work. frustration. sickness

MonsterMustDie had a cold last week. Two weeks ago GT had a killer cold that left him face down on his desk at work. I’ve been fighting off a cold on the verge all week.
Thursday, I had a dermatologist appointment in the late afternoon around 3:40pm. We have been working longer hours this week until 6:30pm rather than 5:00pm with a half hour shorter lunch break to make up for plans to have our part of the office vacated for a commercial video shoot on Friday. I had a group of photos with complicated shapes and shadows I was madly editing to make up for a really bad set that didn’t quite cover nearly a quarter of the image and numerous cock-ups with the product staging. I was planning to leave at 3pm and probably come back after my appointment to continue alterations on images that had no disclosed deadline on the database. Just before I left the office, they announced that the studio and digital department would be closing at  3pm for the day instead. GT told me to go ahead and upload all of the images for the client. I explained how the last few were not done and looked really bad, even though I had already built all of the components to rebuild the images but, no matter, he told me to go ahead and blindly upload what I had to them. Ugh! I let my department manager know what was up and he simply said if GT told me to do it, send it that way. I am fully expecting some very bad responses by Monday.
The doctor's appointment went fine, BTW. Just a little aesthetic thingie he took off my back.

By Friday morning the cold came into full bloom. There was nothing I could do for the first two hours after waking up other than try to sit upright, crusty eyes closed, with what felt like a migrain headache. On top of that, the other symptoms made me feel nauseated. I called off work at the dress shop in the evening and spent the rest of the day wishing I was not awake. I drank a lot of water and slept in the guest room with the humidifier running. I'm sleeping upright-ish with a lot of pillows behind me.

Saturday was a lot better in the morning. Woke up snotty but mobile. Spent most of the day chilling on the sofa. MonsterMustDie and I have spent this weekend watching the first few episodes of Umbrella Academy. I'm living on soup and cold remedies.

Today,  the worse thing is the constant cough. My head feels like it will explode every time I cough and I'm doing the best I can to avoid coughing too much. Staying well-hydrated and upright helps a lot.

Sick

Sick. So very sick.

Didn't get out of bed all day Wednesday. Had a slight fever of 100.5. Could this be the flu? I've never had the flu so I don't know. Even when I did think I had the flu once, the lab said it was only a really bad cold but this feels much worse.

Thursday, somewhat better. No fever but my head felt like it is about to explode from sinus pressure and it hurt like being stabbed in the chest every time I coughed. I tried to go in to the closest medical clinic and was turned away because they weren't taking new patients when I came in.

Friday night, MonsterMustDie took me to the Urgent Care doc-in-a-box I'd been to before. I ended up being seen by the same doctor who tried to give me vallium to go with the prednisone that I got for my severe poison ivy last summer. This time, he tried to give me Prednisone again for the sinus headache but ended up prescribing a cough syrup and Z-pack.

This morning, I woke up with a disabling headache, ringing ears, and stiff neck that had me incapacitated until noon. I got out of bed finally at 1PM when the headache finally faded. I am blaming the Z-pack. MonsterMustDie thinks I should continue the antibiotics no matter what but there is no fucking way I can put myself through what I felt this morning again. I've had similar reactions to other antibiotics in the past but this was the worst I've felt in many years.

Even now, I have the head and body aches with ringing ears and light sensitivity but it is at last at a tolerable level.

on the mend

Hardly slept last night but still feel better today. Woke up, forced by the aches in my body, twice in the night. Got up. Sat upright as long as I could. Took Excedrin PM and drank as much water as I could. Finally made it back to bed for good until morning.

Just in time to return to work, we're both feeling better today. Eating soup. MonsterMustDie went treasure hunting in the neighborhood.
Put off meeting with the tenant for the key til tomorrow after work.
Installed system 10.5 on my computer. Watched Dr. Who.

Sick Monster

The Monster came home with a fever of 101 yesterday. We have begun treatment with EmerginC, Umka, and lots of rest in front of the telly.

With the freezing temperatures predicted, we brought Doris inside overnight. I ran to Target after work and bought the necessary litterbox, liners, scoop, etc. Tried to get her to recognize the box and showed it to her twice. The box was untouched this morning but there was no evidence of anything else in the area we had her contained to downstairs. She was, however, eager to be outside when I fed her. I put her heated pad/bed back in the outside carrier when I left for work.

feeling somewhat better today

Still trying to get over the awful cold I've had since last Thursday. I've had little bugs before but this has by far been the most painful cold I've ever had, with lots of burning and pressure in my ears and throat. I was afraid I had something much more severe like strep, plague, shingles, etc. but a visit to my doctor didn't find anything bad.

Now, there is finally some drainage and less swelly feeling inside, but it stll stings to breathe in. I purchased a vaporizer on my way home from work and I hope that will help me sleep with more comfort tonight. Standard cold remedies just make everything dry and hurt worse. Because my thoat is still sore, I don't dare do flu shots to help me sleep. The only thing that helps is chicken soup and hot tea.

Mornings are the worse. I usually feel better after a hot shower and walking upright.