I'm Sick

I don't know what I have, yet, but I know I'm sick. I'm trying to get in ASAP to see a doctor, but right now I'm stuck with a November 9 appointment. I'd have gone in before now, but frankly, I just thought I was getting fat. My stomach/abdomen keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it's very hard to the touch. Anyone have any horror stories about a "hard, distended abdomen"? I'm starting to look very much like the "octomom," and I've referred to my extra girth as my alien baby. To my recollection I haven't had sex in many years, so if I am pregnant it's got to be an alien because I don't remember the conception. (Could it be immaculate? I don't really think I'm God's type.) It isn't causing any pain - just discomfort and tiredness, of course. And I can barely button the one pair of pants that still fit. (I am also experiencing some occasional severe - five out of five - pain, which I will also bring to the doctor's attention, but I don't think it's related.) This all started several months ago. As I said, I just thought I was getting fat. I frequently weighed myself but my cheap scale didn't show any weight gain. It seemed like all the fat in my body was migrating to my abdomen. Not long ago someone told me about a relative who had this same problem who turned out to have cirrhosis of the liver. That's when I got online and looked up "hard, distended abdomen." And that's when I decided I need to get in to see the doctor before whatever this is gets worse. No, I don't think I have cirrhosis of the liver, but I think I've got some medical condition that's causing my abdomen to grow.

Go ahead. Make your fat jokes. "What would cause my abdomen to get extremely big?" "Eating the Combo number 2 at Sonic." Ha ha. I don't think whatever this is will kill me, so you won't have to worry about burning in hell!

The other things that are probably not related: Around the beginning of October I was sitting here at my computer and I coughed, as I often do. But this time it felt like someone had taken a white-hot poker and stuck it in the fold between the bottom of my stomach and the top of my right thigh (the five out of five pain I mentioned). Now, this has been happening off and on since then, with varying degrees of pain from 1 to 5, on a scale of 1-5 (which is what the VA hospital likes to use). I also noticed a very serious rash near that area - on the lower part of my stomach a couple of inches above where the pain is centered. All I've been able to do about that is apply over-the-counter cortisone cream. I'm not feeling any pain or itching from the rash.

So, I don't think I'm going to die, but if I do this blog entry may provide some insight into what happened. Meanwhile, if anyone has any ideas, do let me know.

Oh, and if it turns out to be a basketball-size tumor and it gets covered by the press, I'll share that with you.

Damn - Sick again

My cold has become a monster. I set the alarm so I could get up and go to "work" this morning, but instead I called in sick. What was a small cold yesterday is a big cold today. Now I'm stuck between going to work/class and possibly making everyone else sick (which I'm strongly against) and staying home and missing a lot of important information. I've even considered buying one of those medical facemasks so I can go in without spreading my germs. But I think it might drive me crazy. I'm on the horns of a dilemma.

If you have an iPod you probably need one of these.
;-)

Sometimes I dislike myself

A three-day weekend, but I didn't do anything. Nothing. Well, except for computer things.

I need to replace my mailbox. Didn't do that. (The one I have is very unsteady.) I need to clean the house. Didn't do that. I need to clean out my car. Didn't do that. I'm just too stinkin' tired! (Still.) I haven't resolved the tiredness issue, and it still haunts me whenever I have free time.

On the indoor-tasks-that-take-little-effort side, I did upgrade my Dave Barry website so it looks more like the old site. Due to a huge brain fart and the failure of a Zip disk, I lost the site for awhile. Thank God for the Internet Archives "Wayback" Machine. They save EVERYTHING!! I managed to get the whole site back and, with a little work, it's back up with Dave "dancing" on the home page like he used to do. Next I'm going to tackle my pussy games website. I lost that one in the same brain fart.

Sick

I have caught a little cold. I have a sore throat and sinus issues. So far it hasn't gotten too bad because I've been taking Zinc Lozenges. These are great things if you follow directions. They do the same thing as the more expensive Zicam, but but they're much cheaper. Instructions on the Equate (Wal-Mart) brand say to suck on one as soon as you feel the earliest symptoms. Then suck on one every three hours. You must suck. You musn't chew. This releases a measured amount of zinc into your body which helps your immune system fight the cold. Buy the store brand, either at Walgreens or Wal-Mart or at whatever drug store you have in your neighborhood. They're called "Zinc Lozenges." You'll find them near the Zicam and other cold medicines. I've also been taking the generic "NyQuil" at night.

