Wow, what a couple of days this has been. Everything was going along normally on Thursday, but between Tage’s and my two violin classes on Thursday evening I starting feeling sort of stiff and achy, and got steadiily worse throughout our forty-five-minute-long group lesson. I had been planning on stopping by the grocery store on our way home, but by the time we were in the car I barely felt up to driving fifteen miles, let alone doing any shopping.

As soon as we were in the front door, I changed into sweats and crawled into bed for a lie-down. After about an hour I got up and noticed immediately that something with one of my boobs was just not right. I’ve had clogged ducts/mastitis before, so I assumed it was that. Throughout the rest of the night I felt worse and worse — fever, aches, chills, large inflamed area on the affected breast, yep, I had it all.

I felt sick enough and had gotten so little sleep that on Friday morning I asked Olof to stay home and take care of the kids. I must have looked at least as bad as I felt, because he not only agreed to stay home but also strongly suggested that I go to the doctor. I didn’t want to leave the house, so I decided that we should call the medical advice line first and see what they said. They almost always say just to wait and see how things go, so I was a little surprised when the nurse I talked to said that I should go in to the doctor that day. I was even more surprised when after examining me for all of fifteen seconds, the doctor I saw later in the afternoon said I should go in to the emergency room immediately.

So, off I went to the hospital, where after a blood test and another exam I was diagnosed with a breast infection and sent home with strong antibiotics. Last night was another tough night, though not as bad as the first, and now, after four doses of antibiotics I am feeling some better. Nighttime seems to be the worst, and accordingly, I’m feeling pretty rough at the moment. A warm shower and an early bedtime are probably in order — I’ll see if I can manage it.