In Which I Rant

This is copied over from my main blog on Xanga. I apologize if the formatting is off because of that. I'm sorry that this isn't a very good post. But I realized that I hadn't put any "real" blog posts up over here for awhile, so I figured it was time. And most of my normal blog posts on my other blog lately have included pictures, which I don't post over on this site. So I couldn't use those posts. Confused yet? Sorry, I'll just let you read now...

This might not be pretty. I just want to get this off my chest. If you are looking for something happy to read to brighten your Monday, this probably isn't it. Sorry.

I feel nasty, cruddy, horrible, rotten, terrible, crap-crap-crap-crap-crappy...you get the picture. To say that I feel bad is an extreme understatement. It turns out that I am extremely allergic to something in the B's house. That is the family we house-sit for. (Remember- we dog/bird/house-sat for them for a month a year ago??) So we have been house/dog/bird/kid-sitting for them since Thursday. For whatever reason, I was not affected in such a way when we were there for a month. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was in the summer that time?? Dad is wondering if their house is moldy and since the air conditioning isn't on right now (obviously), that is why I have reacted in such a way. It's to the point that I can't go back in their house. My dear, loving, caring, amazing, compassionate sister has taken over full-time for me. We were splitting duties. No more. Well, I'll have her for a short period of time this afternoon after she gets off the bus and until Jen gets home. But that is IT. I can't take it anymore.

I started feeling this way Thursday evening. Funny, that's when we started house sitting. I could feel my chest tightening up before I fell asleep that night. Then in the middle of the night, I woke up coughing really hard. I just thought, "Ohhhhh no." Grrr. Then it got worse and worse as Friday went on. I started my breathing treatments up that day. I was so frustrated because I had finally gotten to the point on Thursday that I was actually getting back to normal! It was obviously short-lived. That night I felt miserable by about 7:45 and told Jen I was going to bed. She looked at me like I had grown 2 heads! I NEVER, I repeat NEVER go to bed anywhere NEAR that early. I usually get to bed sometime after midnight. I can't tell you the last time I was in bed before 10:00. To be in bed before 11:00 is a miracle. I just couldn't take the pain anymore. So I started the process of getting ready for bed, in between talking to Mom on the phone about my condition, and got to bed around 8:45. Then I read til 9:30 and fell asleep for TWELVE HOURS!!!! Craziness! I felt somewhat better when I got up. Not nearly so crappy-ish. But then it just got worse and worse as the day wore on. I wasn't very good company. I was very subdued at Dad's Upwards basketball game. I just wasn't in the mood for cheering and being around people. Lol.

Then Saturday night around 7:45 again, I had just had it. I can't tell you the last time I had very so crappy. My head felt like it was about 5 times its usual size, my ear had been aching like crazy all day, the left side of my nose/septum and throat had been burning all day, my sinuses were so congested, my head felt like I had just gotten off a merry-go-round or a rollercoaster. It just wasn't fun. So I once again said I was heading to bed. Ridiculous. Jen went and called Mom to come get me, but they were at a dinner at church. So I sat on the floor and stared at the wall for awhile (don't I lead an exciting life?!) until I could move. Then I took my boat-load of meds (the good thing about being sick all your life is you know what meds to start up when any symptom occurs) and packed all my stuff up so I could leave once Mom and Dad were done at church. At one point, I really just felt like going to the ER to be put out of my misery. Dad decided to come and get me "because he'd rather just come get me himself in the first place than to have to come dig me out of a snow bank". Gee, thanks Dad. (Did I mention we got a huge dumping of snow yesterday? Well we did. Again.)

I was feeling slightly better by the time we got home. But not much. I just kinda fell into the house, told my mom good night, and went to my room. She followed me and told me I should probably bathe to get the allergens off of me. At least someone had their head on straight! So I did. Then I went to bed. I woke up on my own Sunday morning around 8:30 and felt even worse than before...if that's possible! I just kinda groaned when I woke up. Mom took one look at me and asked if I really wanted to go to church. Lol. She said, "You sound NASTY." I said, "Yeah, I feel nasty, too." So she told me to stay home. And so I spent the rest of the day in bed for the most part. (I am actually writing this Sunday night.)

