Sick

Here we go again. I am sick...again. This is the second time in 30 days and the third time in 8 months I've been sick. Right after we lost our Pooka, I was sick for about 5 weeks. All sorts of weird stuff - couldn't talk for three days, couldn't taste anything for five days, sniffles, cough, fever. Not fun.

Then last month hubby had the flu, diagnosed by his primary doctor. I fought as hard as I could, but ended up getting a cold that lasted about a week. Nothing too crazy - stuffy nose, cough, sore throat. Enough to be frustrating, but not enough to keep me too down.

Then this past Friday I woke up with a drippy nose. It hasn't been awful, like a full-blown cold, but I have been taking Sudafed and NyQuil. I've been hoping between the two that at some point when they wear off, I'll feel better. So far, nada. Still waking up with a stuffy nose and slight cough.

It hasn't been too bad, but I haven't hit the roads since I've been sick because I'm afraid it will get worse. I once went out on a 12 mile run, then got a horrible upper respiratory infection for two weeks! With my half coming up at the end of March, I can't afford two weeks! Maybe one, but two? Nope!

So, here I sit. Not feeling great, but not feeling awful either. In a no-mans-land of illness. Hoping that it doesn't get any worse so I can go out on Saturday for a run.

Have you been battling illness this winter? What do you do when you aren't feeling well?

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July 2013

July 2013 started out like any other month. Worked. Celebrated the 4 of July with family. Ate more than I should have and gained for the first week in a month. Not happy about that, but knew how it happened. Knew how to make the choices necessary to turn it around.

The second week of the month, I had some weird gastro-intestinal thing that kept me from work on July 10. Which, as much as being sick sucks, was a blessing. That morning, I noticed something not quite right with my adorable Pooka. For reference, here's Pooka...

Pooka the cat

He started to moan, which is not like him. I sat with him and eventually he started to purr. I told him not to do that to me! I was worried. But, a little while later he was doing it again. I called my husband and we tried to get him to walk. He couldn't. We grabbed some treats and he stumbled to the kitchen. It was not pretty. We gave him a piece or two of cat food, then called the vet. They said they were booked, but they would fit us in at 3:30 p.m. after the day's surgeries if need be, though our vet was off and we would have to see the other one. For a while, we didn't think it would be necessary as he started acting like himself again.

Then about 2:45 p.m. he seemed to take a turn for the worse. So, we decided to take him in. Better safe than sorry. We got in and went immediately back to a room. He wasn't doing well. They took his vitals and the doctor came in. He decided to do an x-ray because he thought there might be something wrong with his heart. The second he said it, I knew there was no hope. I had seen too many death certificates at work with the exact cause of death the doctor stated he thought it could be. They took the x-rays and we got our little boy back. We cuddled and loved on him until the x-rays and doctor came back. He brought in the x-ray from February when Pooka's back leg went paralyzed. He pointed out a big difference in the size of his heart and the veins that run through his lungs. The vet believed he had thrown a blood clot in February that went to his back leg area, which caused the paralyzed leg. This made sense as we couldn't figure out what caused it at the time. His theory was this time was that his heart threw another clot and this time it went to his brain causing a small stroke. The x-rays supported this, as well as his actions as he laid on the counter. There was no hope. There was nothing they could do to help him. We had to make the heart wrenching decision to let him go. It took a long time to make the final decision, but our Pooka is too important to us to let live in pain. We stayed with him through the procedure. To me, there is nothing more painful than having to let go of someone you love.

Having gone through such an emotionally draining experience, my body was too overwrought. I spent the next four days fighting off the gastro-intestinal issues. The following Monday, I felt much better, thank heavens! Then Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. Which lasted 3 days with no other symptoms. This is fairly unusual, so I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with tonsillitis and given an antibiotic and pain killer. Fun. And since July 16, I have been fighting a cold/sore throat/cough.

Then, you may or may not know, I work at an Archives with the goal of getting a job as an Archivist. I like what I do and I like the people I work with. I took the Archivist test and was told I did not meet the qualifications. I challenged this. Then I got a second letter telling me that my degree did not have the required 6 credits of archival science classes within the degree. They then broke down my work experience saying I didn't have the 6 months professional experience to counteract the lack of classes. I was going to challenge this. Then I spoke to the State Archivist about my chances of winning the challenge and being hired. Apparently, they are not very good. There are 40 people on the test and 10 with scores of over 90. When the position is posted, they can only interview the top 3 people and the top person on the list currently is a veteran, which means they get automatic first dibs on the position. If they turn it down, then they interview the next three people on the list. With my lack of experience, my score on the test (if I would win the challenge) would not get me into the 90s to even be on this list. The State Archivist said he didn't want to be negative, but the chances of me getting on the list and getting an interview is pretty slim.

So, my July was awful.

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Trying to stay healthy!

In less than five days, I'll be running my sixth half marathon. Eep! The weather looks to be hot, which is what I feared when I signed up. On the bright side, no rain. Though maybe rain would be welcome...

Anyway...two weeks ago, one of my co-workers was sick. Some upper respiratory thing. I work with him closely at random times during the day. I did my best to keep my distance. I didn't want to get sick three weeks out from race day.

