gastroenteritis 8, Cory 1

I'm back! Only time (and energy) for a short post. St. Louis was good. It was great to see the uncle and aunt. My uncle and I drove around the "City-County" area, just seeing the sites a bit. We got close the the Arch, and my uncle alluded to going up in it, but I think I steered him away from it. When I went up in it in the mid-1980's, I seem to remember feeling really unbalanced at the top, as though the observatory is slanted (can anybody vouch?). I also got a haircut from my uncle's friend, an "eccentric cat-lady" (she has lots of cats, she does her haircuts from some historic house that's decorated with zebra stripes and tiger posters).

We went to see a couple of movies, because they are very much into that (so am I, but I can't afford too many). We saw the Al Gore movie and the Sandra Bullock movie. The Lake House was a bit hard to follow. Not sure if I became ill by then or what happened. I did like the Chicago scenery, though. Al Gore's movie was excellent. I'm not a hardcore environmentalist, but my parents are. They kept pushing me to see it, and lo and behold, my uncle and aunt take me to it. I find Al Gore's way of speaking rather addictive (I can't think today, so excuse the choice of words). I like his accent, and loved how methodical he was in explaining the crisis he feels the environment is in. His views are strong, but he acknowledges they are just that...views. Mosdt of the movie is done classroom-lecture style, but mixed with some other stuff, too.

We also went to see the Rockies and Cards at the fabulous Busch Stadium, with a fine view of the Arch and other skyscrapers. The Cards won 8-1.

The real winner of the vacation, though, was gastroenteritis. I started slowly getting ill when my uncle and aunt took me to Sonic and I had a burger, fries, and a watermelon Sprite. Things slowly got worse that night when they and a friend of hers took me to Outback, and I had a salad and an onion soup. That night, the shit hit the fan (and various other things), and I was anchored to my hotel room toilet for 4 HOURS!!! After that, I got some sleep for two hours, then it happened again---for another hour! After all that, I dialed 911 and Richmond Heights Fire sped on over in their pretty new ambulance and fire truck, red and blue lights ablaze, and took me to the hospital. After I got in, the doctor got me on a water IV, and I sat for a couple of hours, and perked up pretty well. I was released after only beginning my second scheduled bag of IV fluid.

My aunt and uncle took me to their house, where a mini-reunion was taking place. We all caught up, I ate about an ounce of plain rice, and then the fan was hit again. After about 45 minutes, my aunt called Webster Groves Fire, and I returned. Same drill---two more IV bags. Same conclusion more or less, except this doctor called it "gastroenteritis", which meant food poisoning could have been the cause, but the point was that my bowel was inflamed. After my bags were finished, I tried, on my aunts advice and my own desires, to get admitted, but they refused, saying I had perked up too much, and that they wouldn't be able to do any further treatment.

So, home I went. I slowly came around, thanks to some meds I was put on, but I'm still a little weird. Mostly tired. Very hungry, too, which is good, but I'm told to fast today. So that I will, although I may just stick my head in the freezer for a bit and drool.

Ciao!