August/September Update, Part Sick

There is quite a bit of catching up I need to do on here. It’s been over a month and so much has happened in that time that it’s truly daunting to even think about recapping it all for you.

So let’s begin with what’s fresh in my mind, me being sick.

All the little colds and sniffles I’ve gotten over the past five weeks were all just little warning trembles before the big quake. I got a bacterial infection that settled into my throat last Friday (17th), it’s now Thursday (23nd) and I’m out of bed and at work again finally. My first doctor’s appointment was the Monday (13th) before I really got sick. I went to see Dr Wilson to get checked out. I talked to her about my hair falling out and my mood swings, my complete lack of caring about anything and she sent me to get some blood drawn and tested, her first thing to try to rule out is my thyroid, after that she’ll be able to “dig deeper into what’s causing this”. My guess is the IUD but we’ll see. The lady who drew my blood was really raring to go and ended up punching me with the needle in her excitement. I kept the bruise all week. I’ll be calling the doctor next Monday (27th) to find out results.

When I was at the doctor’s office on Monday (13th) I saw Colleen but we just breezed past one another. So Wednesday (15th) rolls around and come hell or high water I’m going to see my person. She and I did our customary talking back and forth and over and under each other through texts and holy God it happened that we were able to sync our evenings and she came over to watch TV and hang out until pretty late, it was so nice. So nice.

Thursday (16th) I woke up with a scratchy throat but I figured it had more to do with staying up late than anything but by Friday (17th) I felt like I was dying through my neck. I went to the doctor to get a strep test done but that came back negative; still though, I had an infection so I was put on Augmentin. Which is dandy considering that after not getting any better we find out its Penicillin and whatever is in Augmentin resistant. So now I’m on Levaquin and three days later I’m 80% better. No longer contagious anyway.

But back to Friday (17th), my doctor was awesome enough to take me right at 8:00 with no appointment, he swabbed my throat which came back negative for strep then he poked and prodded my neck for a while until I was about to punch him in his throat before he gave me my scrip. He told me I was “totally contagious” and that I should get Laine checked out too since mom and dad had strep and I had this whatever I had. So I called Dr Collard for Laine and she was only going to be in the office from 2-4:00 but lucky us she had one more appointment at 2:15 and super lucky me, Erik had taken off work so he could drive her downtown for me. Turns out she didn’t get either my sickness or my parents; she developed an ear infection all by herself. But at least she’d be on antibiotics too so I didn’t have to worry overmuch about her catching my sick. Of course Erik didn’t see it that way so he didn’t bring Laine home until after she was asleep for the night Friday night. I’m really glad he took the day with her though; they don’t get time alone together too often.

I though if I got enough sleep Friday that I’d be up and ready to go Saturday to go to my cousin Jeremy and Amanda’s wedding and so I slept the whole day and even woke up late to find that I wasn’t even a little bit better, if fact I was markedly worse. Not only did it hurt to swallow but it hurt to breath and it hurt to turn my head and it hurt to blink and my ears were pounding with the beat of my heart, it was beyond horrible. Erik and I were sitting on the couch trying to figure out our weekend and how we were going to keep Laine away from me for the most part and how I was going to still be able to see her but those two things apparently don’t go together so he decided to take Laine to the wedding in Beaumont without me. I have to say I was very impressed with him offering to do that, he could have just taken Laine to his parents for the day but instead he went out of town with a toddler he sometimes can’t handle for an entire mealtime and did a wonderful job taking care of her. I missed them so much while they were gone but Erik knows me well and sent bunches of pictures so that every time I woke up I was greeted by one. They got home late, almost 10:00 and she was zonked but Erik let me hold her for a few minutes while she slept as long as I promised not to breath on her or kiss her. It was torture so I let him take her back. If I’d had the energy I would have cried myself to sleep.

Sunday morning (the 19th) Erik let me sleep until almost 9:00 before asking me if I wanted to go to church. I didn't, but I went anyway. I figure you really can't go wrong with hanging out with God when you're sick. After church we went to Jacob's house for lunch but I hadn't the stomach for any food, even though the roast smelled amazing it nauseated me to think about looking at it. After a couple of hours of super amazing people trying to cheer me up I was ready to go home and crash, which I did. I was woken up at 4:00 because Erik couldn't find anything to feed Laine. So I got up and made dinner and watched Laine eat and play in the living room until she went to sleep close to 9:00 at which point I was ready to pass back out again. Erik had another idea in mind and I was just too damn tired to say no.

Now we come to Monday (20th) morning and I still wasn't feeling any better, I still had gross white spots on the back of my throat and my eardrums felt like they were about to burst and I had developed an insane case of diarrhea so I called my doctor and asked him if he had any idea when his idea of medication was going to kick in and was told to come into the office again. I got to the office right after 8:30 and was seen before 9:00. The doctor got me another strep test which again came back negative, then they pricked my finger and did a CBC to find out that my white cell count was normal so what I had wasn't viral. He said that means that it's bacterial and that the Augmenten should have knocked it out. His first instinct was to leave me on the antibiotic I was on to let it “work itself out” but I pressed the diarrhea button really hard and he decided to try something else. But only after sitting in his office for a half and hour trying to convince him that I really did want the new antibiotic please. I also asked him what I was supposed to do about the pain because the Advil he had me on was laughable. He asked me if I could handle taking codeine and I laughed at him. That’s like asking me if I can handle Pez. Yes.

