June 12th: Shanghaijinks part 3: hellish busride and fever fighting

Day 269

Woke up with the fever like a throbbing starcore. I wracked my brain trying to trace its origin. Llinos said she had stomach problems and she had eaten at Istanbul, but so did Mike, Heather and Erin. None of them were having issues. Had I just let my body get run down? No, I get daily exercise on the bike, enough sleep, no stress. Certainly I didn't get myself worried sick enough for Matt's flight. Stomach pains and fever that came on pretty wicked. Then it occurred to me: the salmon sandwich at the French place. Raw salmon. That's what it was.

I've had the salmon revenge from Bruegger's bagels one time and my body was remembering. A-ha. Food poisoning. If this was like last time, it would take about 24 hours to run its course, with weak stomach fall-out for a couple days after. I wasn't even halfway done with this ordeal, but somehow, just knowing it was the salmon enabled me to break the fever.

I gathered my strength, we all went to the Western supermarket for odds and ends, even though we're all very close to experiencing the "in-situ" stuff in less than a month. We got to the bus station and I tried to will my Walkman to work again, which it did, but not perfectly. It started playing automatically, but every button I pushed monkeyed with the equalizer. I couldn't advance tracks nor stop the CD once it was going, but at least it had some functioning capabilties.

When we got on the bus, we sat towards the front so the bouncing would be diminished. It didn't matter. The roads jostled almost mockingly, as if they knew I had stomach duress. I found by propping one leg up I could absorb the bounce. The bus could not get to Haimen fast enough. I tried not to think about vomiting, listened to music, passed out a few times, hand cushioning the window and jostle.

We at last rolled onto the Haimen street and exited the hellish bus. I felt relieved, but not exactly good. Had I anything in my stomach I would have painted the curb with it. We went up to Heather's and were notified the power was out. No AC, no lights for the bathroom I desperately had to use. So much for just relaxing, eating popsicles and watching DVDs while I ascended Mt. Health. What else can go wrong today? The power wouldn't be back until 8pm, so Heather and I went to my place until then.

I showered, climbed into bed and sweated out all the moisture in my body. I drank juice, took meds, and was attended by Nurse Heather. We checked my temperature periodically: 101.7, then 101.5, then 99. I felt the fever break again, ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, felt better. We went to Heather's and watched Dodgeball and Scary Movie 3. (Comedies are medicine, no shit.) She insisted on taking my temperature again and it showed 98.2. Ha! Take that, salmon! My stomach was still a little fragile, but I could still laugh.

Sleep was weird dreams about a toy store in America and me confronting some lady who was talking shit about me: a totally Chinese incident in an American setting.