I’m sick again. I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Chills, upset tummy, headache, fatigue, my eyes hurt, my heart keeps racing, and I have a killer sore throat. I have not had a sore throat since I had my tonsils removed when I was 16! To make it worse my lymph nodes are swollen about 2 inches. Inches! I can barely swallow water, let alone food. How frustrating.
The doctor isn’t sure what is wrong, my influenza and strep swabs came back negative, so they are treating it like the infection is of the lymph nodes themselves just in case. Though the actual diagnosis at the moment is a whole lot of, "I have no idea, you need more tests." I’m on antibiotics, but I’m supposed to call my regular doctor first thing in the morning to have additional tests run as soon as possible. In the meantime, since my official doctor’s office is closed on Sundays, I’m on extra extra strength Tylenol, which for the record is not helping at all.
UPDATE: Wednesday
So I have been sick for about 5 days now, and have just increasingly gotten worse every day. Cannot eat, drink, sleep, stand for long, etc. The original swollen lymph node is about the size of a golfball now and all the others are swollen now, too!
I have been to the doctor twice and the emergency room once. I was tested for Strep, the flu and Mono and all those tests were negative, but my throat and lymph nodes keep swelling and hurting. My doctor took more blood tests but the results of those won’t be back until Friday.
In the meantime she put me on Codiene and Lidocane, but neither helped the pain at all. Strange, eh? So I went a couple of days and continued taking those hoping maybe at some point they would magically kick in and I’d get a little relief and regain the ability to eat and drink -- but no such luck.
Today my doctor was concerned that I’m getting worse and not better so she sent me to another doctor so I could get a steroid shot to try to reduce the swelling fast. It hasn’t started working yet, but here’s hoping it does... This doctor also took me off the Lidocane and Codiene and instead put me on Oxycodone. Since it’s essentially been 5 solid days with no food and very very little to drink.
I was thinking that the oxy would work because it’s way more powerful but it is not taking any of the pain in my throat away. But I have to say I feel pretty damned good otherwise.
If the shot and Oxycodone do not work by tomorrow afternoon they’re talking about admitting me to the hospital. I’m hoping to avoid all of that so at the moment I am painfully choking down some mashed potatoes and sipping hot cocoa even though it hurts like a bitch. Also the tests get back Friday so hopefully we’ll actually know then wtf is causing all this nonsense!
Thanks for the support, I love you guys.
UPDATE: Friday
I spent a long day in the hospital yesterday. They took scans of my throat to make sure that it wasn’t swelling all the way shut or anything. They also did more inconclusive bloodwork and ran an I.V. full of fluids, anti inflammatory medication, and pain medication which actually helped me some! By the time my bag of nutrients was empty I could swallow a little bit again.
It’s a super dangerous medication so they were only able to send me home with 12 pills total. I am cherishing every single pill and eating and drinking as much as I can while the stuff is in me. After they are gone it’d be illegal for them to prescribe me any more, so this is all I get.
They sent me home after making sure I had been thoroughly rehydrated and wasn’t going to suffocate due to the swelling. I didn’t mind though because the pain meds they gave me were actually helping and that was such a great relief. When we got home Chris made me rice with franks and peas, and it was seriously like the best food I had ever tasted in my life. First time I’ve really eaten in about a week or so.
His kindness and usefulness would be short lived however, and I'd wind up trying to cook and clean for myself when I'm supposed to be on 24/7 bed rest because he's a selfish ass.
Today I went back to see my official doctor to see what my test results said. I hadn’t told anyone, cause I didn’t want anyone to worry until we knew for sure, but the first time I was in the Emergency Room the doctors there thought it could very well be Cancer. Which was a little much to swallow. I’d been worrying all week about it, as I’m sure my mother has as well since she was the only other person who knew.
Thankfully -- it’s not Cancer. It’s a very serious case of Mono. My lymph nodes are all swollen, my liver is swollen, my brain is swollen and my spleen is swollen and she says that this is just the tip of the iceburg since it’s just the first week. I was so happy to hear her tell me that, she was a little surprised. Usually no one is happy to hear they have an illness that is going to take 3 to 5 months to be rid of, but it sure the hell beat having Cancer!
