Side Effects

Medicines can be amazing things. They can take a body that has been racked with a stubborn fever for eight days and make it feel invincible just four hours after they're consumed. Those same medicines can then take the short lived joy over their amazing abilities and turn your world upside down again.

I had about 40 hours of medicated bliss earlier this week. I felt like I was on top of the world. I could function, I could eat and I could finally work on getting my house back in order. I could even play with my kids and stop feeling guilty for being sick.

Those good feelings started to go away Tuesday. I was in denial that morning that things weren't as great as I was pretending. I couldn't eat my cereal because I was nervous about the first day of school for Madeline. Not because my appetite was gone. Then my reason for not eating was cleaning the house and the litany of other things I needed to do. Turns out I was just in denial of all the nasty side effects of the medicines. The antibiotic has wreaked havoc on my intestines. What goes in, almost instantaneously comes out. And one of these lovely medicines have killed my taste buds. I LOVE food. I miss the flavor of food. Drinks taste like diet versions of what they are (a taste that repulses me). I'm pretty sure I've temporarily lost the ability to taste things that are sweet. I feel lost without my sense of taste. I'm like Capt. Barbosa in the Pirate of the Caribbean.

The only food I ate today that did taste good wound up having a bad ending. While eating, a spice from the chicken and pasta dish I was eating hit me in the back of my throat. I started coughing and couldn't stop. I think Oscar thought I was about to die (I thought this, too.). I've never seen him look so frantic. I tried to drink juice and it wouldn't go down. So I headed to the fridge for water. That's when I vomited on the freshly mopped floor. FUN! And still, the coughing wouldn't stop. So this time I call Bryan to try and tell him that I might be dying and I had the pleasure of vomiting in my kitchen sink. Thank God for garbage disposals. So happy I did not have to scoop that out of the sink. Not that it's funny, but this all happened at a point in Bryan's day when a lot of stuff was going wrong at work. Poor guy. He really had a rough afternoon between me and work. I did however manage to finish my lunch. I couldn't pass up food that tasted like something.

I'm just very bummed about the side effects of these meds. I can handle the intestinal issues (to a degree), but I can't handle the itchy irritation that is also a side effect of this antibiotic in a certain area, the loss of appetite and taste. I called and got a different antibiotic prescribed for me (one I have taken in the past that doesn't bother me). I am really anxious to just feel better.

On top of all of this, I'm also worried about what to do for Madeline's birthday. I have no party planned for this poor child. I'm not sure what we're going to do to celebrate her birthday yet. She was such a huge help to me last week when I was unable to do anything and I just feel terrible that I don't have anything special planned for her. I'm sending her into school tomorrow with soft pretzels to celebrate her birthday with the class. On Saturday we're going to have munchkins and celebrate with her team after their first soccer game of the season. If all goes well I'll be able to get some of her friends over here soon to have a little party or maybe she can take a few friends to see a movie.

My wonderful neighbors helped me out a lot today. Kelly took Ellie for several hours today so she could play with her two younger girls. That allowed me to rest and almost kill myself with my lunch. Joanne has been concerned about me and has been calling me all day to check on me. She was kind enough to pick Madeline up from school. It's amazing how these little acts of kindness can do so much to help me. I'm certain that I feel better today than I did yesterday because of the help they offered me. I'm used to trying to play super mom and do it all. It really isn't easy for me to accept help, but I'm finding that sometimes letting people help me when I clearly need it is precisely what I need to be doing.

Small Successes

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. Both Madeline and Ellie have gone back to school.

2. I'm feeling better. Not great, but I'm able to function. I felt like I was on top of the world on Monday and Tuesday, but the antibiotic seems to be wreaking havoc on my intestines. I suspect that the steroids that are supposed to be helping my bronchitis didn't stay in my system at all on Tuesday night. Wednesday left me feeling like I was two steps away from being as sick as I was yesterday. I'm doing better today, but I don't feel as well as I did on Monday or early Tuesday.

3. I mopped the kitchen floor and got the countertops and stove cleaned on Tuesday. I am thinking that I may have overdone it a touch on Tuesday and that may be why I don't feel so great now. I can never just do things in moderation. I really need to learn to take it easy from time to time.

I have a Cheery Chipmunk!

Ellie's meet and greet for Pre-K was this morning. I'm now the proud parent of a Cheery Chipmunk. Madeline was a chipmunk in Pre-K, too.

Ellie was rather excited to go to school today. She got to see most of her friends from last year. Her little circle of friends all got together for a bit to play at the blocks table. I love that she's got both girl and boy friends. Madeline only played with the girls at this age. She loved playing with all the great toys in the class, too.

Her teachers were excited to see her and had lots of questions for her about Madeline. Ellie was only two months old when Madeline started Pre-K so these teachers got to see Ellie transform a lot over her first two years.

Ellie was also pretty excited that she got to see Miss Susan, her teacher from last year, this morning. Miss Susan is pretty funny. She came to the adjoining class room door and did a silly little dance and all her Busy Bears from last year came running over to say hi. Ellie has been telling me she wants Miss Susan to be her teacher, but I think she'll be content to just stop by and say hello.

Here are some pictures of Ellie's first day:

Back to School....

Today is back to school day number one of two in our house. Madeline is sitting in a third grade classroom right now. It's hard to believe that I have already taken her to the first day of school five (six if we count her one day of Kindergarten at the public school in our old neighborhood) times already and she's not even 8 yet. Where on earth has the time gone?

I wasn't planning on taking you down a memory lane trip this morning, but now that iPhoto is up and running, why not? It will save me the time of having to do this on Saturday when I do Madeline's birthday post.

