Popsicles for DH

I tell you, the fun never stops over here.

DH needs to have a medical procedure. He is still having problems with the coughing fits which in turn is causing him to not get any restful sleep. The doctor thinks that he has scar tissue in his throat that food is getting caught on. It is also creating a tickle causing DH to cough even though nothing is there.

Basically they are proposing to do an upper GI scope to assess the damage and then cauterize any pockets or rough spots causing problems.

Yikes. DH still has his tonsils too, so we'll have to see if they stay in or come out.

It looks like we'll have to stock up on popsicles for a while.

Times and Adventures with Whooping Cough

Poor DH. He's not been feeling well for over a month now and after a particularly bad night, I told him to go see the doctor again.

He has whooping cough.

WTFH?

Apparently it is making the rounds in these parts. Basically it is a bacterial infection (at least it isn't viral) that lodges itself around the back of your throat and likes to disguise itself as allergies and colds. The kicker is the violent coughing spells where you can lose your breath, making a "whooping" sound when you try to suck in some air. Some of the worst coughing fits are at night, sometimes to the point where you make yourself sick.

And it is contagious. We had to call his ex to verify DSS's shots were current or else we couldn't see him until DH has recovered (his are).

Well, yay us.

DH is on meds, so he is taken care of. Apparently I'm on the neighborhood watch program now. Both my sisters have been over in the 24 hours before we knew what he had and he had it awhile, according to the doctor. Yes, they were thrilled with news.

I talked to my mom and she told me us kids shouldn't have to worry because we all had our shots growing up. Au contraire, ma mere. The shots only protect you for a certain length of time and yes, you can contract it as an adult even if you have had your shots as a kid.

Now this part was news to me and I'll have to do some research to verify this is true. Apparently there is something in the new tetanus shot that covers you for whooping cough. How the two are related, I have no idea, but DH was told if you've had a tetanus shot in the past two years, you should be ok. Sadly, I've not had the opportunity to step on a rusty nail lately, so I'm at risk.

The main complications from whooping cough are exhaustion, dehydration, pneumonia, and cracking a rib from coughing so hard. Joy.

Now on the to fun stuff. I don't know what med is making DH really loopy, but he was hilarious this morning. He wanted me to wake him up when I got up this morning so he could call work and let them know what he has and how long he may be out. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Sweetie? Time to wake up, Ok?

DH: Hmph? Rwpr mmfpht hmm graptum snftt.

Me: OooooKaaaay. Sorry, I didn't catch that. You said you wanted me to wake you up.

DH: Rawrfbtfpr.

Me: *snort* Hey, wake up. You need to call work.

DH: Wabba gab ... did they get the school ...

Me: What was that?

DH: Did they ... get that thing at the school ... (snore) straightened out?

Me: Um, I must have missed that on the news last night.

DH: There was this thing ... bus training ...we doing ...

Me: Please tell me you didn't sign us up to drive a school bus.

DH: Huh? What are you talking about?

Me: *sigh* Nevermind. Are you awake?

DH: TV.

Me: Huh?

DH: TV over here. You ... middle. Another TV.

Me: Was the TV on late last night?

DH: Rbbsmtnpt.

Me: Was I hogging the bed again last night?

DH: No ... TV here ... push the buttons ... other TV ... *snort*

Me: Two TVs, huh?

DH: Uh huh. Who's that guy?

Me: What guy?

DH: The one standing with his back to you.

Me: (thinking: um, hi. There sure as hell better not be some guy standing in our bedroom while I'm in my PJs.) Sorry. I don't see him.

DH: He's with his wife. Over there. They own the go-cart shop.

Me: Oooo kaaaay. (thinking: what the hell is in that stuff they gave him?)

DH: (cracking his eyes open) What?

Me: Hmm? I didn't say anything. Are you awake now?

DH: Oh, be quiet. Don't mess with me when I'm not awake. (pause) What were we talking about anyway?

Me: You were saying something about school buses, tv sets and go-carts.

DH: Oh, be quiet.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh.

An Ode to Spring

Welcome to amature poetry hour. *ahem*

The sun is shining
The day is aglow
Yet I feel I should be watchful
For what, I do not know.

The early spring flowers are blooming
The trees regain their leaves
It is a special time
Before hornets, wasps and bees.

A spring shower passes
Washing away winter’s grime
The air is fresh, the temps are warm
All looks new, like a shiny new dime.

