So I started feeling kinda crappy the second to last weekend of October. I honestly thought that it was just a cold or something, a runny nose, a sore throat and ears (my ears are SO sensitive) so I didn't really worry to much. I went on with what I normally did, homework and pet care and the like. I even went to the zombie walk that Sunday. I wasn't planning to, but I was invited last minute and couldn't pass it up. That's when I first started getting worried... Now, I am not in the best shape (as anyone who knows me can clearly tell), but I can walk! I started having trouble breathing. The air hurt my throat and my lungs and I had started coughing that day. I feel really stupid, looking back, but I blamed it on the cold air... It wasn't really that cold! I just never get sick. I honestly never get sick. So when I do get sick, I always end up looking for ANY alternate explanation before I actually accept the fact that I'm sick.

I came home after the Zombie Walk, tired and a bit cold but happy and THINKING that all I needed was some food and a bit of sleep. I had a shower (zombie makeup + leaves in hair + chills = hour and a half shower and a very irritated family with one bathroom >_< ), did my homework and went to bed. That Monday I got up and went to my afternoon Life Drawing class as usual... Except for the fact that I was loaded down with kleenex, halls and a mini pharmacy in my backpack. People actually moved away from me in class! I was SO careful to sneeze into a kleenex and AWAY from people, and I wasn't coughing very much (it was really just a scratchy, sore throat then), but people were already paranoid. I kept hearing whispers of 'swine flu' in front of me, which made me want to laugh at them.

When I got home I wasn't better... And I was worse the next day. And since my mother is PARANOID and going through empty nest syndrome from my sister, she has been grasping on to ANYTHING that might involve her taking care of someone. So, of to the clinic I went. Three hours later, and some very strange questions about the colour of my snot, I left with no real answers and a warning not to go back to school until the next Monday... Which SUCKED because I was going to make cupcakes for my layout class (the last class of mine before Halloween), but as my mother and several other people pointed out "no one wants to eat plagued cupcakes". And I guess, considering that I was the one that was going to be baking them, people would have been lucky if all they got from my cupcakes was swine flu >_< (comic comic for that one, hehe).

I was at home for the rest of the week, hopped up on cold medication. About all that I did was stare blankly, cough, be uncomfortable and sleep. My sister actually came home on Halloween, which was a lot of fun. I couldn't go to any parties or anything since I was sick, but it was fun to hang out with my sister for a little while. My room mate and I actually ended up rescuing my sister downtown... At night... On Halloween. And since I was feeling a bit better we went to the last showing of Paranormal Activity, which was fun solely because it let me scare the crap out of my little sister. Fear of ghosts trumped fear of swine flu, so we all ended up in my room that night. PJ party!

So last Monday I stopped taking medication to see if I was any better... Um, nope. My temperature spiked and I ended up taking an ambulance ride in the middle of the night. I found out that there in isolation waiting at the hospital near my place. The entire time, despite having trouble breathing and shaking like a leaf, I kept thinking that a) I wish that I had my camera (reference photos would have been AWESOME), b) that certain things would be great for some of my comics and c) this would be a horrible time for zombies to attack... So I sat in waiting room, with a mask and a bottle of water, attempting to stay awake and doodle, while my poor mother (who had ridden in the ambulance with me) sat in a different part of the hospital having a major freak out (I found this out later >_< ).

After a few hours in the special waiting room they moved me to another room where I waited even more... Lots of prodding and questions from random masked hospital people happened off and on. Then a doctor came in, hooked me up to a few things, had a look and a listen then told me that I probably had H1N1 but since I was otherwise healthy and my fever had gone down, everything was fine. So he gave me prescription cough medicine and told me not to go back to school until next Wednesday (that will be over two weeks of school missed!).

It got worse... To a point where I almost ended up back at the hospital. I slept A LOT. I wasn't able to draw or write or do homework or read or ANYTHING, so it was essentially hell... But now I'm getting better, so yay!

ANYWAYS! On Tuesday, just after the whole hospital thing, one of the schools that I am applying to next year gave me a call. They did a little phone interview, then told me that if I could get a portfolio done in the next three weeks I could do early admissions! ARGH! A mountain of back homework, swine flu and now this! I don't know what to do >_< Now that I can actually stay awake, don't feel like I'm falling apart and can go five minutes without breaking a rib (or my skull -_-) from coughing, I can actually start work. Oh my, I need more hands.