Overview of the weak.. I mean week.

I was released from the hospital Tuesday night, with specific instructions that I was not allowed to return to work until my re-check doctor's visit on Friday. Which was fine, because I had already missed my entire week of work while being in the hospital and wasn't scheduled back to work until Saturday anyway.

However, I was not well.. and unfortunately that also meant I was not well enough to go to school either. I tried. I had a class on Wednesday afternoon, so I thought I would try to make it. It was only an hour class. I woke up Wednesday morning and my throat was dry and swollen. It hurt to swallow. I thought nothing of it, figuring 4 days of pure oxygen being pumped up my nose 24-7 dried me out. Not to mention all the steroids they have me on. I drove myself to school, and the walk from the parking lot to my classroom winded me to the point I was nearly crying when I got into the classroom. I explained to my teacher what happened, and he said he wouldn't blame me if I put my head down in class. Good thing too, because I didn't even make it the entire hour without passing in and out of consciousness.

Well that didn't work out well. Ok, stay home. Went home and went to sleep. Thursday morning, I woke up from a dead sleep with the same swollen throat, only this time it was so painful I could barely swallow my pills. And, once I did, I vomited the liquid back up, holding down only the pills because my throat was so swollen the pills couldnt make it back up~!

At this point I got really scared. I called the doctor I was supposed to have an appointment with the next day, and they said, "if you're vomiting, go back to the emergency room." No thank you.. I couldn't afford the first visit.. not going to to back a second time for basically nothing. So I suffered through it, hoping that the steroid pills I took that are supposed to reduce inflammation would help the swelling in my throat go down once they kicked in. Thankfully they did. However, I didn't make it to my classes, because one of my classes for the day included standing in a cold barn for 4 hours. Didn't think that it would be the best idea in my situation, considering standing winded me, cold was a bad idea, and a barn would be filled with things like hay and dust that my poor lungs probably wouldn't take kindly to.

Friday, I went to the doctor that the hospital referred me to. Geoff was kind enough to drive me, and wait forever in the lobby finding all sorts of things to amuse himself with, like their fantastic magazine selection.

I told the doctor all of my concerns, and he actually said some things that made sense about what he thinks happened. I got some nasty upper respiritory infection/virus, that caused my bronchioles to swell up, constricting my breathing and aggrivating my undiagnosed asthma. Ok.. good. He said that he attributed the swelling in my throat to that same virus/infection that apparently the anti-biotics in the hospital didn't quite kill, so prescribed me some more anti-biotics. Yay.. more drugs. (By the way, that is sarcasm. I have never been into drugs, even over the counter stuff. I usually just suffer through whatever ailment I have, and rarely even medicate other than the occasional NyQuil when a cold hits or rarely a headache pill.) I really don't like being on this many different kinds of pills and things. It makes my head swimmy and my body feel strange to me.

So after the doctor's office, Geoff and I decided to run a bunch of errands, being it was the first time I was actually feeling up to leaving the house in days. First stop.. FOOD! I was craving a crisp chicken burrito from Taco Time. So there we went. While munching on that, Geoff spied the sushi place across from it, and had to have some. He said that while the sushi was good, it was missing something though.... and promptly added RANCH DRESSING to his sushi!

After watching that, I was no longer hungry. So we hit the pet store for some needed supplies for our fuzzy little irritants at home. I got Wes a new bone, and he got Crystal some cat treats. We again were amused by the selection of reading materials. Particularly this one....

Then we got to act silly and hang around a Walgreens while I waited for my prescription to be filled. $50 for SIX pills of those anti-biotics. I'll pay you back will be written on my gravestone.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining. I'm really not. I actually had a really great day hanging out with my roommate doing mundane things like errands. He really makes redundant tasks fun. I'm so grateful to have him in my life. Wuv you Geoff!

I'm also grateful for the fact that although I don't have A LOT of friends, I know I am truly loved. Out of the entire 4 days I spent in the hospital, I don't think I was alone in my room for more than an hour maxium each day. There was always SOMEONE there keeping me company. It was fantastic, and I can't thank them enough for showing me how much they care.

Actually, I'm thankful for all of this. It could have been a lot worse. I'm still breathing! I know I'm in debt up to my eyeballs, and missing work and school is going to throw me off, but I really think this whole ordeal has helped me. In quite a few ways. I haven't allowed myself to take off my hospital bracelet. I'm still wearing it. It's a reminder for me that I need to slow down, not stress the small stuff, and it made me quit smoking! (I saw this in the bathroom of a gas station the other day.)

In addition it made me take some time to do a lot of self-reflection. That's something I haven't done a lot of in my life. Mostly running from one adventure to the next, afraid of missing out on something, but instead missing out on weighing the consequences for my actions. This whole last couple of months has been like a rollercoaster ride, and it is time for me to get off, let my head stop spinning and regain my balance. Fixing the broken parts of me, is my real New Year's Resolution... and it's about time.