I have to keep stopping whatever I'm doing to lay down because I'm just so miserable. I haven't been this sick since....I don't know, maybe high school? I have the INSANE sinus pressure that is so bad that it makes my entire face hurt. To the point that even my jaw and teeth hurt from all the pressure. Ridiculous. And the lovely, hacking-up-a-lung-from-deep-inside-you coughing. It's just wonderful over here.

And I am tired of people telling me, "Oh I know how you feel. I have allergies, too." NO, you don't. (And I am not, by any means, saying this to ANY of you. It's to people who don't read this. Don't worry. ) They say, "Oh, I have allergies, too. They really stink." Uhhhh, yeah. I'm pretty sure that I'm not referring to your "get stuffed up, runny nose, sinus headache" allergies. Nuh-uh. I wish. People just don't understand that when my allergies get flared up it is NOT a good thing. It sends me into a sickness fit for a crazy amount of time. For example, all it took was one bike ride. One. One day when there was junk flying in the air for an hour or so to make me sick for SIX MONTHS when I was a senior in high school. That's not your average allergies, folks. And then it goes down into my lungs and gets all complicated. Ugh. This shouldn't be happening after two sinus surgeries. I'm sick of it all. I'm tired of the pressure, pain, and all that stuff. Tired of sneezing. Tired of blowing my nose. I just want it to end.

And now I think I will end this whine fest. Sorry for this. :) I need to call my doctor. And they had BETTER do something for me. Not like before Christmas when they kept ignoring me until I had gotten really, really bad. Grrr... Oops, I said I was done ranting, didn't I? Sorry.

Happy a happy Monday, folks!

Sick-Sick Here and a Sick-Sick There

*This is probably getting confusing, but I wrote this Tuesday night to post on my other blog on Wednesday morning. I'm just now getting it copied over. Here is the original post...

I wrote this last night. I'm off at Junior Block again now.

I just got out of the shower. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, the entire time I was in there, I was mentally writing this post in my head...and it lasted my entire shower. So I clearly have far too much to say to actually say it all in one entry without having an entry a mile long. Fear not, I'll just write for as long as it takes me to do my breathing treatment or dry my hair...whichever takes longest. Yes, I am multi-tasking. That is my middle name. I am doing my breathing treatment, blow drying my hair, and blogging. Speaking of which, my nebulizer is giving me fits right now, probably from a lack of rinsing it out often enough.

Even without a calendar and without family and friends and profs telling me, I'd still know we were approaching a break based on the kids' behavior lately. Ay yi yi. I can only imagine what it'll be like right before Christmas break. Oh but I won't be there! I'll be done by then! :) :) :)

I just heard this in a Hallmark movie while I was home to see the DWTS Finale, "God sees everything, and on certain days, so do I." It was said by a woman who ran an orphanage. I'm sure you've all heard, but JENNIFER AND DEREK WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not excited at all. I've only wanted them to win since Day 1...or Week 1. Whatever.

Everybody and their brother...literally...are sick right now with one thing or another. I am determined not to get any sicker than I am. One can dream right? With Mom, Jen, and I all attending/working at 4 different schools, plus Dad working in a factory, and then interacting with our usual groups of people, we don't stand much chance of being healthy. Currently, at least three floors, yes I said FLOORS, of students here on campus are down with the stomach flu. Plus, your random smattering of other people down with it. There is a nasty headache/neck pain/fever going around Roanoke, where Christa is teaching right now, and she thinks she is coming down with that tonight. So she didn't come over for the finale. A horrid stomach flu was going around the twins' daycare, to the point they had to close the daycare down! And then it spread to Jen's school since numerous people are affiliated with both. And it officially spread to Lincoln, the school I'm at. Today I heard of one teacher and one student down with it, and that was just in the couple minutes I was passing through the office. Goodness knows how many are truly out with it. Then you have your typical cold/flu going around. And I've heard of two cases of pink eye in the past two days. And Evie Baby has croupe. Hmmmm, what else am I missing?

