Monday, September 01, 2008

Summer cold

I should first note: although I am, by nature, a very sickly individual, it's been MONTHS since I've had the cold or flu. I don't think I was sick ALL SUMMER. For me, that's a pretty big deal. Having said that--I got bitch-slapped with a summer cold yesterday.

As they often do, it came on fast. The headache started in church, but I blamed it on the heavy perfume of the lady in front of me. A few hours later, I was hanging out with my little sister (Big Brothers Big Sisters) at Build a Bear, and I casually noted that my throat hurt. At Wendy's, my nose started to run and my head was stuffed up. By the time I dropped her off about an hour after THAT, I was in full-blown cold status, including chills and aches (or is that the flu? I can never tell them apart).

The funny part is that AFTER I took both my Seroquel and my Tylenol Cold Night meds last night, I flipped on Comedy Central to wait for them to kick in--and found a really funny comedian I had never seen before. Normally, my Seroquel takes effect (HARD) in about 20 minutes (not to mention the nighttime cold meds)--but this time, I decided to try to fight them. I wanted to watch this hour-long special, damn it! Oh my God, it was like going on an acid trip (I assume, LOL). My vision was blurring and doubling. I saw pink elephants floating across the room and happy little fairies sitting on the edge of my bed. At one point, I think the comedian looked out from the TV and advised, "Go to bed, dumbass."

I only made it through about half of the special.

I woke up at 4 am--almost exactly four hours after I took that last dose of nighttime meds. (They weren't kidding when they tell you to take 2 caplets "every 4 hours".) My throat was on fire, I couldn't breathe out of my nose and my head was so stuffed up that I'd lost hearing in my right ear.

Thank goodness I have Monday (today) off. I figure some around-the-clock sleeping (with breaks for lesson planning and paper grading, although that last one can wait if it HAS to) should make Tuesday at least tolerable for me.

But let's look at the positive side--like I said, I can't even remember the last time I was sick before this. My immune system is getting better!

20 comments:

Jen said...

LOL I just woke up again.....4 hours later

sparkydiva said...

ooh pink elephants and happy little fairies? can you float me some seroquel and i'll go get some cold medicine...that kinda sounds like fun! wheee!! ;)

hope you feel better soon. in the mean time, for fun you can watch the dumbass reporters stand out in the wind in hurricane gustav to show the strengths of the winds...its mildly funny...i always knew men weren't so smart, but...DUH, STUPID!! i think its safe just to take your word for it...you don't have to actually stand there and get blown around and wait for something to hit you in the freakin' head!!

Fred said...

Grading papers? Stop it...now! Go back to bed and sleep. Or, maybe a good bloody mary will knock the cold out of you.

Fred said...

And, for the record, I have not been in Michigan recently.

Jen said...

4 hour later (it's like my body wakes up the minute the meds have worn off)

I've been all ninja-like with the thermostat. Last night, while Brad and Fiance were here (yes, he saw me sick), I was tiptoeing all cat-like to the thermostat and bumping it up like half a degree at a time (this was during my chills phase). I got it all the way up to a cozy 83 before I hear a "Dude!!" from the living room. I hear Brad in the hallway ("Holy shit") before he pokes his head in my room--presumably to yell at me, before he sees me, says "JE-sus" and leaves (shutting the door behind him, might I add). I hear him go back into the living room and say "DUDE" to Fiance. It was like that Bud Light commercial, "E.R."-style.

Now, though, I'm hot, so I'm working the other way. I figure I can get it down to a comfortable 34 or so before he notices.

keesh said...

did anyone else know Brad had a fiance?? I didn't know that.

so, you need to stock up on hand santitizer...those germ magnets, called children, are giving it to you :)...

Fred said...

My first year of school, I swear I had more colds than I've ever had. I keep the hand sanitizer handy at all times.

sparkydiva said...

hahahahahaha keesh...

keesh said...

Sparkydiva - when my son started preschool 2 years ago, i got sick about every third week. it sucked :). now I wash and hand santitize like i have OCD :)> tee hee

sparkydiva said...

yeahhh...my germ magnet used to do that to me, too. i just started spraying her with lysol every day. that seemed to take care of the problem.

Jen said...

Kish: MY fiance. John.

Renee said...

LOLOLOLOL.

I'm sorry you're sick. Brent was fighting one off last week; I think he kicked it, for the most part. Yuck.

My grandpa Holmes (the one you knew pretty well) used to always say "a couple shots o' whiskey'll cure what ails ya". Maybe you should give it a whirl ;-)

Anonymous said...

I hope you're feeling better today! It's really wonderful how you even manage to entertain us when you're dying of an illness. You're so good!

Come Sail Away is playing right now. It brings me right back to college, where my first college BF would play this hillarious South Park CD with Cartman singing Come Sail Away. Man, that CD was Fun-E!

I'm also lovin' Son of a Preacher Man and the Bangles. Great mix!

Jen said...

made it through work and finally went into urgent care:

asthma, bronchitis, cold AND--wait for it--the flu.

Yes, the cold AND flu.

I'm awesome.

She said it wasn't too unusual for teachers, though, esp at the beginning of the school year like this. And fyi: I went back today and my whole classroom was like a damn infirmary. We were passing around hand sanitizer like it was LSD at a Grateful Dead Concert.

Nik said...

I really hope you're feeling better by now. Do you ever get sick and just have one thing wrong or are you strictly a combo sickness kinda gal?

I laughed my ass off at your LSD comment. You're frickin hilarious.

Jen said...

Nik: no, I prefer to do the combo-sickness thing. Killing two birds with one stone,really. =-)

Oh wait, did I mention the budding ear infection? Luckily the antibiotics for bronch. will clear it up

Jen said...

Plus, the stories wouldn't be as entertaining =-)

Renee said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You're cute. I hope your antibiotics get you feeling better quickly!

Jen said...

I actually am feeling better but i think it's more the steroid shot for the asthma--that's what was really bothering me yesterday

Anonymous said...

My name is Richard Elmore and i would like to show you my personal experience with Seroquel.

I am 17 years old. Have been on Seroquel for 1.5 years now. I am currently trying to come off it, but my anexiety has been through the roof, and even 2mg of extended release xanax isnt working

I have experienced some of these side effects-
the biggest one is weight gain, i have to take at least 600mg at bed time for it to work.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Richard Elmore