Monday 28 January 2013

The Weekly Wrap - Flu Edition - 1/21/13

Monday 1/21/13 - This week started off so well. I was doing just fine, right on schedule and then...

Tuesday happened. It's been blisteringly cold (which in NC terms means right around freezing) and basically awful. We've been getting sleet and mixed precipitation, everyone has been driving like a maniac because no one apparently understands how to operate a vehicle during inclement weather, and oh yeah, there's this apparent flu epidemic sweeping the nation. 

I opted out of the flu shot this year since I get sick no matter what. I was sick back in December and thought that was the worst of it, but this past week proved me wrong. Tuesday morning, I woke up with a slight headache and a sore throat. By Wednesday morning, I was ill and basically immobile on the couch, which Boo used to her full advantage. I called in to get off work (because sneezing and coughing around people's food probably isn't the best thing to do) and loaded up on the typical OTC stuff: Emergen-C, Mucinex, Sudafed, Dayquil, you name it. 

My problem is I have crappy lungs. I've had asthma since elementary school and while I almost never run a fever or get sick to my stomach, all the crud that builds up in my sinuses ends up in my chest, resulting in a scary do-you-have-tuberculosis kind of cough. The cold weather definitely wasn't helping. 

By Thursday, my inhaler wasn't cutting it and I was wheezing in all four lung fields. I dashed to the doctor's office as soon as it opened (since I was supposed to work at 11) in hopes of getting some sort of medicine. The doc had me do a nebulizer treatment (aerosol breathing treatment) to open up my lungs, which worked well. However, the deep controlled breathing combined with the fact I hadn't eaten anything in about 24 hours took its toll. I began to feel nauseous, got up to run to the bathroom to get sick, and promptly passed out in the hallway at the doc's office. Totally embarrassing. My BP had dropped too low (systolic around 80 when I normally run around 110) and I was shaking and white as a sheet. The nurses were helpful though; they had me put my feet up and breathe into a paper bag for a bit until the tingling stopped in my fingertips. 

So, after that fiasco, I stayed home again and finally got some prescriptions which have been knocking this bug out of my system. I'm feeling much better now. I'm back on my feet after being couch-bound for about three days, but still have that lovely barking cough, which should hopefully subside in the next week or so.

Needless to say, I have been a bad writer this week. I've been resting up and trying to get well, which doesn't do much for the revision. Or blogging. Or much of anything else, for that matter. I'm off schedule for finishing by the end of this month, but I'm back to it today and will keep everyone posted.

Hope everyone around here is staying safe on these icy roads!

Also, I think Boo enjoyed having me be her snuggle buddy for a couple days:

That is one spoiled dog!

Muse Food for the Week 
Being off my feet did make for some good reading (and movie watching). I finally finished King's Different Seasons, which I started back in December. I took this book in slowly because it is divided into four separate novellas.
First, we've got Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (which the movie is based on). I read that in a morning. Absolutely loved the world of the prison and Red's telling of Andy's story. This isn't, to me, a "horror" story. It's a good story. Go read it! 
Next was Apt Pupil which explores a strange parasitic relationship between a Nazi war criminal and an adolescent boy who becomes obsessed with WWII. Totally strange, but interesting. It's a great character study and presents one of my favorite tropes, the morally ambiguous protagonist. Would Todd have turned out the way he did if he hadn't met Dussander? Hmm...
The third novella, titled The Body, tells the story of four boys who go off in search of, you named it, a dead body! Because strangely, that is what twelve year old boys do. I really loved this story. It has the same mythos that It held for me: that your childhood can be viewed through a much different lenses, that it was a cherished and strange time. 
Finally, King ends the collection with The Breathing Method which a story framed by an odd men's club that tells stories to each other. The story, this night, is of a young unmarried woman who discovers she is pregnant and the doctor who takes her under his wing. Not my favorite, but a solid story.  




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