Onto my health update. First off, Nebi (my nickname for my nebulizer) is still not cooperating for more than a few seconds at a time. Grr... Sunday evening Christa came over to dye pasta with me for our Early Childhood class. I already was battlimg a sinus headache. Then we got working with the rubbing alcohol for long enough (anything like that is a huge trigger for me), and it sent me into an all-out migraine. And oh it was BAD. I managed to get Jen to take over for me and made it back to my dark, quiet bedroom, where I hibernated for awhile. I was finally crawling out of my room to try to find some medicine when Christa came looking for me. Of course, I didn't have my emergency migraine meds at home. It was at school. I did have my daily migraine med at home, so I took that for the night since it had been 24 hours. Mom got me to the couch, where I laid with a hot washcloth over my face. After Christa left, with promises of prayers for me, Mom got me on the floor where she pressed up under the edge of my skull, at the trigger points. She did that for so long that I am STILL bruised there from that! Lol! Only it WASN'T a laughing matter then. Finally Dad and Jen raced over to HU and got my emergency migraine med. I took two of those, but it didn't offer any relief. I was plain miserable. It was horrible. I couldn't move. I just laid there and moaned. Mom kept threatening to take me to the ER, but stubborn old me kept refusing. I should've just gone. Mom determined that I wasn't going back to school that night. Jen brought my PJs out, and Mom and Jen managed to get my jeans off of me and put my PJ pants on. They gave up after getting that piece on me and just left my shirt I was already wearing on. Then they called Dad out to come get me to bed. He came out, announcing himself as the "Body Mover".

They got me into bed, where I just laid there begging God out loud to take the pain away. I kept telling my mom I just wanted it to go away. Jen prayed over me before going to bed. Mom really had to get back to work, so she called Dad away from the TV to come sit with me. He just made constant trips to the kitchen (at the other side of the house), reheating wet washcloths for me in the microwave. He'd bring one back, cool it just enough to lay on my face, turn around, walk back to the kitchen, reheat the other washcloth, bring that one back to me, and repeat. What a trooper. Am I blessed with an AMAZING family or what?! They are so good to me. Finally, as I cried my heart out to God, begging Him to give me relief. He did. :) I fell asleep. Sweet, sweet sleep. I was so out of it that the next morning when Jen came to tell me she was out of the shower and it was my turn, I didn't even wake up. She then made the executive decision that I wasn't going to teach that day. She woke me up just after 6 to go e-mail my teacher and take a breathing treatment, before I crawled back in bed until 10:00.

I had already told my prof I wouldn't be in class that afternoon because I had an appointment at the allergist for my asthma. So I drove to Ft. Wayne and went to the doc. I saw the new nurse practitioner since that was who was available. It was a highly enlightening appointment, said TOTALLY sarcastically. She informed me, after listening to my lungs, that I was really struggling for air and not much air was flowing through my lungs. No really! I could've told you that! Then she looked up my nose and told me that I had a lot of "yellow discharge" and was "quite congested" on both sides. Again, duh! And finally, she looks at my throat and tells me I have a lot of drainage. Once again, I could've told you that and I didn't even have to go to med school for that one! So she tried to put me on this one antibiotic, but people, I know my antibiotics. I am on at least 2, if not more like 6 or more per year. I told her I couldn't take that one b/c it upsets my stomach. She said, "All antibiotics do. Eat yogurt with it." I told her I do. She said, "Take it with food." Once again, I DO! She finally looked in my chart and saw that my doctor had documented that this antibiotic gives me horrid stomach pains, even when on a specific stomach med with it, and horrible headaches. Then she decided she could believe me. Honestly, lady! So I am on a different antibiotic and Prednisone. My usual. I should just walk in the allergists at this point, and say, "I'll take my usual!" It'd sure save me, and the doctors/nurses, a lot of time and money.

I drove back to Huntington, and while I waited for my prescriptions to be filled (because they were suddenly bombarded with presriptions apparently), I had time to go to the Hallmark store (and look at everything in it), go fill up my gas tank (because I was almost on empty and saw Christa while I was there), go to the dollar store and look at everything I could think of, mosy around CVS for awhile (looking at all their Christmas decorations, candy, pain reliever, cold medicines, toothpastes, and everything else around the pharmacy), and have a phone conversation with Jen. Well, how is that for a run-on sentence? I finally made it back home with my prescriptions. Lovely.

And seeing as how it is now past one in the morning and I have to get up in 4.5 hours, I should go take the rest of my meds and go to bed. Adios, friends!