Rob's Rumpus Room

I hate being sick

I hate being sick.
I hate taking medicine.

These two statements are, unfortunately, married at the hip. When I was little I used to have to take medicine for some stomach thing I had, I can’t remember what, but I convinced myself that the pills they were giving me were placebos. I was in the second or third grade and knew what a placebo was. I just impressed myself, whatever happened. Well, I’ve been sick. I had either my first or second sinus infection in my life shortly before one of my best friends weddings, of which I was a part. I had just gotten to the nice random drainage stage two nights before the wedding and was still on random purge right before the wedding. I forced myself not to drain during the wedding by will power alone. It wasn’t 10 minutes after the service that I was grabbing tissue to plug my nose. Well, nice imagery there. I went to see my doctor and discussed methods other than anti-biotics as I really really hate using those unless you need them badly. I managed to control and overcome the infection with some herbal supplements. I did not, however, completely get rid of the cough.

At my age, and knowing what I do about my “ever so delicate” body one would assume I know how things affect me. You hit me on the toe with a hammer and it is going to hurt and swell, and you better be watching your back. Well, I didn’t watch my back and Thursday my cough started to hurt. Friday I took a half a day off. The weekend was painful. I took many herbs. I drank many a tea. I stopped eating. I lost 6 pounds. That last statements is more meaningful knowing that one of the things I could eat was ice-cream. Solid food has not been my friend, and I’ve been supplementing with V8 and milk (skim, calcium enriched for my pleasure). I felt so bad over the weekend that I could not play Guild Wars. C’mon. Sitting in front of a screen clicking a button every now and then? “Yes” I say.

One of the more annoying symptoms is I am fatigued for two reasons. Firstly, I’m sick. Secondly, I can only seem to sleep during the day in naps. This is day three of not being able to sleep at night. I had 3 hours last night, 3 the night before. I had NO naps today. Yesterday I had a 3 hour nap when I had planned to get some things done. I think I actually scared myself awake last night but I’m not sure. Last night I visited a very special Rob place™.

I had gotten Mayumi and Oakel in bed. I was feeling hot and cold and coughing hard enough to nearly make myself vomit. I hear Oakel start talking. He does this sometimes if he wakes up. He will start a little conversation, and if you catch him quick enough you can put him back to sleep, otherwise prepare for 30 minutes of work putting him down again. Time, about 1am. So I quickly jump from bed and make my way to his room. He’s completely asleep. OK I could have sworn.. Then I hear the babbling again. The words aren’t really words but there is a conversation going on, and someone else just joined. I listen for a minute unable to make out a single word. I listen to see from where in the house the sounds are coming from. I suddenly understand that the AC vent is talking to the dish washer. Everything on my back stands up and my body finally decides to loose that Hot feeling and jus stick with cold. I run down to the kitchen, drink some water, thank the dish washer and go into the basement where it is quiet, and hot. I can’t sleep there either. I bounce between the bed and the basement until about 4:30, once actually putting Oakel back to sleep, and finally around 5:00 I sleep. 8:15 Mayumi tells me bye, and Oakel is still downstairs when she leaves.

So the earliest I could get a Dr appt was today. I have bronchitis… again. It was playing with pneumonia but they just didn’t seem to be getting along this time. I have anti-biotics.

I hate that I folded to the drugs, but after the first pill of three in the treatment, and the first Allegra-D I feel much better. So much better in fact, that I am going to work in the morning to deal with some crazy fallout that occurred while I was out sick. Then I’m probably going to go home and take a nap, then go back for a meeting.

I hate being sick.

Posted by Rob at July 13, 2005 12:37 AM