{"id":755,"date":"2007-04-13T18:14:31","date_gmt":"2007-04-14T02:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/04\/13\/campylobacter-jejuni\/"},"modified":"2007-04-13T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2007-04-14T02:14:31","slug":"campylobacter-jejuni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/13\/campylobacter-jejuni\/","title":{"rendered":"Campylobacter Jejuni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when you’ve got a good thing
It seems to slip away<\/em><\/p>\n

"Another Park, Another Sunday"
The Doobie Brothers<\/p>\n

Actually, it all started on a Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 In the trees not far from Mammoth’s Chair 25.<\/p>\n

It’s been a shitty ski season.\u00c2\u00a0 As in lack of snow.\u00c2\u00a0 We traveled up to Whistler, which has all the white stuff, but it was so wet, enjoyable is not the word I’d use to describe sliding down.<\/p>\n

But then it rained in Southern California.\u00c2\u00a0 And when it rains in L.A., it snows in the Sierras, prodigiously.\u00c2\u00a0 So, days before I was supposed to go to Toronto for Canadian Music Week, Felice and I jaunted up to Mammoth.<\/p>\n

It was by far the best skiing of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The kind of soft snow you dream of.\u00c2\u00a0 We were challenging the Cornice, making laps on Dave’s, and then we went over to Chair 25.<\/p>\n

A year earlier Felice had had a meltdown on its lift line.\u00c2\u00a0 But two days earlier, she exorcised the demons, she’d killed it.\u00c2\u00a0 So we decided to venture into the vegetation, the trees to the side of the lift.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they’re not exquisitely tight, and it’s not unbelievably steep, but the snow was a bit sticky, the sun having baked it all morning long.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re taking it section by section.\u00c2\u00a0 And about halfway down, I hear a little yelp, not one of agony, not one of despair, but mostly of disappointment.\u00c2\u00a0 Felice holds herself to high standards.<\/p>\n

I was only thirty or forty feet away, across the slope.\u00c2\u00a0 I turned around and climbed up to her, released her left ski, which was behind her.\u00c2\u00a0 But Felice couldn’t stand.\u00c2\u00a0 She wasn’t in excruciating pain, but she knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n

Try getting a toboggan in the trees.\u00c2\u00a0 God, I could barely see my phone in the sunlight.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally I scooted over into the open slope and flagged a ski patrolman.<\/p>\n

Felice is having surgery next Friday.\u00c2\u00a0 To repair her torn ACL.<\/p>\n

As one does in any medical crisis, I got ahold of Irving Azoff, who told me exactly which doctor Felice should see.\u00c2\u00a0 He was right.\u00c2\u00a0 I have total confidence.\u00c2\u00a0 A full recovery is expected.\u00c2\u00a0 But as Felice would say, this really fucked up our plans.<\/p>\n

You see we were supposed to go to Vail.\u00c2\u00a0 And then Vail again.\u00c2\u00a0 And skiing in New Zealand at the end of the summer, after I speak at this conference in Australia.<\/p>\n

Of course that all pales in comparison to the injury, the ordeal, the rehab.\u00c2\u00a0 Which takes a toll on one’s physicality, emotionality and the underlying relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’re trying to manage it.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes better than others.<\/p>\n

Right now Felice is in New York City, tonight is the annual teacher awards Guitar Center sponsors at Carnegie Hall for the foundation she runs.\u00c2\u00a0 I was supposed to be there too.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve been sick.<\/p>\n

Actually, I’ve been sick most of the past six weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 The antibiotic killed the sinus infection I had, but some head pain remained.\u00c2\u00a0 And then last week…I fell off the edge.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I blame the sushi bar, that we went to with Lisa.<\/p>\n

No, this has nothing to do with my sinus infection, nothing at all.\u00c2\u00a0 But I searched for answers for days, and none showed up until Tuesday morning, in the stool sample.<\/p>\n

So Saturday night I’m extra-tired.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve got to do my April 1st issue.\u00c2\u00a0 Got to send it after midnight, and before people get hip to the date.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m suddenly feeling so wasted.\u00c2\u00a0 But I write something anyway, which I’m not happy with.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s a once a year gig only.\u00c2\u00a0 I let it go.<\/p>\n

It’s just that the feedback wasn’t spectacular.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, extremely good, but not over the top.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s when I decided to write another, Sunday afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 Stunningly, all that time later people fell for it.<\/p>\n

