hope you're not squeamish...

So, at about five o'clock yesterday afternoon, I realized that I had a headache. This is highly unusual for me, but I merely chalked it up to the change in weather and took a nap. Three hours later I had a very high, and rapidly rising, fever and a stiff neck.

The first thing I learned: this is meningitis.

Rushed to the emergency room by my very patient mother, we found that we had to wait approximately two hours for blood tests, and another two hours to actually be admitted. This was due to a shortage of approximately fifteen beds.

The second thing I learned: Stephen Harper is an ass.

They took me into the back at about one in the morning, and attempted to stick an IV in me. I say attempted because it took two nurses and three tries to hit a vein.

The third thing I learned: I inherited all the bad things from my mother's side of the family; stick straight hair, no height whatsoever, and tiny, tiny veins.

I slept for a while, not having to drink because a machine was doing it for me (very cool, I must say). My doctor came in to tell me that I had meningitis, very probably viral, which is the good kind, but they were giving me antibiotics just in case it was bacterial.

The fourth, and most important, thing I learned: real hospitals are nothing like those on House, and the doctors are not nearly as handsome.
That's all.