So I leave the doctor after finally being satisfied that I’m being taken care of and I call my mom and Erik and my boss, keeping them informed and confirming that I am in fact still contagious but that I have a doctor’s note, (Crazy, right?! I haven’t gotten one of those since high school) so that I needed to stay home until Wednesday at least.

So I finally get home, a little after 2:00 and I go strait to the couch and take my new antibiotic and one Tylenol 3 and two Advil and I call my Chinese food guy and order some chicken and broccoli goodness. But I'm sure you can guess what happens next, yeah all of a sudden I'm waking up an hour later calling my Chinese guy and asking him to come back please. He does of course because he loves me and I tip him well and he tells me to get well and order again soon. Sweet man. I need to ask him his name one of these days. So I eat about 1/6 of my meal before passing out again to wake up and eat a little more, the broccoli scraping my sore throat in the most euphoric way. I call Erik to see if he's coming home early to pick up Laine before I take another Tylenol and pass out, again. By the time 2 am rolls around I am wide awake and feeling about half myself again. I got up took another Tylenol and showered, did a load of laundry and did the dishes that had been piling up since Thursday and by the time all that was done I was lucky I was so close to the bed because my drugs were kicking in full force, looking back on it now it wasn't wise to take it on an empty stomach, but I slept until close to 6:00 until Laine woke me up screaming for PAWPAW!!!!

I peeked my head in her room and she'd taken her diaper off and peed in the bed, was jumping up and down on the wet spot screaming "PAWPAW nanny PAWPAW nanny" and laughing manically. So I stripped her and her bed and she and I took a shower together. Something about Laine you may not know, she's a happy morning person, but she is NOT a morning person. She is all smiles but in a very zombie like way once she's out of her bed. So she stood for the whole ten minutes in the shower holding her cup about two inches away from the faucet, not catching any water, but looking into the cup very confused about every 30 seconds, looking like she was wondering why it wasn't filling up. I tried not to laugh at her but failed.

I got her dressed and off to school and since I was up and awake already I figured I'd go to the DMV to get a new drivers license (cuz I lost mine the Monday before and Laine’s doctors office), so I got dressed and drove out to 45 and Dixie Farm to the JSC to pull out some cash, because the DMV doesn't take cards but the ATM outside was broken and the doors to the inside were locked for another hour, so I went through the drive through and tried to make a withdrawal for $35 dollars and was told no. They said they need a valid ID to do a withdrawal. I, of course, got pissy. I told the lady that I was on my way to the DMV to get a valid ID that's why I needed the cash and couldn't she see by the photo that I am who I am and that the date of the card shouldn't matter. And she said no, she needs and valid ID so then I ask her (tell her) to open the front door so I can use the ATM. She does after taking 7 minutes (!!!) to send me back my old ID through the tube, so I drive around the front and go inside and stick my card into the machine and pull HALF OF IT back out! It broke in half!

Yeah, that happened.

So I needed cash to get a new ID but I needed an ID to get cash. How many times in a lifetime do you actually get put into a Catch 22 situation? So I called Erik and asked him if he'd left the house yet. Not only had he left the house, but he was past Dixie Farm and almost to 610 already, but he told me that as soon as he was able he was going to come home and get me some cash. So I went home and got high and ate a bowl of cereal and watched Regis and Kelly.

Erik got home around 1:00 about an hour after I'd taken another Tylenol. Ever been to the DMV stoned before? Those people are HIGHlarious! I had a pretty good experience at the DMV, not because I was high but because the people were genuinely nice and fast moving, I was in and out in 30 minutes. After the DMV I headed out to Dickinson to the JSC that's on 646 because I heard a rumor that they can give you a new debit card the same day you ask for it and sure enough they do, as long as your card isn't lost or stolen and the number is still good they can print out a new card right there. So now I have a new ID and a new debit card and it isn't even 3:00 yet.

Nap time, yay!!

Erik came home early again and picked Laine up for me but even though I was feeling way better he knew I was pushing my limit on my energy by being out so much during the day that he took care of everything for me again. He's the most amazing man in the whole world. The way that he's just stepped into my shoes with hardly any hiccups at all is amazing to me. I mean I don't consider my jobs around the house to be too hard but they are jobs and I always thought that the reason I did all of them is because he couldn't or didn't know how. But now that I know better…

So by Wednesday I was feeling healthy again for the first time in a week so I decided to go to work.

I’m glad I did because one more day of lying on my couch was going to drive me insane. I’m so glad my life is back to normal. I enjoyed the moments where I had the TV to myself and the quiet in the house, but that infection kicked my ass for sure and I’m glad I’m over it.

After work on Wednesday I picked up Laine and headed to Mom’s for a visit but Laine had a fever so I had to take her home. With a little ibuprofen and prayer she was back to a normal temp and good mood in no time. She still had no fever this morning but I’m still going to take her to the doctor on Friday just in case. Get her checked out, she shouldn’t bee getting fevers while she’s on antibiotics I don’t think, so tomorrow I’ll get that straitened out.

So that’s it. I was sick and now I’m not. I guess that’s all I really wanted to say.