I cannot shake the foreboding -
What is that I see?
Red buds by the thousands
Fallen off the trees.

Curse you, red buds!
For I know what is next
My annual pilgrimage to pharmacy
My life savings in Rx.

Oh it starts innocently enough
A sniff, an occasional sneeze
My eyes redden, my nose runs
My cough turns into a wheeze.

Oh, curse you red buds!
You signify the worst
Just as the weather turns nice
My sinuses feel they shall burst.

Only now it isn’t just red buds
The changes have me beat
I don’t know whether to fire up the air conditioner
Or turn up the heat.

My allergies evolved into my annual springtime cold
A freight train that cannot be stopped
There is nothing like feeling miserable
A good time to be had, not.

Curse you, red buds!
We do this every year
From allergies to colds to hacking cough
And keeping Kleenex near.

I called my Mom
My husband made me soup
The thing I hate the most is
Always feeling pooped.

So here I am
Forced to tough it out
Hard when you feel like such a baby
And feel grumpy and want to shout.

Anb so dis is my stoby
Abou ‘ow I gob dis code
I reabby habe dose reb buds
*Sigh* 'aybe I shoub habe my nose.

This city girl would never make it in the wild.

Gorgeous weather yesterday. The temps were just below 80 degrees, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, children were laughing.

I mostly stayed inside. I did have the windows open though. Does that count?

Every year I complain that I never see the spring. I feel like I go straight from my winter coat to my air conditioning. I love 70 degree weather before the humidity blankets the area like a suffocating blanket. This year I remembered why that is.

Oh, it all started innocently enough. DSS announced the flowers on the side of the house were starting to sprout up. (The landlord must have planted things that come up every year because I certainly have no talent for it.) There is a little wooden fence along the front sidewalk and right next to the sticker bush springing up, I saw the most adorable tuft of green capped with little purple flowers.

How pretty! I thought. How come I always seem to miss this fun stuff? Winter is being washed away and revealing fresh springtime. The grass is getting green again. The dog is frolicking is Bob-only-knows-what in the back yard. I'm actually thinking about how much mulch we are going to need for the flower beds.

Then it hit me. Saturday we had rain. In it's wake, thousands of these little red buds from the trees covered our cars and driveway. My smile began to falter. It. Was. Those. Little. Darned. Buds. Again.

I hate those little red buds.

Sure enough, my allergies hit me like a freight train. My eyes watered. I sneezed. I sniffled. I hacked. I even prayed (it was Sunday, after all). To no avail. I'm even on year-round allergy medicine. I had an allergy induced migraine hit about 4:00 AM this morning. In a flash, I was reminded why I hide indoors until it was too hot to do anything. I hide from those darned little red buds and whatever else is in the air when they hit the ground.

Curse you, tree pollen!

Maybe it's a sign. The reason our Spring Break vacation was canceled was that those little red buds were coming out, determined to wreck havoc in my life again.

Of course, this is always the time of year things get interesting between DH and I. He's an outdoors person, and I hide from tree buds. Sometimes there is more than a little friction over my desire to stay indoors just as spring fever hits him like a steam roller.

I guess I'd better get that secondary allergy medicine refilled today. You know, the script that's been sitting in my purse since last week and just might have prevented half of all this. But then I'd have nothing to post about.

Time to air out the place

New post: I'm sick of the last one being the first thing everyone reads when the come over here. I don't know about you guys, but I think it's depressing as hell.

I'm doing all right. I'm sleeping a lot more, and frankly that's better than stressing out. Stress is hell on my stomach. Hopefully the things causing the stress will be over in a few weeks and I can more or less get back to normal. And the sleep is probably a good thing, since before I was existing on about 5 hours a night and then crashing on the weekends. You know how it is. First one up, last one to bed and not enough hours in the day.

On to happier thoughts. I just picked up the the JAK novel "White Lies," which I'm dying to get into. Thing is, I'm in the middle of another novel and I hate starting one thing up when I'm in the middle of something else. I get the characters all mixed up and end up with some pretty wacky dreams. Like a historical paranormal cowboy theme.

The novel I'm reading is "For Better or Hearse" by Laura Durham. It's a light amateur sleuth mystery and I'm enjoying it. I just got to the "I know who done it!" part, and wouldn't you know it, I had to go into work. I don't think they'd appreciate my being late even if the mystery was solved on the next page. I'll have to finish it at lunch. Then I'll dig into Jayne's new novel!

