12 posts tagged “sick”
Signs I am finally feeling better today:
- my appetite is back and I felt motivated to actually make something for dinner (my prior real-meal count since Saturday was a grand total of two -- all else was quick nibbles)
- my concentration is back and I was able to finish a report for work from home today that I couldn't even bear to look at two days ago
- I had enough attention span to read the paper
I still napped for two hours this afternoon, but I know I'll be going back to work tomorrow.
1. Even if your antibiotic says you don't have to take it with food, take it with food. Or your weakened self will get nauseous and headachey.
2. Domino is not the movie to be watching from your sickbed with a combined sinus headache/side-effect headache from your medication. No matter entertaining it is to hear Keira Knightley yell "motherfuckers" in her posh English accent.
Here endeth the lesson.
Thank god for antibiotics (and a drug plan doesn't hurt, either).
One of my three 12-week-old foster kittens has vomited a couple of times today. All three have been on metronidazole, an antibiotic, for the last five days, because of diarrhea (suspected to be due to some parasite not killed by their previous deworming). The diarrhea seems to have improved some; from what's in the litter box only one seems to still have it, though I don't know which one, since I have to actually see each in the box in turn. And since I can't watch them all day long, I don't know which one is urfing, either.
I just looked metronidazole up online, and get this: it's used to treat diarrhea of unspecified origin, but one of the side effects is diarrhea. Oh, and vomiting. Fair enough, antibiotics cause nausea and diarrhea in humans, too, maybe I don't need to worry. But then it said this:
• Metronidazole should not be used in young puppies and kittens.
Nice.
Instead of moving the kittens from my bedroom to the bathroom tonight, where I usually put them when I go to bed so they don't keep me up with their tumbling about playing in the wee hours, I guess I should maybe keep them in with me, and plan to be woken up so I can see who's urfing. The sound of a cat throwing up can bolt me out of a sound sleep like a fire bell. On the other hand, bathroom tile is far easier to clean up than my bedroom carpet. Hmm.
Note to self: Whatever I do, make sure not to leave white jeans lying around.
1. I got an antibiotic prescription today for the Alien in My Chest That Will Not Die.
2. It's Friday.
3. I am re-booked to go to my friends' cottage on the LONG weekend later this month.
4. I finally know a little more about when my novel is due out. Instead of just "fall 2008" (their last "fall" book in this imprint came out on November 29), I've been told my release date has been narrowed down to somewhere in late August or mid-September. And I've seen my book in the publisher's catalogue that got sent to me this week. This is getting just a bit realer now.
I am completely in the weeds these days.
I'm still not well from this cold (two weeks and counting), coughing and coughing day in and day out (though I've found a cough syrup that seems to help a bit)
I'm going on about eight weeks now doing two people's work here, because a co-worker has been out with a family emergency, while I also have to deal with a whole 'nother major personnel issue at work that's blown up (having to do with someone she would normally be supervising), while also in these same eight weeks, prepping for the biggest event we have in the year at this place, involving 40 pages of stats I had to gather and a mammoth report to write. And attending same event, which is where I probably got my current virus.
And all this other work has been piling up, because I have to keep up with the day-to-day stuff I do (and the absent co-worker). And in my off time, I've had to spend at least one weekend sick in bed, canceled various other social plans for still being not well enough, including a weekend away at my friends' cottage, and when I sat down to write for the first time in weeks, only managed about a page.
I'm behind on e-mails to friends, behind writing to various parties about trying to find the boxcar cats a new home, feeling isolated, swamped, and watching various friends jaunt off for six weeks away in one place, four weeks in another, a week at the cottage, all getting rested and relaxed. This weekend, I have to organize my papers and receipts to prep my taxes, instead of staying in bed and loafing. Or doing anything fun.
I am feeling very hard done by in life and just about ready to lose it. Co-worker is back on Monday. I hope I make it.
