I had norovirus just over a year ago. I lived on water — warm, cold, hot, whatever, as long as it was plain tap,water — for 3 1/2 weeks. I lost 25 pounds, most of which I didn’t have to lose. I still remember the day I was able to slowly sip a cup of tepid tea — plain black, decaf. I had grown so content with my water that I was actually afraid to eat food.

I typically make my own chicken and vegetable stocks, but that wasn’t happening, so I bought a quart of organic chicken stock. I spat out the first sip. Disgusting. It smelled like a wet dog and tasted worse. Back to water and tea for another week and a few more pounds gone.

I would come home from work (I took one sick day on the first day of the siege) around 4 in the afternoon and get straight into bed with the electric blanket turned up to Roast. I’d sip water, try to read (like you, I consume several books a week; have you read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, or Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four hour Bookshop? Excellent, both), but could barely get through a page or two of whatever I was reading at the time. Then I’d take a nap so as to muster the strength to get up and feed the cats, dogs, birds, and bunnies (I have an ark — two of each) and get back in bed with a refilled water glass and eventually a cup of tea, and be asleep by 7:30 to sleep until 6:30 the next morning.

At one point, my neighbor called to tell me that our letter carrier asked him if “the lady in the next house was all right.” She was thinking of asking the police to do a status check because I hadn’t emptied my mailbox in a while. In weeks, actually. Fortunately he called during one of the narrow windows when I was both home and awake.

This is by no means an attempt to equate my puny illness with your challenge. And it also has fuck-all to do with Alto’s oh-so-veiled question of longevity on Medium. And God, what lovely irony that his story of the first David’s death saved your life. Your simple, declarative sentence simply took me on a short stroll down memory lane. That’s all.

Now I’ll go back and read the rest of your excellent post.