And that, folks, is the extent of my plans for the weekend. Have a good one.

Ugh

To my overwhelming joy and happiness, I've started having anxiety attacks. I know, yay me. They are not the really horrible ones, just worrisome enough to get my attention and let me know that hey, you're not handling the stress in your life very well right now. Yes, I've been to the doctor and yes, we're working to find something that works.

The only reason I'm sharing this is that I may be posting a bit less as I work through this current wrinkle in my life. The meds the doctor has put me on is making me sleepy all the time, and that is so not going to work with work. There will probably be some adjusting and tweaking going on. The last time this happened to me, my writing fell way by the wayside, so that is a concern too. Writing is often very cathartic and I don't want to loose that outlet.

So with any luck, this will be a short-term thing. If I'm loopier than normal, we'll just blame the meds.

And I'd love to hear about any reader recommendations for something light and funny to read.

For the love of Pete ...

Obviously, I've become a virus magnet.

Yep, I'm sick again. This is a real doozie this time.

Without TMI (I hope), let's just say that DH and I thought we were hit with a nasty bit of food poisoning Sunday night/Monday morning. It came completely out of left field. Never before have I ever wished harder that we had more than one bathroom. Luckily, we were good little soldiers and went in shifts and that's all I'll say on that.

We both went to the doctor on Monday and it turns out it is the very nasty little virus going around, accompanied by its little friend Temp of 102. Big fun. Have I mentioned it's not a good idea for both me and DH to be sick at the same time? It's hard to whine when the person next to you is whining just as loudly. Yes, we are both lousy sick people. The good news is that we are both on the mend and didn't aggrivate each other. Meds that make you sleep are good for that.

I can honestly say I cannot wait for 2006 to be over. 2007 has to be much, much better health-wise.

And why is it that whenever you are sick, there is NOTHING good to watch on TV? DH loves to watch Matlock whenever he is home sick. Matlock is ok, but after four hours of it, I'm ready to stick a fork in my eye. Thank Bob for multiple TVs in the house.

So ... what did I miss?

Rosalie, I gotta littLe virus Part 2

Well, crap.

I HATE being sick. DH and I have been planning this little daytime trip on Friday for weeks now and I'm sick. Not just "gee, I feel a little tired and under the weather." Oh no. I even went to the doctor, who in turn said, "You've got a viral something-or-other."

Without TMI, I've basically felt like crud for the past four weeks. And it's not even the same thing the entire time. Yeah, nothing like variety when you're trying to tell the doc you're sick.

So I've mainly had this cough. I get chronic bronchitis, so I thought no big deal. I'll just get told to rest and get a good decongestant. Wrong.

Instead, I get chest x-rays (something new for me) and a two day wait to find out if I've got pneumonia or not. Meanwhile I hope and pray my boss at my real job believes I am really sick and doesn't sack my sorry behind. So far, so good on that front. And no, I swear I am not faking it. It's just a major fear of mine that people don't believe me when I am.

The doc prescribed this cough medicine that I swear comes in a Super Big Gulp cup. The first thing I asked the pharmacist was if it was a "take until gone" or "take as needed" because the bottle was just that big. Thankfully, it's a "take as needed" which will probably come in handy since I get the coughing thing at least twice a year.

I don't know exactly what is in this stuff, but me-oh-my I couldn't remember my home phone number the next day. And I was trying to tell it to my boss in case anything came up. I tried to read and I'd fall asleep every hundred words or so.

Well, here we are two days later, still coughing and no x-ray results yet. I've missed a week of work, a week of writing, and DH tells me this morning he isn't feeling so good. He's now coughing and has a sore throat.

Sigh. I think my shopping trip may have to be postponed.

Hey, Rosalie. I think I gotta little virus.

(from I Love You To Death)

Actually not a virus, but was miserable just the same.

Every once in a while my body decides to take a little siesta, complete with Montezuma’s Revenge for whatever reason. Apparently too much stress, too little sleep and an extremely sensitive stomach was reason enough this time. Plus throw in Mother Nature’s way of saying, “Hey, you’re not PG,” and I was down for the count. I know, TMI, but I swear it’s like getting the stomach flu every month with every worst symptom. Yay me.

While I was in a moping contest yesterday with the dog for “Who is More Pathetic,” I finished reading Janet Evanovich’s “How I Write.” Excellent book, and not just for Plum maniacs such as myself who want to know every since detail of what went into writing the series of Stephanie Plum mysteries. In the back is an excellent section of resources for writers, including organizations, books and websites. As soon as I am fit to go out in public, I’m going to comb my local library to see what they’ve got from Janet's lists.

