Continuation of my Second Life Day saga.  Catch up to the previous post here, or start from the beginning.

Through it all, I was beginning to have an awakening, a shift.  I realized early on that I had no love for the contact centre.  I needed to get out, but I had no goals or dreams on which to set my sights.  It was through happenstance, and through my own excelling in my job, that a direction presented itself to me.  Having gone through 3-4 different training sessions and getting to know my trainer, Colin, I realized that this was something I would enjoy doing.  Plus, it would circle back on my plan to teach.  I may not have been accepted to the university program a few years earlier, but I could still wind up on the same path, taking a circuitous journey to get there.  This realization began to jolt me out of my routine.

I took a look at my life and my health and realized things were not optimal.  While I had never been a model of physical fitness, I had unquestionably fallen over the past few years.  I had gained a lot of weight and had become rather sedentary.  Yes, I would go for walks periodically, but the overeating and diet were a far cry from a healthy lifestyle.  I decided I needed to do something.  So off to join a gym I went.

Over the course of 5-6 months, I became a regular at my local gym.  My new daily routine became – work, gym, movies, sleep, repeat.  In conjunction with the new physical regiment, I became more conscious of what I was eating.  I didn’t do a full 180º but I routinely began making better choices.  These two points would come into play in March of 2008 as my diabetic odyssey continued.

With a career path now in mind, I worked tirelessly to shine in my current job. I wanted to be sure that if/when an opportunity presented itself, I would be equipped to make a play for it.  Step 1 was obtaining a permanent position.  No sooner had I expressed this desire internally, I was offered a permanent job.  On February 25, 2008, I signed my letter of offer, accepting a permanent position within the contact centre.  Along with a permanent job came health benefits.  Being an “immortal 20-something” year old, I had not been overly concerned with health benefits.  I had not bothered signing up for an individual policy after the coverage I had through my mother’s policy lapsed with my leaving university.  Now, I had full health and dental benefits.  And they were free! One of the perks of working for an insurance provider.

By this time, I had been suffering through my cotton-mouth for a couple of weeks.  Following my phone call to my doctor’s office, I started feeling a bit off, but thankfully, the weekend was nearing.  I spent the entire weekend not eating.  My mouth was just too dry.  It hurt my throat to swallow food.  So I drank lots of liquids, keeping myself hydrated at least.  I had so little energy from the lack of food and sleep that I would crash on my couch, pass out and only get up to stumble my way into the kitchen for another drink or a trip to the bathroom.  Then, I would stumble into my bedroom and pass out on my bed.  And then back for a drink/to bathroom, and back to the couch.  This routine went on for two full days.  Saturday and Sunday consisted of me getting up to get a drink, collapsing on the couch or bed, and repeating ad nauseum.  It would take every ounce of energy I had in my body to even get up and shuffle across my tiny basement apartment.

At some point on Sunday night, I awoke and rushed (or as fast as I could move since I wasn’t very speedy at this point) to the bathroom just in time to spew up everything in my body. Given that I had not eaten any solid food in days, and urinated every ounce of liquid that I drank, it would stand to reason that there would not be much for me to expulse from my body. But was I ever wrong. I retched and heaved for nearly 15 minutes straight.  To this day, I do not know what came out of my body.  Maybe it was  some demon-spawn that had been inhabiting me, and I decided to vacate it from the premises.