I'm not getting on the scales this week. Fighting other battles. After a week of feeling really rotten with symptoms changing daily, and a steady rotation of OTC meds to ward off symptom du jour, I broke down and went to the doctor today. It was a professional development day at work in the morning, and a workday without kids in the afternoon. This comes on the tail of having worked until 7pm last night for parent teacher conferences. Historically, teachers take extended lunches on these days and don't always come back. I stayed get get professionally developed, called the doctor's office at 11:30 and got a 1:30 appointment. I cashed in my comp time from summer hours and left. During this whole malady, my appetite has been ferocious, and I've fed my every whim. I wanted compensation for all the bad I was feeling. Food has always been a comfort, and this week has been no different. Can't totally change 45 years of programming, especially when faced with adversity.
I had time to kill between leaving work and my appt, and I had been starving throughout the workshop. I went to a place I seldom have opportunity to go and enjoyed a half reuben with a cup of potato soup and a black tea with honey and ginseng...and 2 frosted sugar cookies, my favorite!
Went to the appointment and felt a bit ridiculous reciting the list of symptoms I've encountered over the past week. It would have been more efficient to list the ones I have not experienced. Let's see...it started with congestion, followed by a raw sore throat, then I lost my voice entirely for 2 days, but felt good otherwise. After that, there were nosebleeds, drainage, tremendous headaches, uncontrollable shaking, chills, ear pressure, burning eyes followed by waking up with them glued shut. My thought was pink eye, but it wasn't. Then there was dizziness, inability to sleep several nights in a row, a tickle, a cough, and a few mornings with my mouth coated with slime. Today's tally was incredible fatigue, a pulled muscle in my lower back from coughing so hard, swollen eyes, tremendous headache with sharp shooting pains when I'd cough, more drainage, and my tongue has raw spots. Diagnosis: Fluid behind both ears, a severe sinus infection, dehydration, and a BP of, get this...180/110! I felt so rotten I started to cry. I've never had a bad blood pressure reading. The doctor assured me it is most likely due to the cocktail of OTC meds I've been taking, specifically anything with Sudafed. I'll be the first to admit, I took what was here to relieve whatever was dragging me down, and like I told her, some were 24 hour meds, some were 12 hour, some were 6-8, and others were every 4 hours...and by day 4, I didn't give a damn. I took what I thought would make it possible to get up and go to work. At night, I took what I thought would permit me to sleep. She sent me home with 3 Rx's, and one will knock me out for 4 hour naps. I took them when I got home and crawled in bed at 3. When I woke up, the light coming in the window was dim and I thought it was the sun coming up tomorrow, but then I panicked because my dogs were missing and I couldn't remember what I had done with them. That was just it; I hadn't done anything with them. They were still outside and hoping for supper. I'm to have my BP checked again in a week-10 days. The finest thing I've had to eat, which felt more like the ambrosia I've been foraging for day and night, was a cup of beefy noodle soup from Cracker Barrel tonight. Homemade noodles, and the broth was just right...chunks of roast beef that melted in my mouth. That's not all I had, oh no, but I'll spare the details. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't even terribly good aside from the soup, but I feel rotten and there's nobody here to take care of me at a time when I can't for the life of me do what is best for me. It's just not in me. It will be. I knew today that medicinal intervention was necessary so as not to spend another week pretending to feel good at work. I didn't want antibiotics, but they are necessary to beat this thing. Once beaten, I'll feel better and get control of everything else. For now, it is what it is...a blip on the screen.
Get better!
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