The curiosity is where in the world I managed to get Mono from. No one I know is sick with it or has been sick with it or anything like it. Chris isn’t sick and he’s the only one I’m that close to. He must be a nefarious carrier. Mono isn’t exactly easy to get outside of direct bodily fluid exchange. You would literally have to inhale a fresh sneeze to catch Mono from a passer-by.
So there you have it. I’m not supposed to leave the house unless going to a doctor’s appointment for the next 6 weeks and I’m supposed to stay in bed pretty much all of that time. Bring on the sleep!
UPDATE: It’s been a few weeks now. I’m still sick, but it’s no where near as terrible as it was when I first posted about it. I still run a low grade fever, have body aches, head aches, fatigue, a little bit of a sore throat and localized pain from the swollen lymph nodes/spleen/liver. But I’m not completely miserable, like I had been.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
In Case You Haven't Noticed
My hair is completely different now. I've gone back to Black. I also had it cut much differently than before.
I was a little nervous about having it cut but now that I have, I'm happy I did. Despite looking more complex than hair that's all one length (long), it is actually a lot easier to style and manage. It still has some length to it, but I usually keep it tied back for that sleek angular look.
I know Morgan will probably hate it, she was so happy I had went blond last Summer. Sorry sis! I can't help but do the unexpected.
I was a little nervous about having it cut but now that I have, I'm happy I did. Despite looking more complex than hair that's all one length (long), it is actually a lot easier to style and manage. It still has some length to it, but I usually keep it tied back for that sleek angular look.
I know Morgan will probably hate it, she was so happy I had went blond last Summer. Sorry sis! I can't help but do the unexpected.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Not Just Easy, Cheap Also
So I went to Game Stop the other day and made a gem of a purchase: Rune Factory for the DS. It's like Harvest Moon, with a little extra. There's a little more story going on (albeit not much more) and along with general agriculture you can also adventure into caves and do battle with monsters. The greatest thing though, is the fact that instead of killing the monsters, you can choose instead pet them into submission and they will join your team to either farm alongside you, or kick some ass with you.
If you're a fan of Harvest Moon games at all, this is one you definitely need to own. If not, I would still recommend it to you. It's fun and pretty addicting once you get into it. Sometimes I'll sit down for a short stint and wind up playing for hours.
The stylus is implemented flawlessly making the gameplay simpler than your typical d-pad, a, b, x, y control scheme. You can use the stylus to kind of auto assign tasks to things. So instead of busting out your cheap hoe and walking 1 square at a time mashing the B button you can just click on areas of the field you want cultivated and go to town using the stylus.
My only "beef" is that until you skill up your attributes enough in the various areas you'll be repeating day-to-day you're going to find yourself running out of energy and having to throw in the digital towel early on an ingame daily basis. Also every now and again a typhoon will destroy all of your hard work in the fields. The last 3 crops I have planted in my fields have all been destroyed by typhoons meaning you're sort of forced into cavern planting, which while enjoyable means you have to travel back and forth to water your plants and harvest them.
Other than that, everything about this game is well thought out and very fun to play. I give it 4 pimp slaps out of 5.
If you're a fan of Harvest Moon games at all, this is one you definitely need to own. If not, I would still recommend it to you. It's fun and pretty addicting once you get into it. Sometimes I'll sit down for a short stint and wind up playing for hours.
The stylus is implemented flawlessly making the gameplay simpler than your typical d-pad, a, b, x, y control scheme. You can use the stylus to kind of auto assign tasks to things. So instead of busting out your cheap hoe and walking 1 square at a time mashing the B button you can just click on areas of the field you want cultivated and go to town using the stylus.
