cycle 4, day 27

i woke up SO SICK this morning. i actually woke myself up because i thought i was going to throw up.

it is important to state here that i do NOT throw up. ever. well, generally speaking. the last time i did was when i was doped up after getting all four of my impacted wisdom teeth out in 2001. prior to that were a couple of particularly stupid drunken nights in college. and before that was when i had a stomach virus in 10th grade. seriously, that's it in recent memory.

hence my alarm this morning. when i fully woke up and realized that i wasn't actually going to hurl, i took the dog out for a walk only to have to rush back quite quickly to the bathroom... where i had the worst diarrhea i've had in years. this went on for a couple of hours. misery.

then as i was beginning type this post, it all started again. this time i was certain i was going to throw up. whining and whimpering and really scaring the hubby. he, similarly, does not throw up and would be no help in this sort of situation. somehow i managed to fight it, and once again it decided to, well... for lack of a more ladylike description, come out the other end.

then the hubby had to go to work, which half terrified and half relieved me. i wasn't really in the best state for hanging out. after he left i managed to walk a block to the store, get some ginger ale and crackers, and make it back to the couch. i spent another couple of hours on the couch, dozing and fighting the nauseousness. eventually i was able to eat some crackers and a bowl of cereal. and finally, 6.5 hours later, i *may* be starting to feel human again.

but my bum hurts. owwww.

yesterday afternoon i realized that, given a normal cycle for me, i should have gotten my period already. i tend to alternate every other month: one cycle is about 27 days and very heavy with some awful PMS symptoms that i've blogged about in other posts (often tricking myself into thinking they're way-too-early pregnancy symptoms). in the interim months, like this one, my cycle is usually 24 or 25 days, often sneaks up on me without my realizing it and then goes away as mildly as it arrives. i have been this regular, with only a handful of exceptions, for about four years.

this month should have been a short cycle. according to the monitor, i ovulated on day 11 or 12, and i was expecting to get my period on what would have been day 25, or maybe day 26. which was yesterday. it's quite unusual a) for it to not have come yet, and b) for me to be feeling nauseated or anything this month. i did that last time around, come on!!!

so i have deduced based on this morning's events that i have either contracted a stomach bug and/or driven my body wacky with the stress i've been under the past couple of weeks, or i must be pregnant. and perhaps in for a doozy of a 1st trimester.

i really haven't been dwelling on the pregnancy possibility much this time around. we have been in real estate hell and homeless for the past week and a half, carting suitcases and pets around in 95 degree heat to various friends' houses. we are hoping to close on our new house next week, but nothing is official yet. so it is clearly a very real possibility that stress is contributing to all of this weirdness. but still... i hope.

though this whole sick episode has been sobering. if i am pregnant, and this is morning sickness, can i handle this for another few weeks? for some reason i assumed that since i'm not typically a stomach-bug kind of person (and since i DO NOT throw up!) that i wouldn't get hit with these kind of symptoms. live and learn, i suppose. or perhaps i will get my period tonight or tomorrow and just have to blame the stress or the poor eating habits that accompany homelessness. we shall see.