Last week, another co-worker was sick. He just came back from two weeks in France and caught some bug. Lovely, international germs. I did my best to avoid him and he did his best to stay away. So far, so good.

Then yesterday, hubby got sick. It seems to me like he caught a stomach flu bug of some sort. He had stomach issues yesterday, then it turned into aches and a fever last night into today. He's been on the sofa since mid-day yesterday. He even called out of work! He never does this because he works from home. Usually he doesn't see the point. Today, he did.

So, here I sit trying to help him feel better and praying that I don't catch whatever it is hubby has. I'm hoping there is no incubation period that come Saturday morning I can't run. Hoping I can keep up what health I have until then. I've been lots of time training (though not as many as I should have...) to DNS because of illness!

Any suggestions? How to stay healthy when everyone around you is falling ill?


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She's Alive!

Yes, I have finally turned the corner on this upper respiratory infection thing that I've been fighting for 11 days.  It started the Friday before last and I'm still working on shaking it off, but I'm feeling so much more like me.  It's insane how much better I feel.

Wednesday afternoon through Friday evening, I felt like I couldn't breathe.  I was wheezing so badly that I could barely breathe and it was the worst feeling in the world.  I tried some home remedies here to try to change that, but they were very, very temporary in their effectiveness.  Finally, hubby called the doc and they prescribed a bronchial inhaler and a cough med.  The bronchial inhaler was a godsend.  It worked immediately and I could feel more oxygen getting to my lungs.  The cough medication made me laugh.  It was a tiny golden pill.  I've never taken a pill as a cough med.  When hubby picked up the meds, he also grabbed a thermometer since ours wasn't working anymore.  And Friday's temp wasn't a good one.  It read 102.9.  Later in the evening it went down a bit, but only to 102.3.

But Saturday morning, I still felt like crap.  Hubby called the doc and I went back in to see someone.  I saw the new doctor at the practice and can I say I just loved her?  She was so nice, so sweet, so compassionate.  I want her to my new primary and I want to be her friend.  Maybe it's the meds talking...Anyway...officially I was down 5.5 pounds since Monday, oops!  My temp was back to 101.1, just like Monday.  The bronchial inhaler helped tremendously with my air passages and she didn't hear any wheezing.  Ahhhh.... She prescribed a Z-pack antibiotic and pregnesone. 

By Sunday, I really felt much more like myself than I have in over a week.  I spent my Sunday watching Balls of Fury and the Philadelphia Eagles, doing and folding laundry.  We even went out to dinner!  It was nice to get out of the house, but it took us almost 2 hours at dinner because service was awful.  It normally isn't.

And a BIG thank you to my fabulous hubby for taking such good care of me the past 11+ days!!  He made sure I had everything I needed, made sure I ate and drank, drove me to and from the doctor, picked up my medications, and didn't kill me for whining about being sick.  I couldn't have asked for a better care taker and 

I LOVE YOU!!!

101

For the past 5 days, I have been sick.  Thursday and Friday, not too bad, but I was coughing....which I knew did not bode well.  As a child I had asthma and since then, when I get sick, my lungs are the ones that get hurt first.  I tried some Airbourne in green tea, but sadly, it did not help.

I went out on Saturday for my 11 mile run, even though I wasn't feeling well.  From what I've read, if you're coughing you shouldn't run.  But, I blew that advice off and ran anyway.  Bah!  I stopped a few times to cough, but I got through the run.

Sunday, I woke up and we had a full day planned.  It was my birthday and hubby took me to the Baltimore Zoo for the day.  We hadn't been to a zoo in a long time and I'd never been to the Baltimore Zoo.  I got to see the polar bears, which are my favorites and we saw some cute primates and lemers among other animals.  Then we headed off to dinner at The Owl Bar.  It opened in 1903, which in and of itself is cool. But, it stayed in operation throughout Prohibition, so it was a speakeasy too!  Very cool place!  From there, we hit up the always tasty Vaccaro's.  Had the best hot apple cider ever!  Dessert was so big, I ended up taking half of it home.  Yum!  Sadly, all that running around caught up with me and I slept most of the ride home.  And by the time we got home, I was hot and had the chills.  Lovely.

When I woke up Monday, I still felt awful.  Went into the doctor's, who made me wear one of these in the waiting room and during the exam:

I felt like I had the plague or something.  When I mentioned to the doctor I felt like I was living during the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, he just looked at me funny.  Eh.  Alright, whatever.  Anyway...my temperature by the time I got to the doctor's office was 101 degrees.  Surprised by that.  I can't remember the last time I had a fever, let alone one over 100. 

And basically, I have an upper respiratory infection and there's not much to be done.  I have some Sudafed, Mucinex, and Delsym for symptoms, but I'll be dealing with this for about 2 weeks...unless I get a secondary infection, which means I'll start feeling better, then get worse again.  Lovely.  Thanks.

So I'm feeling a bit better than I was, but I had an awful night's sleep last night.  I'm flirting with a migraine.  Even with the Delsym, I'm coughing. It's just not been fun the last couple days...