Well, there I was, breezing through the days, padding away all of the bugs, when I was informed by both umpires and the TMO that I had picked up a fungal infection. The docs suspected that it might be the cause of the slight wheezing in my lungs, and weren't really open to the idea that the wheezing might be a natural purging reaction to my packing in the cigs after 30+ years.
So the docs decided to give me IV antifungal treatment. Amphotericin B. A low dose for an hour to see how I coped with it, and the rest of the 100ml bag over the next hour. It went down well, no bad reactions but it did make me a bit nauseous and my temperature started to spike. That was enough for them to decide to change weapons. Out with the Amphotericin, in with the Caspofungin, to be preceded by IV Piriton to prevent any nasty allergic reactions.
Well, all that went well for a dose or two until, for some reason, I was given the fungicide without the Piriton...
My depleted body started shaking violently, and I still don't know where it found the energy to do so. I had to bite the sheets in order to avoid breaking my teeth and biting through my tongue. During the shakes I managed to snag a cannula, resulting in much spraying of blood. High temperatures and shaking chills (leading to the medical slang term "shake and bake"), vomiting and a totally-warranted session of Coprolalia for at least 15 minutes all led to me being a right mess with headaches, aching limbs and drained muscles by the time the antidote and oxygen had fully kicked in.
I remember thinking that I'd reached the end of my mortal coil and was hanging there staring the Devil in the eye. I'd never experienced such uncontrollable pain, and was sure as hell not going to go through that ever again.
Or so I thought.
Unbelievably. a day later it happened again, with almost exactly the same results. At least I knew which words to bellow out as loud as I could while descending to Hades:
"Where's my fucking Piriton?"
Or something like that but less polite.