Over the weekend, my husband and I rented some movies, none of which were particularly noteworthy with the possible exception of “The Sentinel” with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. I liked it and was pleasantly surprised. Our other selections were kinda “out there” and included “Larry the Cable Guy in Health Inspector” (DH's pick. I cannot believe someone let my stepson watch it and it wasn’t at our house), “UltraViolet” (loved the cinematography and choreography but fell asleep due to the plot) and a documentary on the Boston comedy club scene from the eighties (love Stephen Wright, but it turns out I wanted straight up comedy, not a documentary about it).

Speaking of, my favorite Stephen Wright line is, “I spilled spot remover on my dog and he disappeared.”

Followed by my next favorite, “I’m in love with my dental hygienist. I eat a box of Oreos an hour before my appointment.”

(These are paraphrased because I don’t have my source handy and the man is just too funny not to share.)

Now if you will excuse me, I need to try and suck down some more 7-Up. Cheers.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

(Ren and Stimpy)

Ok, time to get the funk out.

5 Tips for feeling better

1. Go for a walk outside. Unless it's raining cats and dogs like it is here.
2. Take some one-on-one time with your pet. Pets are known stress reducers. Unless it's a guinea pig. If you get peed on, it's your own fault. You've been warned. I usually toss mine a toilet paper roll (the cardboard center) and he chirps happily for hours. Best of all, I don't get peed on in the process.
3. Talk to someone you care about.
4. Watch a funny movie, read a funny book, or pick up today's comics in the paper. Laughter is a great stress buster. One of my favs is Close to Home (the comic strip).
5. Decide you want to feel better. I know, I know. It isn’t always that easy. But every once in a while I tell myself to knock it off. If I want to feel better, then go do something that makes me feel better. And it works.

Seriously though folks, if you’ve been down and blue for some time now, look up a therapist. I did several years ago and simply talking to someone who won’t judge you does a lot of good. I didn’t have the worst problems in the entire world. I don’t even have the worst problems in my own family. We even got to the point where my therapist and I would just sit there and I would say, “I think I’m OK now.” And she told me, “I think I’m wasting your money at this point. How about if you need me again, call me. I’ll be here.” Very cool.

I’ve been it that dark room before, checking to see if my life insurance would cover my current debts. The thing that woke me up to the fact that there was a problem was the day a question popped in my head: Are you afraid someone will stop you? Or that they won’t?

If I want to matter to someone, I also need to do something to deserve it. Make a difference in someone’s life, whether it be a child, a shut in, or someone’s grandparents whose kids live far away. The last time I checked, the Lone Ranger hasn’t ridden into town lately, so this is something you’ve got to do yourself. Make something happen. No matter how small.

And if you’ve thought about hurting yourself, wanted to sleep forever, or thought no one would miss you if you’re gone, CALL SOMEONE TODAY. Call a hot-line, a crisis center, someone in your church – it doesn’t matter who, but call someone who can hold your hand and show you the door you need to go through.

Some goes for if you know someone who is in trouble.


Here are a few numbers.

National Hopeline Network Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433).

Boys Town Suicide and Crisis Line: 800-448-3000

Covenant House: 800-999-9999


And if you have other needs, check out this website for more hotline numbers:

http://www.allaboutcounseling.com/crisis_hotlines.htm

How do I write thee? Let me count the @#$! ways ...

Saw Psych for the first time last night. Cracked. Me. Up.

I was down with a migraine most of yesterday. Second time in 7 days. I kept thinking if I didn’t refer to it as a migraine, it wasn’t. As in just an everyday headache. Right. Nausea? Sensitivity to light? Persistent desire to hide in the dark? Girlfriend, that was a migraine. It just really stinks when the meds aren’t working. The one that did, they took off the market. Come on, I really wasn’t using my liver anyway.

Apparently, I get cluster migraines. Cluster is a good word for it, and I don’t mean headaches. Mine are triggered by hormone changes, allergies, moon phases, changes in atmospheric conditions, a different food every time, stress, and breathing. Then they start and stop with no apparent warning for about two weeks' time. I'll be minding my own business, do-be-do-be-do and then WHAM! Dear-God-who-let-the-little-man-with-the-pick-ax-into-my-head Migraine. Now who wants to be me for a day?

