The following is not for the squeamish

I didn't sleep well Sunday night. I thought it was heartburn aggravated by stress from the job hunt. I finally got out of bed around 4:30 in the morning, went downstairs, and watched television.

I figure there are three ailments which laymen frequently self-diagnose when they really have no reason to do so. The first is the mysterious "spider bite," which may not be from a spider (since people rarely see them) and may not be a bite at all. The next is "24-hour flu," which probably isn't the flu at all and may be the third ailment: "food poisoning."

In my case, I'm going for "food poisoning" because Terri had similar symptoms (though her re-routed digestive track makes direct comparisons tricky). We had the same thing for dinner: hot dogs, mac-and-cheese, and a doughnut for dessert. Yeah, I know, we're such the gourmands. She managed to go to work in the morning, but didn't go back after lunch.

I could not keep anything down yesterday. Rather than the typical case of regurgitation within an hour of eating or drinking, it would just sit there like my stomach simply refused to digest anything. Eventually, I would do something like stand up and walk around that would make my stomach decide it was tired of not being empty. So long as laid still (often napping), I would be fine (aside from sore muscles and general unease) for several hours.

So far the morning, I'm feeling much better. My abdomen aches from the extra workout it had yesterday, but the other symptoms seem to have passed. I haven't tried any solid food yet (I'm sticking to 7-Up for now to test the waters), but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to eat dinner.