I'm at work today, not sniffling too much, but still really worn out (if co-workers catch me in the hall to talk, I'm going to start drifting to the nearest place to sit down if they chat more than a few seconds). I'm not vouching for the speed of any work, but I can get some done today. The worst is the odd time I have to cough. Then it is TEH OWCH! My stomach muscles are all very sore from prior coughing, and my back still aches as it's been doing non-stop for five days now. Anybody got a remedy for that? The Advil and Tylenol (not together) haven't really done the job. It's not just a muscular ache, but it hurts just to lean back, or pull a shirt across the skin.
Cat update - remember Honey the ever-so-sweet and pregnant trapped cat I had for a few days? I saw her the other day at the clinic where she's being fostered. She's even rounder, still waiting to have those kittens, and she ran right out to see me when she heard me and we had some lovely pats and rubs and she let me put my hands on her belly. Then when I was leaving, she wanted to walk out with me. Man, if I had room for another cat of my own, she'd be the one. But it means she'll probably take no time to be adopted herself once her kittens are born and weaned.
Three days sick in bed and counting. All the symptoms -- no appetite, fever, stuffy head, coughing, aches, sometimes chills, feeling completely punk. Too tired to read or watch TV most of the time. I coughed so hard in the wee hours of the morning I pinched a nerve in my sacrum and had to wobble out to the chiropractor to fix it at 9 a.m., because every time I coughed after that, pain shot right through to my tailbone. I missed the nicest weekend of the year so far -- the only times I went out were for a few groceries and to trap Inkspot. And the chiro and my doctor today ("It's just a cold," he said brightly.) And because I have asthma, I can't take cold meds, just Tylenol or Advil for the aches and fever.
Being sick and alone is the worst.
Sick. Tired. I'm tired of being sick, I'm sick of being tired and I'm sick and tired of the whole damn thing.
I'm having a grumpy night, even though I got antibiotics from the GP after work, which should finally kick this alien in my chest in the butt.
My boss gave me a hard time today because I asked to use one of my two remaining vacation days to go to a funeral on Monday (father of a very good friend). She's the one who thinks even legitimate absences from the office are a betrayal. She reminded me "You've already had a sick day this week" to which I replied, "and I've been here on three other days this week when I was still sick". And I got "You also had lots of time off at Christmas." So sorry the old guy couldn't die conveniently over the holidays. And then she ranted on about a co-worker who took two sick days this week (not relevant to me), who also left a press release unfinished when he did (again, not relevant to me -- I get my work done). On Monday workwise I'm slated to go to a meeting that both of us know will be a complete waste of time, and I don't need to be there -- no one from my office does. And I'm also supposed to be on a conference call with her and the board of directors, where my input will probably be minimal. So she's almost relenting on the meeting, but says I still have to do the 3 p.m. conference call by cell, from my out-of-town, 1 p.m. funeral. Lady, give me the day or don't give me the day, and live with your own decision and the impact that has on what I think of you, just don't weasel me around.
If a guy comes home and kicks his dog every day, the dog knows what to expect and can learn to deal with it its own way. If a guy comes home and some days kicks his dog and some days doesn't and the dog never know which days that's going to be, the dog is kept on edge, unable to form expectations. This is what it's like working for my boss, who told me when I left on Monday to stay home sick on Tuesday, then rants at me today about having taken sick time. And no, I don't think she does it to be uber-Machiavellian to keep us managers on our toes, I think she does it because she has poor management skills and impulse control when it comes to venting on staffing issues.
So I got home all grouched out, then about a half hour ago, I was getting that vox problem where I could see the vox and read the vox, but couldn't post or comment to the vox. (YGRS, I sent you an e-mail asking how you fixed your situation like that from the fall on your work computer -- even though it's magically fixed itself now, I'd still like to know for future lockouts.) And I washed and blow-dried my hair and can't make it look anything like it does when it's been done by the stylist. And it's not that tricky a "style", I'm just lame at blow drying.
And there's still one more work day till the weekend. Great.
I'm off sick today. I should have been yesterday, too, but I dragged myself in to work to hear my boss rant about one other person being sick, her assistant on vacation and "we can never have a day where all the staff are here at once". I still let her know early on that I wasn't well. What am I sick with? Good question. It's a little mystery I've been trying to solve.
Here's my telling timeline.
