Five Feverish Days

sorry for the long, boring post

I don't recall having had a fever for so long before (though maybe I did)... I'm really tired of being sick.

I'm pretty sure it's viral, so I don't want to go to the doctor (especially because they don't do strep tests here, they just prescribe antibiotics, that's what I've been told). I don't want to have to pay either, or have to go to the free public system (I would have to wait for a long time).

It's probably taking me so long to heal from this case of the flu because we've had absolutely crazy intense days since Friday when we picked K up from the bus that came from the São Paulo airport.

Friday:
- About 12:30 the boys, my dad & I picked up K from the bus.
- We stopped at his grandmother's house where we had lunch and heard her complaints about some family members. We got the keys to my father-in-law's car and drove away.
- Then we stopped at K's "aunt" (his mom's cousin)'s house so we could talk with the aunt who was going back to Germany last Sunday -- it was K's only chance of talking to her (she's awesome, we love her).
- We finally arrived at my parents' house, but we stayed less than half an hour because we had a dinner to go to!
- Dinner was at the house of this family who had visited us in the U.S. earlier this year and they had also invited our former choir director & his wife an we had a good time talking about the old days.


Saturday: (I was feverish all day and my nose started running like an open faucet)
- After a short night of sleep K & I had to leave for São Paulo (without the boys) where we had scheduled a reunion with friends from college (we had a Bible study group at the university and we were together for 5 years, organizing retreats, potluck lunches, etc) and the group that is currently there at the university now.
- It was a looong day with unconventional "church" meetings in the morning, potluck lunch, meeting at the university in the afternoon and pizza together in the evening. We didn't say goodbye until 11 pm.
- We drove in two cars (wives in one car, husbands in the other) to our friends' house -- and I was finally able to have some acetaminophen (the pills my friends had earlier in the day had caffeine & I didn't want that). We talked with them until close to 2 am.

Sunday
- I took more acetaminophen with breakfast and then K and I headed to a reunion lunch with my 8th grade classroom at this great, but über-expensive Brazilian steakhouse. It was wonderful to see my friend A again -- we hadn't seen each other in almost 17 years! Some friends arrived really late to the lunch, so we were there from 1-5 pm.
- We recharged my mom's cell phone at a drugstore, but forgot to buy acetaminophen for me, so my fever kept rising (I never measured it until Monday);
- At 6 pm we met up with a childhood friend of mine I hadn't seen in about 25 years -- he's dating my friend Ci (whom I'd seen earlier in the week) -- we picked Ci up and drove her boyfriend to his night shift work at a hospital as a pediatric respiratory physical-therapist.
- Then we drove to Ci's favorite spot in town where I stayed in the car resting while K & Ci went to buy me some Tylenol (my fever must have been pretty high by then).
- After the Starbucks where we were talking closed, we drove to her house where K & she talked (I was pretty sick and napped a bit) until three in the morning. She and K hadn't talked in 16 years, so 8.5 hours was barely enough to cover all that ground! ;)
- We arrived at our friends' wonderful apartment (photos of the views forthcoming) at about 3:50. I did a breathing treatment (with saline solution), took a shower and went to bed.

Monday
- We slept until 11 am and that felt great. My throat was hurting again, so I got a bit worried and called my mom so she could schedule a doctor's appointment.
- I still had a fever and I checked it for the first time: 100.94 F (38,3 C), not that high. 
- We left our friends' apartment around 12:30 and drove to the university again because K is trying to validate his PhD here in Brazil. Bureaucracy is absurd here, though, and they couldn't proceed because the phd diploma that he presented to them has only his first and last name and his identity card has the first, middle and last names. They said we needed to go to a public notary and get a declaration that would recognize the document.
- We drove to the notary and K gave up on doing it because it was over 100 dollars and it would take a long time.
- We finally drove back to my parents' house and I called my mom and asked her to cancel the doctor's appointment. We stopped in town on our way here to buy medicine and for K to check the notary public there.
- Last night we had dinner with a "cousin" (my mother-in-law's cousin's son) who is moving to the U.S. and K & I shared with him our experiences from our 16 years there.
- We talked to him until past midnight and it was great, but we were overly tired when we finally went to bed (and I was still pretty sick).

Tuesday (today)
- I'm still slightly feverish, but it's the lowest possible fever, 98.6 F (37 C). I don't feel that great, but I read stuff about strep versus viral sore throats and I think it was definitely a virus.
- We'll try to see some more friends today that K hasn't seen. I'm just hoping I can find enough energy to pack, because..

...Tomorrow we'll fly to Maceió in the Northeast and I don't feel at all excited or willing to do it, but... hopefully I'll feel better once we get there. :(

OK, I will try to post the photos later. São Paulo as seen from the 21st floor of it's fanciest neighborhood, Morumbi.