I am needing to get back to my manuscript. I’ve been rolling a few ideas around in my head and it’s past time to get them on paper.

Writing style: How do I write? I am a very visual person. I see mini-movies in my head. I see conversations and body language. I see entire scenes. It’s getting them down on paper that’s hard. I have one Work In Progress that is a real mess. It was written as a series of scenes, not in any particular order. A conversation would pop into my head and I would write it down. The task now is to link them all together now under the umbrella of my story. Some really great scenes have absolutely nothing to do with my plot, so off they go into my idea file. I actually have a stack of binders, accordion files and computer disks just full of miscellaneous scenes. Hopefully they will see the light of day – someday.

If I ever get this first one out, I may actually stand a chance of getting several more out pretty quickly. But it's always that first hill that's a doozie ...

Snakes. I Hate Snakes.

(Paraphrased from Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while (yeah, the echo is deafening over here), but I’ve been kinda laid up with a migraine the past two days. The first day I tried to tough out and then went to an eye doctor appointment where they dilated my eyes. Oh, yeah. That went well, coupled with the new contacts plopped in my eyes (I haven’t worn contacts in over a year). I also picked out new glasses. Why do they do this when you cannot see squat? I have no idea what I picked out. Nothing like placing blind faith in the two complete, yet very nice strangers whose job it is to SELL ME A PAIR OF GLASSES. Egad. It is a wonder if I didn’t end up buying ones encrusted with Swarkovski (sp?) crystals.

Day two I had to call off work. I hate calling off work. I always feel like someone won’t believe I’m really sick. The place I work now is so much better than any of my past ones in that the two most excellent ladies I work with will basically hose you down with Lysol if you so much as step foot in the office if you are sick (Been there, done that, doesn’t feel so good. Kinda sticky.). It is almost to the point where they will string garlic bulbs around the office to ward off sickness.

My DH is sick as well – tummy pains. The guy just can’t catch a break this year. He’s going to the doctor again.

And finally, back to snakes. On He Wrote/She Wrote (the Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer blog), someone mentioned snakes. Which in turn reminded my of a story that truly reinforces my determination that there is absolutely no way in hell I will ever allow a snake as a pet under my roof.

A friend of mine I used to work with (one of the few I could share my Buffy obsession with), came in and told us that her husband’s snake (one of several) had escaped and they were having trouble finding it in the house. Days had gone by and still no snake. Then one morning she came ready to strangle him (the husband, not the snake). Apparently, overnight he had dumped a bunch of flour on the kitchen floor and left it there.

Didn’t he bake something and forget to clean up?
No.
Did he accidentally drop the bag?
No.

He wanted to look for snake tracks to see if the snake was going into the kitchen at night while they were all asleep.

FOR WHAT? A MIDNIGHT SNACK??!?!?!

Feel free to do your own heebie-jeebies dance. I know I do every time I think of it. Yikes.

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat.

(From Jaws)

It’s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. How appropriate since my boat is leaking metaphorically speaking and I’m about to be sucked under a wave of paperwork at work. At least it is a WHOLE lot better than the last place I worked (of ye ol ‘Approved for Termination’ fame). Less stress, too. Now if I’d only win the lottery, learn to like veggies and workout, my life would be perfect.

Finally, there is a break in the heat. Which, of course, means it is raining. Even better, this wacky weather has triggered my migraines again. Probably a cluster of them too. At least, I want to blame the weather. Surely it has nothing to do with all the junk food I’ve eaten this week. See, junk food makes me feel happy … and nothing that makes you feel happy could possibly make the little man with the pick-axe in my head start using said pick-axe or do that awful squeezing/pressure thing that makes you feel like he is sucking your soul and/or will to live out through your nasal cavity …

Ok, enough of the woe-is-me bit.

Writing. I don’t seem to be doing a whole lot of it lately. Again. I did work on a scene where our hero finally realized the reason behind our heroine’s strongest objection to their marriage. Little sister pointed it out, of course. The woman’s perspective. Our hero kissed our heroine several years ago and then promptly announced his engagement – to someone else. Heroine pops him in the nose and basically leave town to study to become a doctor. Then several years later, he kisses her again and she questions his motives, especially since he has enlisted her help in finding him a wife.

Or is it more effective to have a notorious scoundrel not kiss little miss perfect for a good chunk of the time they are engaged?

Sigh. Me thinks my scene will be filed under “Good idea, but it doesn’t work here”. The Story of My Life.