I guess I could use this as an excuse for not doing anything productive, but I won't.

Land of the Lost

No doubt because of the new movie, The SciFi channel is having a Land of the Lost marathon tonight. I used to watch that show every Saturday morning while I was cleaning the house. That is, until they added new characters and the show got dumb. Or dumber, depending how you look at it. It's great to see it again.

Real Bad News

My step father, Jake, who is getting more and more frail with age, fell and broke his neck. Except for a great amount of pain and some sort of gizmo that he has to wear, he's doing okay. Mom is okay, too. She spends the day with him at the hospital. Eventually, once he can walk (with a walker), he'll be transferred to a nursing home. This was a very bad experience when he broke his leg a few years ago. Plus, Charlie was alive, so he could help out when the nursing home idiots acted like idiots. Charlie's not there anymore.

Now

I'm doing laundry and cooking, preparing for work next week. Some guy kept bringing home made enchiladas to work last week, so tonight I'm cooking enchilada casserole. Yum.

Still Feel Like Crap

I'm sitting here in dirty pajamas, sweating, coughing, eating a bowl of spinach (with butter). I'm still sick - on the down side of some sort of cold or something else that infected me days ago. I haven't taken my temperature since my last blog. I haven't felt feverish, so there hasn't been a need.

I've spent all my time in bed, so I have a lot of TV shows on TiVo to watch when I finally feel better.

My friend, Oda, calls to make sure I haven't died, and that I don't need anything.

I've eaten very little this week, and suspect I will have lost a few pounds once this is all over.

Maybe my attitude will improve once my health has been fully restored (relatively speaking), but right now I'm seriously planning to go in and quit my job on Monday. Why?

•I have never liked retail;
•My boss has me working 10-hour days with no end in sight, and I've determined that they're bad for me (my coworker, who is also working the 10-hour days, also hates them, but boss doesn't care);
•I get totally pissed off when I'm already sick and have to call in sick to someone who, I don't know, what? Thinks I'm faking? Thinks I'm getting sick on purpose? Takes my calling in sick personally? Fire me or shut the hell up!

Not a good time to quit a good job? No. But unless the government stops paying me my Army retirement pay, I'll be fine. I may never have an LCD HD TV, but I'll have my old box TVs! And a lot of books to read. And free healthcare from the VA. Just have to keep the car running!

I could sit here and babble on, but I think I'll stop for now. I think I'll go to the USA Government Jobs website and see what I can find!

Blogging in Sick

I guess you should actually blog in sick while you're sick, not once you're feeling better. But for obvious reasons (I hope) I didn't do that.

What a week!

On Sunday evening I was standing on a plastic chair trying to rescue a hummingbird that was stuck on my front porch. As I stepped down from the chair my legs got all tangled and I fell. My head hit the concrete. The first thing I thought about was Natasha Richardson. So I climbed into my car and drove to the emergency room. After a couple of hours and a CT scan, I was released. No serious injury, thank God. I do have a bump on my head and the technician confirmed that I still have my marbles. (Some of them, at least.)

On Moday I went to work, but about noon I started coughing. I thought it was probably allergy-related, since that happens to me all the time. I take some Mucinex and everything's fine. On Tuesday I called in sick, still coughing and with a slight fever. By Tuesday aftgernoon my fever had reached 101.7º. I was putting cold compresses on my head and taking acetaminophen. I was also taking nighttime medicine for coughing. That helped a lot. I called in sick again on Wednesday. The boss was pissed. Oh well. It's not like I plan these things. My temperature finally came back to normal, so I stopped the cold compresses. A few hours later it was back up to 99.8.

I finally got up and tried to eat something. So far so good. I'm starting to cough again. I haven't had any of the cough syrup for awhile so that's probably why.

I've got someone checking on me who will help me if I need it.

I'm going to take some cough medicine now. I hope I can stay awake for LOST, but if not, I'll be able to watch it tomorrow on abc.com or on my TiVo.