My only "beef" is that until you skill up your attributes enough in the various areas you'll be repeating day-to-day you're going to find yourself running out of energy and having to throw in the digital towel early on an ingame daily basis. Also every now and again a typhoon will destroy all of your hard work in the fields. The last 3 crops I have planted in my fields have all been destroyed by typhoons meaning you're sort of forced into cavern planting, which while enjoyable means you have to travel back and forth to water your plants and harvest them.
Other than that, everything about this game is well thought out and very fun to play. I give it 4 pimp slaps out of 5.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The Holidays
It doesn't matter what Holiday you happen to celebrate this time of year, whatever it is, I hope it finds you in good company and good health. Happy Holidays everyone.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
What Is Going On?!
Today has been the weirdest day. Things are malfunctioning left and right!
I'll preface this by saying it is extremely cold where I live right now. About 15 degrees Fahrenheit which is like -10 give or take a few degrees Celsius. There is about 4 feet of snow outside and ice covers all the trees. Very cold!
At around 11pm tonight I noticed our house was getting increasingly cold inside. So I kicked the heat up higher and went on about my business. About 30 minutes later I noticed it was even colder than before, despite having cranked the heat up! So I went down and investigated the furnace room, particularly of course our furnace.
It would light, shut off, light, shut off, light then shut off again and after that the fan would kick on (the part that distributes the heat throughout the vents in the home). This is supposed to happen when the flame is lit, but ours obviously was not.
I wondered if maybe the gas had been shut off for some reason or another, but when I checked the pilot on our water heater -- it was still lit and responding to command (lighting when I turned the water to hot and diminishing when I turned the water to cold or off). So, I knew we did in fact have gas. Then what could the problem be? The furnace itself?
I decided rather than risk blowing ourselves up from gas being leaked instead of lit, we'd just suffer through a cold night and turn the furnace completely off. So I shut the furnace down and went back upstairs. The house got colder and colder so we just kept putting on layers of clothing to compensate.
Rather be chilly than dead.
At 1am, out of the blue, most of the smoke detectors in the house started going off in unison. So recalling the awkward state of our furnace we ran downstairs in a panic expecting to see a fire or smoke or something... nothing. Not a damned thing in sight!
Now we're worried about the alarms going off, but totally confused as to why they're going off at the same time! What the heck?
I run and open the front and back door to let air in, thinking perhaps it's something in the air we just can't see because it's slowly accumulated. I know a lot of times camping or at parties where there is a camp fire or people smoking you don't even notice the build up of smoke in doors because it's accumulated over time, not all of the sudden.
Opening the doors causes the alarm downstairs to stop going off, but the alarm upstairs in the hall is still screaming like a fat kid that dropped his cake. Chris detaches all of the fire alarms and we stand there with both doors wide open, house 10 times colder than before, utterly and hopelessly confused.
The alarms are electric with battery back ups, so it couldn't have been low battery. The alarm in our bedroom never triggered so it couldn't be an electrical surge, either. There was no smoke, at all. Which left us to wonder, could it be carbon monoxide?
This daunting concept was quickly dismissed though because our CO detectors never went off. Which either means it's not carbon monoxide or that our CO is crappy. Argh! Back at square 1.
I closed the front door and shortly thereafter the alarm upstairs in the hall started going off again. So Chris ran back up there and unhooked it, again. We waited a few more minutes and he hooked it back up. None of the alarms have gone off since... but we're still totally wondering what the heck happened!
I came upstairs to call my mom and ask her since she has indefinitely more life experience than we do, and she suggested if we were concerned to go stay at her house for the evening, but if we do that we couldn't bring our pets (because she's already got a house full of pets herself). If I don't feel safe staying in my house, I'm not going to abandon my pets in that house! So I decided we'd stay here, and just see what happens. We don't sleep for a few more hours, anyway.
Just as a precaution I cracked a window downstairs so if there is something we can't see or smell, it's at least being filtered out a little and not just building up and up and up. In the morning we can call someone to come out and inspect our furnace. There's not much we can do right now except call 911 which I really don't want to do unless I know there is definitely without a doubt a serious problem.
