vakkotaur | Entries tagged with illness

Improving, recovering, but not truly recoverED. I'm able to sleep in longer segments, I think. I'm able to be awake for longer stretches. The sore throat is not outright gone but is receding. There are still nasal and cough issues, being dealt with as best as non-prescription medicine can. And I do feel a bit weak and mildly achy, but at least I have something of an appetite back with a desire for hot food. So things are generally better though it's still a better grade of not-good for now.

Current Mood: tired

...doesn't mean it's not plenty nasty enough.

Last week a fellow I work with missed a couple days due to illness. He was even tested for H1N1 and the test came back negative. Now I seem to have the illness he had.

I've spent most of the last couple days in bed, with a heating pad on and the thermostat maxed out. I think I'm recovering now, but it's slow going. Stuffy nose (and yes, I went and got the 'you gotta show a ID and sign for it' pseudoephedrine for it), sore throat, slight (sinus) headache, and generally achiness and blah.

I had been planning on visiting Sistaur this Sunday and dealing with a birthday anniversary in the family, but that's now out for two reasons. I'm not sure I want to go that far this Sunday even if I am feeling better. And Sistaur's housemate came down with 'influenza like illness' (what healthcare folks say when they are trying hard not to actually say 'H1N1' - which they are assuming but have not tested for). I don't need to get hit by that right after whatever this is. Actually I'd prefer not to get hit by that at all. Maybe there will be a visit next weekend. Maybe.

Current Mood: sick

That's one of the lessons of the last few days. I didn't have any pseudoephedrine (the nasal decongestant that actually works) and was in no condition to go out for a few days. So I was using the substitute that one need not sign for as it was all I had. I might as well have not bothered. I knew it was less effective, but the past couple days showed me it's just plain ineffective. Doing a bit of research, there are pharmacists who claim the original approval studies were flawed and at the recommended dose phenylephrine is about as good as a placebo. And there's no information showing safety at higher dosages.

Today I felt good enough to go out again. I bought the biggest box of pseudoephedrine I could so I won't have to do that again for a while. I can breathe again!

Everything else seems to, finally, be under control. I'm still weak and a bit achy, but my appetite is returning and consciousness is no longer limited to a few hours here and there. I made a mistake a couple days ago when I thought I was getting better and had some appetite. I overate, which was really easy to do. The result was rather like trying to start out... in fourth gear. *CLUNK* I was much more careful today. I've probably eaten more overall today, but it was much more spread out.

Current Mood: blah

jmaynard had a list of reasons that could be used. I have another: I'm staying home as a public service. Whatever hit Jay Sunday morning, hit me this morning. We have not eaten any of the same things, so that rules out food poisoning of some sort. Therefore, it's something I could transmit. Considering how I felt most of the day, I'm not about transmit it if I can help it.

I'm down to sipping Sprite in an attempt to get fluid and at least some Calories. Right now I'm at "Calories keep you alive" rather than "Calories make you fat." Hopefully I can sleep through most of the rest of whatever this is. Whatever it is, I really do not recommend it. It's quite nasty.

Current Mood: ill

I took yesterday afternoon off from work as I wasn't feeling too well. I slept most of the afternoon, too. And I slept normally, I think, last night as well. I have a bit of a sore throat and water doesn't taste quite right or feels like it's sort of scratchy or at least not soothing. Around 11:30 AM today I felt very tired again. Too tired. Maybe the sleep I got last night wasn't so good. Or maybe the pseudoephedrine with an antihistamine[1] that I took as soon as I got to work (which I must note does not involve my operating heavy machinery) this morning finally hit me.

This time I decided to treat it with caffeine and downed a can of Mountain Dew. I also now have a bottle of Dr Pepper. I am sufficiently awake now, but I expect I'll be going to sleep early tonight when it all wears off. And wow, this non-diet stuff sure is thick and heavy. My throat is nicely coated, but... how can people drink this stuff when they're feeling good?

[1] Maybe it's the effect of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Oompa Loompas, maybe it's that I'm reacting to the stuff I've taken, but I keep thinking of the Munchkins of The Wizard of Oz changing their lines from "You'll be his-..." "You'll be his-..." "You'll be his-to-ry!" to "Antihis-... antihis-... antihistamines!"

Current Mood: blah

...virus.*

( Where did the time go? )

* Quip swiped from howardtayler.

Current Mood: blah

Someone with Lupus needed to try to explain a day in her life to someone not afflicted. Thus was born Spoon Theory. It's an interesting read and an understandable, if only approximate, explanation of how life is different for some. I suspect one or two folks reading this might find it useful and more will likely find it of interest, thus I bring it up.

After I got back from RCFM I had a sore throat. No headache, no queasiness, just a sore throat. Well, I'm back from MFF and guess what? Yep, sore throat. It seems to have peaked last night or this morning and is on a slow decline, but still enough that it gets my attention. I don't know if the Halls Defense stuff (which i started taking before leaving for MFF) is having an effect, but short term use shouldn't hurt.