Here you go:

Pre-K

Kindergarten (public school, don't ask)

Kindergarten (private school, the very next day)

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade (this morning)

It's amazing how much she has grown over the past four years. And, tomorrow I start this cycle all over again with Ellie as she enters pre-K at the same school and same classroom you see Madeline pictured in at the top of the photos. Ellie went to preschool last year for three year olds so this won't be her first day of school tomorrow.

An angel of mercy perhaps?

Yesterday I unwillingly answered the phone from "Private Caller" (I hate those types of calls, I want to know who you are before I pick up.). It was a nurse practitioner from the Take Care Clinic at my local Walgreens. She cheerfully asked me if I was feeling better now. Seriously? I go there on Friday morning, see a 72 year old nurse practitioner who tells me every thing looks great and I probably am on the down side of a nasty viral thing who sends me home with nothing to even help me feel better.

So I proceeded to explain to this other nurse practitioner that I feel like my airways are inflamed (have been since Wednesday), I'm coughing so much that when I'm not hacking up a lung, I'm sleeping. I have a fever that hasn't broken in 8 days even with me taking Tylenol and ibuprofen together (our pediatrician's trick to battling tough fevers in the kids).

She went on to tell me that she thinks I should have been given an antibiotic. She says that 60% of the time my symptoms are viral, but they could also be bacterial. (That's exactly what my neighbor outback said to me about 30 minutes before when she called to see how I was doing. What a thoughtful neighbor, by the way.) She asked me to stop in and see her that day or today and gave me the locations where she'd be both days. The caveat for yesterday, was that I needed to get there within 30 minutes to make sure I could be seen that day. Not too much of a problem, but we needed to pull Madeline away from her friends outside. I think we were at Walgreens 10 minutes later. If you're going wave something in front of me to make me feel better don't expect me to dawdle.

Turns out I coughed myself in to bronchitis. Yay! My throat is raw (I don't think I can feel my throat over all the other worse pains, to be honest.) Inside my nostrils are swollen. (Isn't that odd? I've never been told that before.) And I'm told my oxygen levels are down. I was getting 94-96% oxygen while they monitored me, and at one point I got down to 90%.

The nurse practitioner felt that I was on my way to pneumonia if I continued on my unmedicated (not counting my "fever reducers" if we're even going to call them that) path. She put me on a steroid to help with the bronchitis, a cough syrup that is being replaced with Mucinex DX (It is the foulest medicine I've ever taken and I clearly remember this lovely yellow liquid from when I was 7.) an antibiotic that is big enough to choke me, prescription strength ibuprofen, and an inhaler. Right now I'm only using the steroid and the antibiotic. I have not used any fever reducers in 18 hours and as of last night I saw 98.6 for the first time. I felt like celebrating. This morning I was 98.9, but I can live with that. I'm feeling better already. I'm told the steroid can do that to you. I don't like to pump my body full of medicines, so I'm going to do my best to recover and only use that is really necessary.

At what point does Karen go insane?

That is the question today. Precisely how many days of essentially being stuck in the house watching messes accumulate around me while I'm too weak to do something about it can I endure? Around 5pm EST tonight I will hit the 8 solid day mark of being sick. I honestly cannot tell you when the last time (if ever) I was this sick occurred. I really don't think I ever had a fever for more than 6 or 7 days. And even then, the fever would break for a bit here and there. My body temperature has not been below 99 for nearly 8 whole days. Considering I'm one of those people who typically run around 97.6 I'd say that's bad.

When I went to the Take Care Clinic at Walgreens on Friday I got the impression that the 72 year old Nurse Practitioner thought I was in pretty good shape. Sure, waking up every 40 minutes coughing or drenched in sweat is normal for a 31 year old. My ear that has been killing me is supposedly clear, my chest that feels raw from coughing is just fine and my rather unproductive cough was labeled as productive because I brought up phlegm twice in two days. Oh yeah, that's productive.

I still have things to do to get my kids ready for school. Things I wanted to have done last week. Madeline needs the little beaded tags that I make for her book bag and lunch box with her class number and her name. I also still need to get her a back to school outfit for the first day. At this point I suspect that's not going to happen.

It's killing me that I haven't been able to spend much time with my girls. They come and visit me in my room a few times a day and they talk to me a little when I relocate to the family room for a change of scenery, but I'm not getting to play with them. I miss chasing them around the house and acting goofy. I miss pestering Mr. Furkins. Even he knows something is going on.

This weekend is our last weekend with nothing scheduled until the week before Thanksgiving. Starting next weekend we have a soccer game on Saturday and Sunday, and starting the next weekend I begin teaching my CCD class and Ellie's class begins, as well. Life is about to get very busy here. I feel like the last week of Summer vacation has been squandered.

Dear Flu

Dear Flu,

I'm sick of you. You have been living in me for seven days now against my will. I hate you and I think it is time that you move on. Just so you are aware, my body is not supposed to linger between 101 and 102 for the majority of the day for several days with a fever reducer. This problem, is your fault. Also, please be aware that I don't like waking up drenched in sweat. I don't think it's cute. In fact, because of you, I feel rather disgusted with myself right now. Is that what you were aiming for? Also, you irritating virus, I'd like you to know that you have horrible timing. Were you aware that this was the last week of Summer break for my children? You, to quote Ross Geller from Friends, are a "crap weasel".

Because of you my house is a mess. I have piles of unfolded laundry and piles of dirty laundry. My kitchen is a disaster area. My youngest child has had one bath all week. I'm sure you find all of this to be rather amusing. I am not amused. I am ready to kick your sorry butt to the curb. I strongly suggest that you move on.

I'm sure you and all your little virus friends feel invincible now, but I'm sure modern medicine will find a way to obliterate you in the future.

Regards,

Karen