Last thing I want on my conscious is that someone died in a house fire because the minimal amount fire trucks available at 3am were at my house investigating this strange situation when they called for help. Because I live in a town where there is, quite literally only 1 fire truck.
Things finally settled down and we returned to what we had previously been doing before all of this. At around 2am our internet goes out. What is going on around here?! Internet is obviously back now, but still. This night/morning has been nothing but strange!
I'll update once the guy comes later today to inspect our furnace.
UPDATE:
A man came out at around 6pm Tuesday and took apart our furnace. Turns out the sensor which tells the furnace to turn on and off was broken, causing it to turn on and off and eventually stay off permanently. Luckily he had the part which needed to be replaced, but he didn't have it with him.
He left to pick up the part and came back about 10 minutes later only to realize he didn't bring the right tool. So he had to leave again and come back, again, this time with the correct tool.
When he got back he went about replacing the part, which was pleasantly quick, and then gave it a test run. It worked. Yay we have heat again!
I'll preface this by saying it is extremely cold where I live right now. About 15 degrees Fahrenheit which is like -10 give or take a few degrees Celsius. There is about 4 feet of snow outside and ice covers all the trees. Very cold!
At around 11pm tonight I noticed our house was getting increasingly cold inside. So I kicked the heat up higher and went on about my business. About 30 minutes later I noticed it was even colder than before, despite having cranked the heat up! So I went down and investigated the furnace room, particularly of course our furnace.
It would light, shut off, light, shut off, light then shut off again and after that the fan would kick on (the part that distributes the heat throughout the vents in the home). This is supposed to happen when the flame is lit, but ours obviously was not.
I wondered if maybe the gas had been shut off for some reason or another, but when I checked the pilot on our water heater -- it was still lit and responding to command (lighting when I turned the water to hot and diminishing when I turned the water to cold or off). So, I knew we did in fact have gas. Then what could the problem be? The furnace itself?
I decided rather than risk blowing ourselves up from gas being leaked instead of lit, we'd just suffer through a cold night and turn the furnace completely off. So I shut the furnace down and went back upstairs. The house got colder and colder so we just kept putting on layers of clothing to compensate.
Rather be chilly than dead.
At 1am, out of the blue, most of the smoke detectors in the house started going off in unison. So recalling the awkward state of our furnace we ran downstairs in a panic expecting to see a fire or smoke or something... nothing. Not a damned thing in sight!
Now we're worried about the alarms going off, but totally confused as to why they're going off at the same time! What the heck?
I run and open the front and back door to let air in, thinking perhaps it's something in the air we just can't see because it's slowly accumulated. I know a lot of times camping or at parties where there is a camp fire or people smoking you don't even notice the build up of smoke in doors because it's accumulated over time, not all of the sudden.
Opening the doors causes the alarm downstairs to stop going off, but the alarm upstairs in the hall is still screaming like a fat kid that dropped his cake. Chris detaches all of the fire alarms and we stand there with both doors wide open, house 10 times colder than before, utterly and hopelessly confused.
The alarms are electric with battery back ups, so it couldn't have been low battery. The alarm in our bedroom never triggered so it couldn't be an electrical surge, either. There was no smoke, at all. Which left us to wonder, could it be carbon monoxide?
This daunting concept was quickly dismissed though because our CO detectors never went off. Which either means it's not carbon monoxide or that our CO is crappy. Argh! Back at square 1.
I closed the front door and shortly thereafter the alarm upstairs in the hall started going off again. So Chris ran back up there and unhooked it, again. We waited a few more minutes and he hooked it back up. None of the alarms have gone off since... but we're still totally wondering what the heck happened!
I came upstairs to call my mom and ask her since she has indefinitely more life experience than we do, and she suggested if we were concerned to go stay at her house for the evening, but if we do that we couldn't bring our pets (because she's already got a house full of pets herself). If I don't feel safe staying in my house, I'm not going to abandon my pets in that house! So I decided we'd stay here, and just see what happens. We don't sleep for a few more hours, anyway.
