The summer after I graduated high school, I took part in a extended-family reunion. With our snacks and tunes in hand, we headed from our small beach town to a small lake town in Oregon. We made a quick pit stop in northern Cali, and picked up a few more car guests for the drive. It was a pretty long drive, which involved a couple movies, countless things to munch on, and some oldies music to rock out to. After a long day, we arrived to a cabin where we would be residing for the weekend along with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and a few cousins.
The next morning we ventured over to the campsite where the reunion was to take place. Staying at this camp, there was a hundred or so of my distant relative, whom I had never met before.
As I explained in my last segment, this was a time when I never felt good. I was quiet and withdrawn, and had a severe paranoia over food prepared by other people. Because of this food germophobia, I ate very little during this trip. I did not know these people, I did not know how the food was prepared, I did not know what ingredients were used and the whole kitchen situation was a little to rustic for me. (as were the bathrooms, which I refused to use) So what I ate was bread. and chips. SunChips and rolls. I think I may have eaten a pancake once, and maybe some Doritos. I did not eat the freshly caught fish, or the scrambled eggs (I am very particular about my eggs) or whatever foods I deemed too exotic and unworthy for me to eat.(remember this was a period where I only ate very bland, simple foods) I drank very little water--trying to avoid using the bathroom all day--and spent lots of time in the sun.
After living on this diet for a couple days, it was time to head home. The morning we were to leave, I felt especially sick. It had been creeping up on me for the last few days, but I was trying hard to make it back home before it hit me too hard. My cousin had also been sick, he had began the trip with some sort of illness that was in full force by the time we left for home. I figured I probably had caught whatever he had, and would be feeling better in seventy-two hours or so as he had.
As we drove back into my home state, I rapidly began to feel sicker and sicker. My head hurt, I wanted to throw up, I wanted to sleep, I wanted it to not be a hundred degrees outside and I wanted to not be feeling all of this in a car full of people, twelve hours away from home.
* Only a couple more posts to go, until a diagnosis is made!
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