Black Out Sick

Today I woke up with my hand in the toilet.

It was Monday morning when a friend messaged me and said he may have had a cold when we were hanging out earlier. I saw that as trouble because I already knew I was feeling a bit "off." All day Monday, I felt a fever rising, a growing weakness and achy muscles.

By the end I could no longer concentrate on anything. I crawled into bed and tried to sleep. Sleep wouldn't come, in fact my fever grew, my heart raced and every muscle in my body was in pain.

Sometime in the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom. I woke up lying on the bathroom floor with my right hand in the toilet. I had evidently passed out while peeing and tried to brace the fall, landing in the space between the toilet and the bath. Funny thing about me: I had never stuck my hand in the toilet before so this was a new experience. I was as as disgusted as I could be given that my brain was almost completely numb.

I got up to wash my hand. I woke up again lying on the floor, staring up at the bathroom ceiling. I had passed out again and landed sitting somewhat upright with the back of my head propped up against the wall. Unable to move, I sat there for an unknown amount of time. Two sensations predominated: firstly, I was astonished with how much I could feel the back of my head pouring sweat and secondly, I became aware of a loud swooshing sound of unknown origin, and it wasn't going away. It could be something going on outside my house, I considered the remote possibility that it was from inside my house. I thought there was a good possibility that it was a hallucination, brought on by this fierce unique disease.

When I overcame the nausea enough to stand up again, I found the swooshing noise was simply the faucet still running from my failed attempt to wash up.

Given that I fell unconscious, one time falling forward, one time falling backward and given that everything in the bathroom is solid rock, I'm very fortunate that I did not smash my teeth or break my skull. I seem to have fallen on my elbow and knee - those seem to be new injuries - in the first instance and in the second instance, I don't know if there was any serious head injury because I felt concussed anyway.