I'm off for the next two days so I'll have some healing time without having to call in sick to the mean, old boss again.

So I still am a little sick, so "Blogging in Sick" while I am sick does apply.

Sick Again

I heard on TV just recently that there are 106 cold viruses. Once you've had one, you're immune to it from that point on. So every time you catch a cold you can subtract one from that list of 106. It sure seems like I've had that many colds in my life, but I guess if I think about it rationally, there's no way. I'm 55 years old. I'd have to have had nearly two colds each year of my life to exhaust the list. And when you think about it that way, you see that it's almost impossible to have 106 different colds in a lifetime. I know there were years when I caught a couple of colds. There were many years when I didn't catch any colds. So I'm going to estimate that I've now suffered through - maybe - 25 of the 106 cold viruses. That leaves 81 left for me to catch, if exposed.

Didn't go, then did

I didn't go to work Tuesday. I called in sick. I went to work Wednesday, stayed for an hour, then came home. I went in today. I felt much better. I think my cold is almost gone. I still have some sniffles and coughing, but it's nothing compared to a few days ago. I had a fever and my body ached. Especially my ribs and back. I'm sure it was from coughing so much.

I'll miss the money I didn't earn those two days. There's a holiday coming up, though, so that'll mean an extra day's pay.

And I did work an extra two hours today. I was doing a reset and wanted to finish it before I left. Ain't I dedicated?!!

I'll take some "nighttime cold medicine" when I go to bed tonight, just to keep myself from coughing.

My lawn has been neglected for so long that I'm expecting to get a notice from the city. They do that. They send out notices if you haven't mowed your lawn for awhile. Even your back yard!!! That freaked me out. Why the hell would they care how my back yard looks? It's not like it's visible to the neighborhood. But I got a notice to mow my back yard last summer! The notice always says that if I don't mow it, the city will send someone over to mow it and then charge me for it! If I didn't think they'd charge way too much, I'd sit back and let them go ahead and mow it!

Part of my front yard actually belongs to the city. Maybe I should just mow the part that's mine and let them be responsible for the 10-foot section that belongs to them! Hmm. I wonder what would happen! Maybe, if they ever really piss me off. They actually own several feet of land in my back yard, too, now that I think of it!

There's an old Maxine cartoon that I taped up on my front door one year. Let me see if I can find it.

Feeling Better

I think I'll go to work tomorrow. Won't call in sick. I feel a little better than I did yesterday, which makes me think I'm already getting better. So I'll make my boss happy and go to work and spread my cold around so other employees can call in sick.

I strongly recommend taking zinc lozenges at the very first sign of a cold. The major brand name is Cold Eze, but you can get the same thing cheaper by buying the store's brand. Take one every three hours. Follow instructions!! Let them dissolve in your mouth. Don't chew them. They make your cold shorter and less intense. Honest!

BTW, that last post (Yep, I'm sick.) was actually written and posted (I thought) on Saturday. I guess I was so sick that I couldn't get it to show up.

Yep, I'm sick.

I have a wicked cold. My head feels huge, my throat hurts. I'm coughing. I'm tired and sore. I'm also pissed, because I regularly take zinc, and have told other people to take it to build up their immune systems. Well, this cold sneaked by my immune system. It's a mixed blessing that it happened on my day off. On the one hand I don't have to miss work for being sick. On the other hand, I'm too sick to do anything that I need to do at home!

When I get a cold I can talk in a real deep voice. It's fun because it scares the cats! They think there's a stranger in the room.

Getting Sick?

I think I'm getting sick. Dammit. I started out earlier today with a bit of a sore throat. No biggie, since I have allergies that have caused sore throats before. But this sore throat got a little sorer. And then my always-running nose got a little runnier. Now I'm thinking that this is going to be a cold. I hate being sick. If I get too sick I'll have to miss work, and I can't afford that right now.

Someone at work told me she has strep throat. That sort of ticks me off. I hate it when sick people come to work and infect healthy people. Like me. So this could be strep throat, or a cold, or it could just be overly active allergy symptoms. I'm hoping for the latter.

I usually stay up late on Saturday night because I'm off on Sunday, but I think tonight I'm going to go to bed earlier than usual. If I am sick, getting a lot of rest will do me good.