And after a going away party for Jennifer at Ginny’s apartment, I went to KLSX to do my radio show.\u00c2\u00a0 I was curiously tired the last half hour, really tired, noticeably tired.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, I’d had that sinus infection, I figured it was the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Now it’s not like I did anything stressful the next three days.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, for forty eight hours I was home doing this kidney urine test (don’t ask).\u00c2\u00a0 But when I woke up on Thursday, I was wiped.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I walked slowly down the avenue to meet Yahoo’s Ian Rogers for lunch, the world seemed to spin.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I returned home, to retrieve my iPod for podcasting at Rhino in Burbank, I felt that I just couldn’t go, just couldn’t make it.<\/p>\n

But I went anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s my constitution.\u00c2\u00a0 I pride myself on my constitution.<\/p>\n

Thank god for Tylenol, I was falling apart on the freeway.<\/p>\n

And when I finally got home that evening, sitting on the pot, I realized, I was sick.<\/p>\n

I had no idea.<\/p>\n

The next day I had chills at the shrink.<\/p>\n

Then I slept from three to ten, too tired to get up.\u00c2\u00a0 Too tired to even watch TV.<\/p>\n

I slept in my ski underwear, sweat pants, sweatshirt and fleece.\u00c2\u00a0 And I kept having to get up to go to the bathroom, even though I hadn’t eaten anything, even though almost nothing came out.<\/p>\n

And it got no better on Saturday.\u00c2\u00a0 I had Felice come and pick me up (she can drive, it’s her left leg).<\/p>\n

And now I’m getting scared.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to die of something.<\/p>\n

And Saturday night it gets worse.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t go more than half an hour without venturing to the bathroom.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s blood.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m afraid of falling asleep for fear of not waking back up.<\/p>\n

So Sunday morning I call the doctor.\u00c2\u00a0 Who won’t go on record.\u00c2\u00a0 You know modern doctors, they’re not like fifties doctors, they won’t give you a reading, they’re afraid of liability!<\/p>\n

But I get no better all day.<\/p>\n

Finally I decide it’s time for the emergency room.<\/p>\n

But when we finally get there, I’m just not bad enough for a five hour ordeal, I figure I can wait until the next day, when my doctor can see me.<\/p>\n

And I went first thing Monday morning.\u00c2\u00a0 Where I was given every test known to man.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything from ultrasound to blood to him sticking his finger up my rear.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 They couldn’t find a fucking thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, on some level that’s good.\u00c2\u00a0 That means it’s viral.<\/p>\n

And then comes Monday night…<\/p>\n

I felt like I’d been on "Survivor".\u00c2\u00a0 Eating nothing, drinking to stay hydrated, alive.\u00c2\u00a0 But suddenly, I was thrust into "The Exorcist".\u00c2\u00a0 No, my head didn’t rotate, but I had night sweats so bad you could take a bath in the puddle that resulted.\u00c2\u00a0 I was frightened.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s five days in and I’m getting sicker?\u00c2\u00a0 Then it happened again.\u00c2\u00a0 And again.<\/p>\n

I woke up and immediately dialed the doctor.\u00c2\u00a0 But, after speaking to the receptionist, I looked at my BlackBerry and I saw there was a phone message.\u00c2\u00a0 From him.<\/p>\n

Something showed up in the stool sample.\u00c2\u00a0 Which had come back a day earlier than scheduled (thank god!)\u00c2\u00a0 I had campylobacter jejuni.<\/p>\n

It’s like salmonella.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes from chickens.\u00c2\u00a0 And I ate no uncooked chicken, but it’s so volatile, that if you eat anything prepared on the same surface, you can get it.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m thinking I got it back at the sushi bar.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that it matters.\u00c2\u00a0 You take the Cipro, and you get better.<\/p>\n

Am I back?<\/p>\n

Today’s the first day with no diarrhea.\u00c2\u00a0 My mind is still fogged.\u00c2\u00a0 But I can finally think, music sounds good again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just when you’ve got a good thingIt seems to slip away "Another Park, Another Sunday"The Doobie Brothers Actually, it all started on a Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 In the trees not far from Mammoth’s Chair 25. It’s been a shitty ski season.\u00c2\u00a0 As in lack of snow.\u00c2\u00a0 We traveled up to Whistler, which has all the white stuff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-cb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}