inside me with my antibodies and bacteria.
Then my liver started convulsing! Well, it was actually my phone in my pocket, but I didn't know. My mom picks up and says "You're not gonna beleive it" and I thought ,"What? You're pregnant?" and she said, "The doctor called with the rest of the test results" (oh, awesome, the REST) ,"and they came back positive for lyme disease."
Hmmm. I looked around at the tall grass surrounding me, the fields and woods encompassing that grass, and down at my bear chest and legs. Naaaah, how could a tick have bitten me??
So now I have strep (with scarlet fever), mono (with hepatitis), and lyme disease. And on top of that, my memory card is full, and I'm completely and totally removed from happy island.
Needless to say, im pretty much a walking, talking, photographing miracle of medical science. Or, as the infectious disease specialist may say when I see him, the mono (which i definitely have) may have caused the other to come back positive. However, as of right now, I am Zack Baldwin, the only man to ever survive lymonostrepatitis fever and blog about it.


Taking pictures probably got me into it (at least the lyme part) and it is currently getting me away from it. Sometimes huge neon blue horse pills can't cure everything. A good dose of whatever makes you happy is sometimes the best companion to a good night's sleep ;) psshh. Or you could do what makes you happy all day, AND all night. For example, take pictures all day, talk to my girlfriend all night and then in the early hours of the morning edit my shots and put them on my site...and then wonder the next day why I still feel monoy. (not a real word)
But hey, this is your life. Make the best of the mono+strep+lyme's.

Lessons learned:

• Don't go into tall grass with shorts and flip flops on a regular basis.
• Lots of rest (aka, not making any money) is way overrated--especially when you can't see your girlfriend, or KISS HER!
• Lost of rest ISNT overrated when the weather is good and you can take pictures all day :)
• Don't take pictures that require crouching down in a creek when your phone is in your pocket (had to spend $100 on a new phone today)
• Count your blessings! Even with all these illnesses and a brick for a phone, I still have TONS to be happy about...so do you ;)

until the next rant,
Zack
pictures

*the pictures at the top were taken when I probably got lyme and when I was attempting to cure the feeling of it. (in that order) (coming soon)