So this was me last week, before I was hit with the mother of all yuckiness. Let me explain.

Before we learned we were moving to the east coast of Florida, we planned a trip to the west coast of Florida with family. Yes, we had only been in our new home for three weeks. Yes, I was nearly out-of-my-mind in the midst of piles of STUFF everywhere and had to just suck it up and leave it all behind. But God knew my body needed a break!

Let me just say…it felt weird leaving one beach, heading for another one. But there was family at the end of our seven hour journey, making it worth it.

And then about halfway into our trip, this happened:

My husband is a driving BOSS to get us there safely when he could barely see the road in front of him. I was nervous on his behalf and said a lot of prayers. Meanwhile, our daughter sat in the back seat with her headphones on, oblivious to the lightning strikes around us and the monsoon surrounding us.

But we made it!

I had one full day of bliss on the beach (see photo above) and was halfway in my second when all of sudden a severe headache hit me like a sledgehammer, right behind my eyes, and I felt a little nauseous. Maybe I was just too hot and needed to walk in the water? So my hubs and I took a walk. The headache spread to my chest and my back, as each step in the sand caused extreme pain in my chest and upper back. Not one to mess with nausea, I took a beeline back to the room, where I took Tylenol, lathered myself in peppermint oil and tried to take a nap on the Worst Mattress In The World. I felt like the princess in the fairy tale, only there must have been a whole bushel of peas underneath that mattress!

So went the rest of the week. Tylenol was my friend; with it, I was able to function almost normally except when the Tylenol wore off, and I didn’t sleep well because the pain woke me up. I puzzled over what was wrong with me. It couldn’t be the flu…I had no sore throat or cough. Just severe body aches and a headache. Had the moving stress and the Worst Mattress caused another fibromyalgia flare up? Did I have the Zika virus or chikungunya?  (thank you, WebMD, for scaring me to death!) During my quiet time I drank hot tea, read my Bible plan and asked God to TAKE AWAY THESE BODY PAINS ALREADY!  He didn’t do that, yet, but he did give me an immune system that works, and he blessed me with sights like these, that took my mind off of how awful I felt:

They don’t call it the Emerald Coast for nothing!

We left a day early to meet a guy who was supposed to weed the flower beds (he didn’t show up, but we are glad to be rid of the Worst Mattress Ever). Fortunately we had hardly any rain, and my husband again drove like a BOSS despite having a pretty painful sunburn on his back (thank you, honey!)

When we got home I pulled out the thermometer and discovered that I had a fever (surprise, surprise). Woke up with it again today and went to urgent care, where I was told that it could be Zika but is most likely a virus that has been making the rounds. The urgent care place had no testing for Zika but told ME to call the Florida Department of Health on Monday. Um…no. I don’t think so. Isn’t that their job? Anyway, it was somewhat comforting to learn that there were physical manifestations of illness (swollen lymph nodes), the doctor had had similar symptoms and was down for count for a week, and he was alive and kicking and all better. So that means my week is almost up.

If I had to be sick, I couldn’t think of a more beautiful place to be, surrounded by sweet family. (A shout out to my daughter, who braved Wal-Mart on a Saturday to get me stuff to make chicken soup…and to my hubs, who brought me an Egg McMuffin, which was so good my toes curled and who has been putting up with my fever-hazed, strange conversations. You are my heros!)

So I apologize to all my family and fellow vacationers. I didn’t spit in your drink or share your toothbrush, so you should be ok! Hopefully I will be, too, because who has time for this?