Rough edges

Man, have I been sick!

Sure, the first seven days weren't bad. Burning eyes and post-nasal drip. Barely worse than the standard bad allergy day since I moved back. Hid that from most everyone.

The stress and sleep deprivation of the last two procedures and recoveries was apparently more than my immune system could handle. Thursday morning I was pretty tired. But that was natural given the previous day's trauma. That night I started feeling rough. Friday continued the downhill slide of [obviously bacterial] congestion and ennui. That night the coughing emerged as a full force wracking symptom. Saturday was more of the same though I foolishly kept dinner plans with dear friends anyway. It was a delightful time in spite of my misery. A word to the wise- the cake with 'tres leches' at Rumba is truly exquisite.

Now, I firmly believe the idiom, 'You know what they call a doctor who treats herself? Stupid.' Of course, as anyone who has seen me ill knows, I also lean toward the philosophy, 'See no evil, hear no evil.'

Mother's Day was more of the same but worse as I found myself degenerating into tears of exhaustion and losing what little remained of my voice. By Monday, my throat felt like road rash from all the coughing. After giving Mom her morning shot, I took a bath to break up the tenacious slime in my sinuses and fell into bed for another two hours of coughing interrupted by sleep. My goal was to make it through the day of doctor appointments before checking in to my 'early grave.'

By Friday night, my being sick was no longer on the 'down low' and by Monday, Mom and Rol were pretty darn pushy. So Monday, while Mom waited to see Dr. Lavin, she sent me down to see if Dr. Dendy might be able to fit me.

The first receptionist looked nonplused and said that Dr. Dendy wasn't seeing new patients. But Rita stopped her and said, 'No wait, that's Pam's daughter. Pam needs her. You better have her fill out the intake form and check with Mary. I bet Dr. Dendy will want to see her.'

One minute later, I kid you not, she was back with news that Nanette would indeed see me and would fit me in as soon as she could. So, while Mom met with Dr. Lavin, I waited two floors below and met with Dr. Dendy. Mary, Dr. Dendy's nurse, took my blood pressure and asked if I had been febrile. I said I didn't know which kind of surprised her.

'What do you mean you don't know?'

'Well, I have kind of defaulted to ignoring my body. Its a kind of Wily Coyote thing. If I don't know I'm off the cliff, I can keep running.' About this time the thermometer chimed- 99.2F. 'Yeah, I guess I've had a fever.' It was only later that day that I remembered I'd taken aspirin twice that morning for the headache! [Later, Mom stated I had been feverish all weekend.]

Shockingly, Dr. Dendy concurred.

I was sick. Plenty sick.

So she wrote me a script for antibiotics.

Monday night was better. Mom made me noodle soup. I slept a lot (and hurt a lot).

Tuesday morning I went back to bed after Mom's shot. Rested most of the day then took Mom in for Roland's students' concert. My throat still hurt, my head still hurt but at least the fever had broken. I really started fading once we got to Blair- the drive had left me bushed and I started getting dizzy dizzy dizzy! I was supposed to go pick up food for us but that was clearly a bad idea.

Luckily, we ran into Lee Levine who immediately volunteered to save the day. The Chinese food she brought in was a life-saver! It made the room stop spinning and my stomach stop turning.

Today my throat is almost recovered though my eyes still threatened to pop with each cough. My pep is still a little pooped but I'm getting there. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back in fighting trim. We are, after all, transitioning into 'coast' mode and I'll get to catch up on sleep! Okay, perhaps fighting trim is a little over-optimistic...

If nothing else, this bug has given Mom a chance to do something she enjoys- mother me. Something I hadn't been so sure I would get to experience again when this all started back in February. Each day brings its own blessings, some more subtle than others!