On Being Sick....

Hello folks....as expected, I have not been blogging....as much as I have thought of many subjects to write about, I never get to it...often the reason being that after a long day of work, I rarely feel like sitting in front of the computer, other than to keep up with my 2 email accounts & myspace page....

So, at the beginning of this month, I was off work nearly a week with a nasty virus that ended up giving me my first sinus infection that I've had in about 7 years, and wow, was I ever knocked off of my ass! It started out with a sore throat on the Friday morning (Mar. 2), then went on to tightness in the chest on Saturday. I thought it was full blown by Sunday, as I was achy, tired, feverish & starting to cough - spending the day horizontally did little to keep this train from hitting me...Monday I went to work with a persistent, nasty hack & I had 6 coughing fits that day, 3 of which I was in a supplier meeting with my boss that I constantly had to excuse myself from. My boss actually seemed worried about my cough & he sent me home early, hinting that a night of rest & the xtra 2 1/2 hrs off he was giving me would be more than sufficient to make me better to return to work the next day back to normal.

By Tuesday AM, the cold had moved right up into my sinuses...called in sick & spent the day resting, sleeping off & on but felt myself getting worse throughout the day. Tylenol cold was helping clear my sinuses a bit, but wasn't helping my cough, and the Buckleys Complete syrup I bought was calming the cough but not doing anything for my blocked nose. I could not take both as I did not want to OD on cold medecine, so I was alternating back & forth.

Wednesday morning I woke up with extreme pain & congestion in my forehead, enough that it felt like my head was going to explode. After my daily call to my boss to report that I once again was not coming in, I called my family doctor to beg the receptionist to fit me in somehow that day. I had called for an appointment that Monday, and the earliest appt she could give me was the following Tuesday afternoon. I was able to get an appointment that evening for 5:45 - I wondered why I could not get this appointment when I had called earlier this week and was puzzled that my doctor actually had office hours that late in the day. I slept most of the day in bed & got up at 3:00 pm in a sweat, my head pounding. The effort of just climbing the stairs winded me and suddenly I felt nauseous. I threw up, but nothing came out, as I had only eaten cereal that morning. Up until then, I had kept my usual ravenous appetite, despite the fact that I had been sick, so when I was not hungry that afternoon, I knew something must be wrong. After I was sick, I started blowing out mucus. I decided to call my parents for help, I didn't feel like I'd be strong enough to drive myself all the way to Montreal to see the doctor. As my mom is not comfortable driving in town, she caught my dad on his cell & they were to come pick me up. I ate some soup & crackers & cheese so I wouldn't be going to the dr. on an empty stomach. My parents excitedly recounted their trip last week on the cruise they took, as I had not seen them since their return, but a few minutes into my Mom's shopping stories, I zoned out, felt the blood draining from my face, and broke out into a cold sweat. Dad noticed right away, he kept checking on me in his rearview mirror and told my mom "Brenda, she's not even hearing us right now"....I dizzily undid my coat, took off my scarf...Dad asked if I was going to be sick, I told him I'd tell him when...a couple of minutes passed, Mom turned around & asked "now?" and I said yeah, pull over...amazed that both my parents still knew me so well that they totally understood what was going on with me, without me saying a word....I took off my seatbelt, reached across the back seat to open the door and just made it, throwing up what I had just eaten onto the side of the highway, the cold wind cooling off my sweating face....we were all thankful that I was sick before we got onto Decarie, which has no shoulder to pull over & is always bumper to bumper traffic.

The doctor quickly confirmed that I did have a sinus infection, that I had caught a virus and that fluid had pooled in my sinuses, stayed there too long and became infected...my sinuses had been weak since I had caught the flu in mid-January, to the point that I had stopped working out for 5 weeks as my respiration was just not returning to normal. I think I had been back to the gym for about a wk & a half, then bang - this hits me! So, I was on antibiotics called Avelox for 10 days - I had tons of side effects, some of which I thought were from the decongestants I was taking, but it turns out dizziness was indeed a possible side effect of the Avelox. Some days at work, I had trouble forming words or understanding emails! And, I hated the idea of all of these chemicals polluting my body. I ate lots of yogurt to protect my delicate intestinal system. I felt my sinuses clearing all week, which was such a good feeling after them being blocked solid the week I was off. I celebrated the end of my medication by pigging out at the sugar shack during a work social committee outing I organized the wkend of Mar. 12th. My sinuses were still really bothering me the following week, I had killer sinus headaches for 2 days. So, now, this week, I am feeling like I am finally getting over this, with some slight congestion in the early morning & some sneezing & blowing going on still. I am a little afraid of going back to the gym, not sure what I will do yet...

Meanwhile, Shawn got a bad cold (his first since I've known him in approximately 7 yrs also) - he had a sore throat all during the week I was on meds, then his cold was full blown by Sunday the 18th. Monday he had to cancel a training session and called in sick - the first time in probably 5 yrs or more. His sinuses were clogged but flowing with mucus of all different colors throughout the week, and he still seems to be very sniffly. He woke me up several times a night to blow his nose or get up to go to the washroom with all of the water he was drinking, so I had broken sleep all week & was exhausted. I cannot complain though, I am sick so much more often then him, and I often wake him up choking with a dry cough, or hollering during a nightmare! We both doubt that he got his cold from me, I was sick literally 2 wks before he was & we have avoided being intimate for so long now, to avoid passing germs to one another!

More on health issues in the next couple of posts - I don't want to make my posts too long and discourage people from reading them, so health news will come in parts....see u later!