Out For A Week

I'm sure no one noticed, but I've been gone for a week. Actually, I spent the week at home, in bed with a 100+ temperature and a serious sinus infection. The infection spread to my eyes, which were very red and full of that yucky white stuff they call "matter". I almost cracked a rib with the strength of my coughing, and nothing over the counter seemed to work to turn off the crap that my sinuses were producing.

I left the office on Friday feeling somewhat bad. The night before my temperature was 100.6, so I took some Ibuprofen at bedtime in order to bring it down. It worked to some extent. On Friday morning, I only felt somewhat okay, but I knew I had to come in since my neighbor was out and I was covering her folks (see previous post). So I dragged myself in and stayed the whole day. By the time I got home on Friday night, though, I was really beginning to feel bad.

On Saturday morning, the problem with the left eye started. I was rinsing with my eye wash constantly, but it didn't seem to be helping, and by Sunday the right eye was red and scratchy, too. My temperature bounced up and down all weekend and when Monday morning came, I knew that I was in no shape to go to work, so I called in sick. When none of my over-the-counter drugs seemed to be working, I called my doctor on Monday evening. After asking a bunch of questions about my symptoms, he told me that I had a "serious" sinus infection that had spread to my eyes. He called in prescriptions for antibiotics and eye medications to my local pharmacy. He told me that I should plan on staying home for at least another two days, maybe more. While I waited for him to call in the scripts, I called the office and left messages for my attorneys and the Secretarial Supervisor, telling them that I would be out until at least Thursday, but that I would call on Wednesday to update them.

I called the pharmacy for the second time at around 8:40. They told me that the scripts had been called in and that they'd be ready in about 45 minutes. I waited until 9, then got dressed and headed for Walgreen's. I needed to refill my tissues as well as my cough syrup in addition to picking up the drugs the doctor had ordered. I also added a couple of packages of Sugar-Free cough drops. The total came to a little over $74. I paid for my stuff and headed out of the store. I couldn't wait to get home. I felt really miserable.

At home, I took the first of the antibiotic pills and put some of the drops into my eyes. I took 600 mg of ibuprofen, 4 teaspoons of cough syrup (the maximum adult dosage) and went to bed. Two hours later, I was up coughing. I couldn't take anymore cough syrup for another 2 hours, so I popped a cough drop into my mouth and tried to sleep. Thankfully, I was able to get about 3 hours more before coughing myself awake again. I went ahead and took the second antibiotic pill and another full dose of cough syrup, then went back to bed. I slept a full six hours before waking. I thought maybe I'd be going back to work on Wednesday. No such luck.

Despite massive doses of cough syrup and cough drops, Tuesday night was pure hell. I could not lay down at all without the sinuses draining into the throat causing a bout of coughing. The coughing was so hard that my left ear popped. I have been hearing a buzzing sound in that ear since then. My temperature spiked to 101 and it took two doses of ibuprofen to get it down. When I got up on Wednesday, I felt so bad. One of the offshoots of a sinus infection is a sinus migraine, which I had big time. I took my little blanket and my neck pillow into my work room, where I have a straight backed chair with a high back. It was so bright in there (eastern window) that I had to cover my head to block out some of the light. I wrapped up in my coverlet, put the neck pillow and scarf in place, and slept, sitting upright, for about 3 hours. It seemed to help a little.

After I woke up on Wednesday, I spent the day kind of dozing in my big comfy chair. By mid-afternoon, my temperature was over 102, so when I called into the office, I told them that I was still infectious and staying home the rest of the week. They said okay, just get my doctor to send a letter saying it was okay for me to come back to work on the following Monday. I took 1000 mg of ibuprofen and wrapped up in my coverlet. I dozed on and off for a couple of hours before taking the full dose of cough syrup and heading to bed. Miracle of Miracles! I actually slept for 5 hours straight before my bladder woke me (just like normal). I woke up on Thursday feeling a little more human.

Thursday night was also fairly restful, and I awoke on Friday feeling somewhat better. The infection in my eyes was pretty much gone. I continued to use the drops, however. I took a shower and washed my hair. I lounged around while my hair got totally dry. Then I put on some clothes, went to the bank and to Dominick's to get groceries. I was only gone about an hour and a half, and I could not believe how bad I felt by the time I got back. I loaded the groceries from the back seat into the cart and headed inside. I stopped to get my mail and went over to the elevators. I got on the elevator and pushed 3. The door closed and we headed up.

Now, this particular elevator has been acting up for some time (I first complained about it 6 months ago). When it is going to stop at a floor, it sort of does a little hop and then takes about 30 seconds to shudder to a stop at the floor before the door opens. On Friday, it did it's little hop, and then it hopped again, and then again. But it didn't shudder up to the floor and the door didn't open. I pressed the "Door Open" button and nothing happened. I finally pressed the alarm bell and one of the building engineers answered. I told him that the elevator door wouldn't open. He asked where I was and I told him, and he said he would be right up to open the door. In the meantime, the elevator kept doing the little bounces, and I thought I was going to be sick. Suddenly, the door opened - only it wasn't on 3 anymore. I was back down on the main floor.

It seems that our elevators are run by hydraulics, not cables. It also turns that the little hops I had been feeling were actually the elevator descending back to the main floor. Needless to say, I did not stay on that elevator. The building manager was there, and I told her what had happened. I said that I had a hard enough time riding the elevators when I felt fine (I suffer from benign positional vertigo), but what I had just experienced had been no fun at all. The engineer came back down on the other elevator and asked what had happened. I told him that somehow the elevator had come back down to 1. He said they would check it out. I took the other elevator up to 3 and finally made it back to my apartment. I was shaking by the time I got there. I quickly put away the groceries that needed to be refrigerated and went to lie down for a while. My little trip to the bank and shopping, along with the fright on the elevator had absolutely worn me out, and my temperature was back up to 100+.

By Saturday morning, I was feeling better, so I went out for about an hour to pick up some craft supplies that I needed (an errand from the previous weekend that I needed to complete). I stopped at KFC to pick up a bucket of chicken (so I wouldn't have to cook for the weekend), and headed back home. The whole trip took about 70 minutes. I fixed myself some lunch and then took a nap in my chair. After that I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in my work room sculpting clay flowers for pins. I baked the flowers and set them aside to cool. Then I just relaxed the rest of the evening. I was looking forward to a restful slumber, but that wasn't to be.

Saturday night was like Tuesday night. I couldn't seem to stop coughing. When I got up on Sunday morning, the sinus migraine was back with a vengeance. I took some ibuprofen and basically just lounged around all day. I tried working on my pins, but I just didn't have the energy or patience for it. Most of the day was spent dozing in my comfy chair wrapped in a coverlet. Finally, late Sunday afternoon, I started feeling better. The headache had eased, my temperature was down and the coughing had finally subsided. I watched the SuperBowl and then Gray's Anatomy and ER before heading to bed.

I slept pretty much all the way through the night without coughing myself awake. I got up at 6:15 this morning, took my shower, got dressed and caught the 7:55 train downtown. It's now 3:27 pm, and so far I only have a little headache and my temp appears to be normal. I am hopeful that the worst has passed. My ear buzzing is still there, but seems to be getting better. My doctor says that if it doesn't go away by next week, I should call him. Other than that, I appear to be finally on the mend. I really hate being sick and I'm glad this thing is finally over.