hallucinations and fever

I'm still sick. This is the third day that this sore throat has been bothering me. Yesterday I called in sick and just went in for an hour to do some tissue culture work that had to be done. Cells that you're growing could care less about your health--if you don't take care of them, they just overgrow their containers then crash and burn. Today I called in sick and plan to just stay home all day.

One of the symptoms of this is fever. It's not a real high fever but for some reason I hallucinate mildly even with low fevers. This has been true for as long as I remember. The "visions" are very characteristic also. They almost always take the form of inanimate objects becoming animated. Most typically mailboxes and telephone poles becoming animals and moving--usually taking the form of deer. As long as you're open to the experience it's charming, however I'm glad this fever-stuff doesn't happen too often because you have to keep on your toes when mailbox-deer keep running in front of you.

Another odd effect is that sometimes the road changes shape. It can be bizarre. As you can probably guess from my descriptions--the hallucinations affect me mostly while driving, so I try to stay off the road!

Anyone else "suffer" from things like this when they're running a fever?

Comments

SassyAssy said…
The only thing I suffer with a fever is a bad mood. If I were going to be stricken with hallucinations, I think I would at least like the mailboxes to turn into George Clooney...
Mike said…
When I am sick with a fever I get very sleepy. I have been known to sleep 20 hours of the day when I am sick. Hope you feel better soon.
kenju said…
I've never hallucinated, Dave, but my daughter did when her fever shot up to 106* (she was 2 1/2 and had pneumonia and pleurisy, but we didn't know it). You stay off the roads!!
MaR said…
Haven't been here in ages and now I come over and you are sick...sorry about that. I haven't had a fever in many years *knocks on wood* and hope you feel well soon. Take care!
srp said…
Well there are several areas here that you would have to avoid.... I found a mailbox pelican and a dolphin.... a dolphin standing upright... that would certainly make a vivid hallucination!
Anonymous said…
WOW! Mailbox deer? Hallucinations are so interesting. I have not been sick in ages. Knock on wood. But, my parts guy was out for three days and can barely work now.

Feel better and drink fluids!!!
Anonymous said…
I have never heard of hallucinations from a low grade fever...you are in the science/medical field, right? What part of the brain is affected during a fever? I have bouts of hallucinations during the night...no one has ever been able to tell me why. Please no driving during hallucinations! LOL
Hope you feel better real soon!
Here from Michelle's!
Anonymous said…
Oh dear! Stay home (and off the roads) and get some rest! The only time I came close to hallucinating from a fever was when I was in high school and had a nasty case of strep throat and a high fever. I think I slept for 3 days staight. I remember waking up when it was dark and not knowing where I was, what day it was, what I was doing in this room, what was wrong with me or what on earth was going on. It was very disconcerting and took me awhile to ease my alarm and figure out what was going on.
Into the Light said…
I wouldn't call it hallucinations, but I do experience something similar. Keeping in mind that I tend to see things in inanimate objects anyway (like a dead tree stump that I swore looked like a bear), I'll go along with you and indulge your "hallucinations". Mostly when I'm sick, things appear and disappear without me noticing it happening. I think it's a sign of an imagination coming out in a normally logical mind. :-)
Anonymous said…
oy, that sounds like a trip alright.

good to know what tricks to expect from your mind, and to be able to expect a return to non-feverdom soon.
AsianFoodEnvy said…
my 4 yr old son has the same problem! every time he has a fever, regardless the degree of fever, he ALWAYS hallucinates. he's fine when he's not sleeping, but whenever he sleeps he would always wake up screaming and pointing at things around the house, and the hallucination usually lasts for 10 minutes or so. i tried bringing it up with the pediatrician, but they just said it's no big deal. i really wish i could find more cases/information on this. it seems to scare the daylight out of my kid and i just wish there's something i could do about it.

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