I'd blame travel, but it's just as long (or longer *grumble*) to get to there as to return. I stayed hydrated. Maybe it's the exposure to exhaust on the more crowded highways and in larger cities? Maybe it's that I wind up talking more and louder than normal. For all I know I was singing along to the tape too much. I'd just like to know what was causing the sore throat so I can avoid it in the future. Sure, it's not nearly as bad as a kidney stone, but it's still something I'd prefer to avoid. Oddly, it doesn't seem to start until the day after I return.

Current Mood: sore throaty

I was recently prescribed a course of a sulfa drug. I have now finished that, and am glad to be done with it. There are many possible side effects to sulfonamides, pretty much all of them unpleasant. I was fortunate in that I only experienced one, and that in a somewhat weird way.

The side effect was headache, but I didn't get headaches in the normal sense. Normally a headache, for me, is a dull (or growing) but persistent nearly head-filling pain. Seldom is it localized to just one part of the head. What I got was, overall, the least annoying headaches with which one might be afflicted. They were a sudden, sharp but not overly intense, pain and they were extremely local. And they were extremely short-lived. I seemed to turn a corner or something and that would set one off. Then I'd pause for a moment, just long enough to think "Yow, that's annoying!" and then it was gone.

Now that I'm no longer taking the sulfa, I no longer have these peculiar headaches.

Current Mood: relieved

I'll get to the faire later. Probably much later. I wound up taking the day off work yesterday. Sunday night I didn't feel so good. I took some Pepto-Bismol, but it wasn't enough. Waking up Monday didn't help much. Called in. Slept more. And more. Sometime in the evening I felt up to eating some yogurt and a bit of cheese. The headache is gone now, but I still feel like I have to be careful about what I eat and how much. An effective diet, I suppose, but I cannot recommend it.

Current Mood: Not completely awake

Con crud: A vague illness that has a tendency to flourish and spread at gatherings such as conventions. It can be exacerbated by immune system stressors such as lack of sleep and dehydration from prolonged non-stop travel. (Definition swiped and modified from here.)

I think I got about my usual amount of sleep, just not at the usual times. I made a good many stops to stay hydrated on my travels. That made a 12+ hour drive not too big a deal. I've also been taking Halls Defense (vitamin C) even before RCFM as a preventive measure.

The good part is that I don't have a headache or nausea or anything really really nasty. The bad news is that I do have a sore throat. Hopefully that's all it will be, and hopefully I'll be feeling back to normal (yeah, yeah...) for Siouxland.

Current Mood: sore throaty

I was up, for a few minutes anyway, early enough to see jmaynard just as he left on his way to his second appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel live show. I think I was more nervous about his appearance than he was.

That evening I recall being rather tired but not napping, determined to stay up and see if I could spot comet NEAT* since it was in an easy-to-find spot for me and the sky actually was going to remain clear. Around 10:00 PM or so I went out and did see it, at least with binoculars. I also looked at a few other objects in the sky and pondered a(nother) telescope again. I suppose I need to make up a list of stuff I think I need and get one item each week.

I spotted tenax on IM and confirmed I had his phone number and gave him a call. We geeked out for far too long. So long I saw Jay's appearance on the Kimmel show, twice (two stations air it at different times) but have yet to hear it.

Slept late, or tried to on Saturday. Napped on Saturday. Cleaned out the inside of the car, including the trunk, and got most of it taken care of. As usual with cleaning, a spot or two was missed. I did find four pocket combs that had gone missing in the last few years. They have since been washed for future re-use.

Sunday, well, another nap after noon. I did finish making up a couple audio tapes for the RCFM trip. I think the tape deck I have near the computer is a bit off-balance, but the tape will do for this and I'll compensate with the balance control in the car.

I checked out one tape some and went out to find supper and, in act of suicidal insanity, stopped at McDonald's for the double cheeseburger. I am still recovering from that mistake. It's a mistake I will not be making again.

I stayed up long enough to see Jay when he got back from his trip. That was pretty much the weekend. Despite my intentions of Friday, I didn't get anything much done on COLT and it feels like slept the weekend away, even if I did get a couple things done.

Next weekend will be taking care of most what I can for RCFM, and maybe visiting my sister. The weekend after, then I'll probably have reason to be tired.

* Mini-rant: Why are comets now named for the instrument or program that was used to detect them rather than the people who actually found them? It's like naming it "Comet Celestron" or "Comet Meade" rather than the person(s) using the device. If it's meant as, say, "NEAT Imaging Team" then I'd understand it, but I have yet to see that. I don't know of any spacecraft that has sent back a message, "I found a comet." The machines send back data which is interpreted by people.