Just as a precaution I cracked a window downstairs so if there is something we can't see or smell, it's at least being filtered out a little and not just building up and up and up. In the morning we can call someone to come out and inspect our furnace. There's not much we can do right now except call 911 which I really don't want to do unless I know there is definitely without a doubt a serious problem.
Last thing I want on my conscious is that someone died in a house fire because the minimal amount fire trucks available at 3am were at my house investigating this strange situation when they called for help. Because I live in a town where there is, quite literally only 1 fire truck.
Things finally settled down and we returned to what we had previously been doing before all of this. At around 2am our internet goes out. What is going on around here?! Internet is obviously back now, but still. This night/morning has been nothing but strange!
I'll update once the guy comes later today to inspect our furnace.
UPDATE:
A man came out at around 6pm Tuesday and took apart our furnace. Turns out the sensor which tells the furnace to turn on and off was broken, causing it to turn on and off and eventually stay off permanently. Luckily he had the part which needed to be replaced, but he didn't have it with him.
He left to pick up the part and came back about 10 minutes later only to realize he didn't bring the right tool. So he had to leave again and come back, again, this time with the correct tool.
When he got back he went about replacing the part, which was pleasantly quick, and then gave it a test run. It worked. Yay we have heat again!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Cat Bath
The other day Neelix managed to get himself all dirty to the point where he required a bath before he got filth all over the house. Keep in mind this went down at around 9am, which is typically less than 5 hours after I went to bed and at least 3hours before I'd normally be waking up.
Chris won't deal with it because he's a pussy, so he wakes me up to deal with it. Letting the cat stomp around covered in grime in the meanwhile.
So I sleepily get out of bed and try to give him a quick rinsing in the sink. He's having no part in that, splashing water all over and generally just making an even bigger mess. So I resign to have to actually put him in the bath tub and give him a thorough scrubbing. This I was not looking forward to at all.
Spock did this once, and she hated every second of being bathed. She screamed for mercy and got water and soap everywhere as she desperately tried to escape from the tub. There's pictures of her in my Pets gallery of her clinging onto the faucet for dear life. So of course I expected pretty much the same from Neelix.
I filled up the tub with water and pet soap and then set him in it, closed the shower door and went downstairs to clean up the mess he made while Chris was being entirely unhelpful. When I came back upstairs I was expecting to hear him whining and trying to escape the bathtub... but he wasn't!
When I entered the bathroom and opened the shower door he was loving it! He was walking around in the water and trying to catch the bubbles. It was so damned cute! When I finished rinsing the suds off of him I drained the water and toweled him dry (mostly). I accidentally left the shower door open a crack and he was actually trying to go back in for another bath.
So, new discovery: Neelix loves taking baths.
Chris won't deal with it because he's a pussy, so he wakes me up to deal with it. Letting the cat stomp around covered in grime in the meanwhile.
So I sleepily get out of bed and try to give him a quick rinsing in the sink. He's having no part in that, splashing water all over and generally just making an even bigger mess. So I resign to have to actually put him in the bath tub and give him a thorough scrubbing. This I was not looking forward to at all.
Spock did this once, and she hated every second of being bathed. She screamed for mercy and got water and soap everywhere as she desperately tried to escape from the tub. There's pictures of her in my Pets gallery of her clinging onto the faucet for dear life. So of course I expected pretty much the same from Neelix.
I filled up the tub with water and pet soap and then set him in it, closed the shower door and went downstairs to clean up the mess he made while Chris was being entirely unhelpful. When I came back upstairs I was expecting to hear him whining and trying to escape the bathtub... but he wasn't!
When I entered the bathroom and opened the shower door he was loving it! He was walking around in the water and trying to catch the bubbles. It was so damned cute! When I finished rinsing the suds off of him I drained the water and toweled him dry (mostly). I accidentally left the shower door open a crack and he was actually trying to go back in for another bath.
So, new discovery: Neelix loves taking baths.
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