Effects of Lonlieness

As many of you know I've been home alone now for a month. It's been hard being so alone, so much so that I stay at the Institute for Communication Research lab for many more hours than I normally would just so that I might have some contact with someone else.

But my being alone became extremely evident when I had to drive myself to Bloomington Hospital's emergency room at about 1am.

About 9:30/10:00 last night I began to feel some extreme pressure in my right ear. That pressure turned to pain. It was a dull pain at first, but something that I could deal with. I decided to go to bed at 11:00, and ended up laying there for the next hour and a half as the pain became worse and worse. I finally could take it no longer and drove myself to the emergency room.

It turns out that I have a middle ear infection that is a direct result of the really bad allergies that I have been having lately. No big deal. I was given an antibiotic and some pain medication. I was in bed and asleep just after 3am. It was absolutely amazing that I was checked in to the emergency room, seen by a doctor, and on my way to the 24-hour CVS to get my prescriptions filled in less than an hour.

But what really hit me was, when I was registering and was asked if I had a local emergency contact and if someone were to come to the hospital looking for me could the hospital reveal that I was there, that no one knew I was there. I could have been there for days and no one would have been the wiser. Being alone sucks. Being sick and alone is even worse.