Dec 18 - after a few days of syptoms, I was feeling crappy. The symptoms were like I'd had in at various times in the past, though not frequently, (fatigue, heaviness in chest, some coughing), so I started an 10-day antibiotic prescription I'd been given some time before, because I wasn't going to be able to get in to my respirologist before Xmas. I have a respirologist because I have asthma.
Dec 21 - still feeling crappy (antibiotics taking a while to kick in)
Dec 24 - I remember feeling fine by Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. Antibiotics working.
Dec 27 - finished antibiotics
Jan 2 - felt at tickle in my throat at bedtime (what? less than a week later?)
Jan 3 - first day back at work, woke up with raging sore throat, same set of symptoms coming back. Feeling crappy, but disinclined to call in sick on first day back (see "boss" above)
Jan 4 - felt mostly okay at work, but came home and completely crashed
Jan 5-6 - tried to rest up over weekend. Was mostly okay in day, crashing and feeling crappy at night
Jan 7 - feel complete crap - On the way to work, my brain barely working from feeling so crappy, I call the respirologist, because this should not be going on -- getting sick again so soon after getting better. His office says he's off for two more weeks. I have a moment of complete standstill -- what the hell do I do now? I can't feel like this for two more weeks.
I make an appointment for today, go to work, barely make it through the day. I'm practically draped over my desk by the end of the day. The coughing started hard at lunch and kept up through the evening. As I left work, the boss was sympathetic and told me to stay home if I felt the same on Tuesday. Done and done.
A few background facts (clues):
1. I used to get this kind of thing repeatedly, years ago. Not cold symptoms per se, but a sore throat that would turn into some kind of "chest infection" and when I got to the point of coughing up yellow stuff, my GP would give me antibiotics, while arguing that it could still just be a virus, which antibiotics wouldn't help. Invariably, the antibiotics worked. This happened about 3-4 times a year.
2. After many years of this, and as I got a couple right in a row after each other (echoes of the current situation), I pressured him to send me to a specialist (now my respirologist) who immediately diagnosed me with asthma. WTF? I had never wheezed in my life. Doesn't matter, that's what it was. There is such a thing as "cough-variant asthma" (though admittedly he never used that phrase to me, but when I found it while googling last night, described me pretty well). He got me on daily meds, and life was smooth sailing. I got maybe one of these episodes in two years.
3. So my GP had misdiagnosed me for 10 years. This is the guy I'm going to see today. With the same beef I had 3 years ago -- repeated episodes close on the heels of each other.
4. Recently (about two months ago), my respirologist changed my daily meds. A month ago, he checked my breathing tests and they were fine.
My thinking:
a) This is not a cold. I have to blow my nose every once in a while, like once an hour, but that feels secondary. My sinuses aren't blocked. It doesn't present or progress like a cold, despite the initial sore throat. Also, if it was a cold, the recent antibiotics wouldn't have helped, they only work on bacterial infections.
b) This could be bacterial. But to have hit me twice, so soon? (The antibiotics were broad-spectrum, should have killed any bug I had.)
c) Another asthmatic at work who I was complaining to yesterday said when she starts to feel like I do, she's under instructions to up her use of her daily meds and use her puffer more often.
d) A pharmacist yesterday talked me out of picking up a cough medicine because I mentioned I have asthma. Cough syrups are not recommended for asthmatics, something about it not helping "uncontrolled asthma".
So I've come to the conclusion that this really is an asthma issue. While googling last night, I found this phrase, too: "virus-induced transient airway hyperresponsiveness". Intriguing, but that in turn got me to a lot of medical papers I don't understand. So I'll leave that for now.
Now I really need to talk to my respirologist (who is still away for two weeks) about my meds. As an experiment, I tried my puffer last night. Felt a little bit better for a while, but forgot that because it has something in it that speeds up the heart, it makes me shake for hours after using it. So that's not my best route.
Today, I switched back to the daily asthma meds I got taken off of two months ago, which worked just fine for three years. And I'll be going into my GP with my theories and some printouts that I googled, which I'm sure makes me his least favorite kind of patient to see.
