A Valentine's Day Surprise

On Valentine’s Day I wake up to tonsils the size of golf balls, aches and pains up and down my back, and a fever that takes over my entire body, making it so that the second my legs touch, sweat forms instantly.

I’m thinking great, it’s Valentine’s Day and I get to spend it feeling sick and miserable. Yay! Instead of letting my illness ruin my day, I decide to do something about it. At 8:30am I decide to haul my sick-self to Student Health in attempt find out what the hell is wrong with me. Of course, the night before it snowed a good 4 inches and D.C. ultimately just let it chill there for the day. So, I trek through the snow and finally make it to Student Health. I walk through the glass doors of the building at 9am and, assuming that Student Health opens at 8:30, I figure ok, not a lot of people should be here, so I should be able to see a doctor soon. I get there and the door is locked and the lights are off in the waiting room. I think to myself, this is bad, but I dragged myself all the way hear and I’m not going back until I find out what’s wrong with me.

Eventually someone shows up around 9:30 and says that due to the snow they are not opening until 10. After this nice woman lets me into the waiting room, she informs me that I will be able to see a doctor at 10. I then promptly pass out in my chair and hope to awoken by a doctor calling my name.

Unfortunately, my peaceful sleep is interrupted by a woman, with a long island accent, who is practically shouting, claiming that she is CONVINCED her daughter has bronchitis. I wake up and watch the mother-daughter duo. I also keep an eye on the clock as 10 o’clock approaches. To my surprise and utter disbelief, bronchitis girl, who has only been waiting 5 minutes is called in to see a doctor!! I wanted to scream, but oh wait I can’t because my throat kills and I physically don’t have the strength to.

At 10:17 my name is called by a kind, blonde haired doctor. Once in the room she looks at her charts and realizes that this is my third trip to student health within the past 2 months. Each time I visited they tested me for strep and gave me antibiotics, but each time I never had strep. After viewing my massive tonsils and checking my fever of 100.7, she says she’s going to have to test me for mono. In my head I freak out. The thought of having mono is devastating to me because right now is the WORST time to have mono especially because, not only is it Valentines day, but my birthday is 2 days away and I can’t be sick on my birthday! Oh yeah and it probably would be bad if I missed school too.

The doctor tells me I have an 80% chance of having mono. Awesome! She hands me a bottle of antibiotics and a sheet of paper which she then informs me that I need to take to a lab down the hall.

While I am paying for my visit, I overhear that bronchitis girl does not have bronchitis at all. Funny. The laughing stops here because the man at the desk tells me to take the sheet the doctor gave me to the lab, where they will take my blood. WHAT! I said. (I have an immense fear of needles). I ask him to repeat himself. He does and then I realize that there is nothing else I can do except go through with it.

I courageously walk down the hall to the lab and find that the door is locked. I trudge back into the office and tell the man at the desk that the door is locked and he says that they must be closed, but redirects me to another lab a few blocks away.

I walk down the windy, snow-filled streets searching for the building with this other lab. I eventually find the building, but when I get inside I can’t find the lab. After fifteen minutes of searching, I am sweating and on the verge of tears because all I want to do is be wrapped in my billowy comforter in my bed. Then, out of no where a man approaches me and says “you look lost.” I show him the piece of paper I am carrying and he directs me to the lab.

Once I am there the nurse sticks me in a chair, wraps a band around my arm, and then takes my blood. (While the nurse did this I 1. looked away the entire time and 2. listened to the new Justin Timberlake album in an attempt to distract myself from what was really happening)

I leave the lab and begin my journey back to Thurston. When I arrive back in my room, just as I am about to throw myself on to my bed, I see a dainty pink rose lying near my pillow from a special someone. I put the rose in a vase, lie down in my bed, forget everything I had just been through, forget that I was ever sick to begin with, and dream of my valentine.