The week came and went as a blur. It started about this time last weekend, when I was having the runs at roughly once per hour. I was... not expecting it. Saturday night's sleep was fitful at best---I was awakened by a super bloated abdomen and a strong urge to let out a deluge of fluids that had gathered within my colon at the rate of about once every one-and-a-half hours. I was running a low grade fever, and was giving my body enough time to actually incubate the SARS-CoV-2 (if it were present) so as to not waste the two complimentary ART kits from work. I ran a test on Sunday morning---negative, and was doing my darndest to take control of my wayward GI tract to the best I can.
My usual doctor was not open on Sundays. There were other clinics, but if I weren't COVID-19 positive, it was not worth it to bum-rush to those clinics, because they would be flooded with the others. This meant a risk of cross infection, something that I was less willing to accept considering that I have two more vulnerable people living with me.
So I tanked whatever it was on Sunday. I wanted to take another ART after twenty-four hours just to exclude a COVID-19 infection with stronger statistical power, and it all worked out well when I took the test again on Monday morning.
Negative. By then, my low grade fever was non-existent, so the likelihood of me actually contracting some variant of COVID-19 was made even lower.
And so, I finally managed to visit the doctor on Monday morning, and was promptly prescribed some medication to control the abdominal pain from the bloating, and to control the diarrhoea. This came with two days of medical leave to rest at home.
I slept for most of the two days. By Wednesday, I was feeling less uncomfortable as compared to the weekend prior, but was not confident of surviving a work day in the office with a total of nearly four hours of commute. Considering the limited amount of medication I was prescribed (three-ish days worth), I informed my reporting manager of my decision to work from home for the rest of the week and did so.
Thankfully, the heat situation was not as severe as a couple of weeks ago (where the UK was, incidentally, running a heat wave), and thus it was all tolerable. I had multiple long meetings on Thursday, but by then, I was well enough that the only problem that remained was largely the gassiness---I was not having frequent diarrhoea, though the stool was still watery. It wasn't until Friday evening that the situation changed from watery stools to the opposite of constipation from a week's diet of low fibre, no dairy, high soup meals.
The doctor said it might be food poisoning or something viral in nature. There were two likely candidates that caused this: the laksa soup yong tau foo that I had in Fusionopolis on Friday evening for dinner, or the large ice-blended hazelnut coffee I bought from the bubble tea shop in my neighbourhood.
My money's on the hazelnut coffee for a couple of reasons: I don't know how long they have kept the hazelnut coffee mix (bubble tea shops don't move coffee as fast as tea), and I don't know the state of the ice used.
Anyway, I'm just thankful that I have healed over sufficiently. I had seen Brian's comment earlier, but it was also at when I am writing this entry, so I did not say anything. Thanks Brian for your well wishes!
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In other belated news, I've completed all three Zero Escape games that I referred to about a month ago. I'm currently starting on AI: The Somnium Files, while also playing the base game of A Hat in Time, a 3D platformer similar to Psychonauts 2, the last 3D platformer that had played a few months ago.
Some time in between the Zero Escape games and the recent two games I'm playing, I put down some serious money to get the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 to replace my Logitech F310 Gamepad.
``Why MT, why? Comparing SGD249.90 to SGD35.00, it's a solid 7× the price!''
It's probably closer to 8× if inflation is taken into account, but that's okay. I can list the following reasons why I wanted to get the new controller:
- Adjustable triggers (i.e. RT and LT). My biggest complaint about my old controller was that the triggers required a good amount of pull before it registers. I hate that so much. I prefer the L2/R2 buttons that the PS controllers had---literally a button as opposed to a trigger. Or ``hair-trigger'' as they call it. The new controller allows me to do this.
- Wirelessness. One less USB port to mess around with. In this hot and humid weather that is in SIN city, the less physical contact required, the more likely a connection is going to hold. The new controller can use Bluetooth.
- Left thumbstick being higher and forward (just compare the pictures and you'll see what I mean). This is a minor detail, but it feels less crunky than having both thumbs squished near the centre of the controller.
- Stability from mass. The new controller has a higher mass (and better ergonomics), and just feels better when playing with it.
I would have gotten the regular Xbox Wireless Controller if not for the fact that the trigger distance was not adjustable, and that it required AA batteries. Like... no. I don't want to be scrounging for the AA batteries... that shit's expensive and hard to find these days.
And that's about it for now, I suppose. Probably the only other thing I would add before publishing this post is that I am going to be on leave on Monday, in addition to the public holiday on Tuesday that is National Day.
It's just a long weekend to do whatever I want. Most probably sleeping, if I'm not playing AI: The Somnium Files or the base game of A Hat in Time. I keep saying ``base game'' because I have not and will not buy the DLC expansions for it.
That's it. Till the next update then.
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