The title should be read with a sarcastic tone.
Monday, the 11th, during piano lessons, I noticed my throat was hurting just a little. By 7:30, when my last student left, I was hungry and, for some reason, I was at home with the 2 girls. I had to whisper because it hurt so bad. My ears had started hurting when I woke the next morning. I felt better as the day went on, but by day's end, my throat was beginning to hurt. Plus, I was clearing my throat quite a bit during piano. More than one student thought I was clearing my throat everytime they made a mistake! It was a bit funny, and I said, "Oh, no, no, no. Just clearing my throat!" I was thankful no student asked me if I was sick!
Wednesday morning, my throat hurt so bad that I couldn't go to Moms in Touch. A really bad thing to miss because I need focused prayer on Cobb. I felt better throughout the day and knew I'd be okay to go to church for 8th grade D-Group. It went well, for which I was thankful. My throat was hurting, however, and I was coughing. No fever at all during all this so I saw no reason to go to the dr. Of course, I went to bed with a sore throat and hurting ears.
Thursday was the same, and Sack had her debut performance in Charlotte's Web as Templeton. I didn't feel great, but I didn't feel awful. I wanted to interact with the other moms and the kids in the play, but I felt as though I might be contagious and didn't want to get them sick or make me worse. I felt bad that I wasn't helping. Cobb and I sat in the seats saving them for the rest of our family. Sack did great and it was good. We went to Culver's afterwards and DH had to go to rehearsal at VanMeter for the Sandi Patty concert that was last night. I don't really like the burgers at Culver's even though that's their claim to fame. I thought I'd get a hot dog (bleh) but they don't have them! So, I just drank water to help my throat and ate Oreos when I got home!
Friday, I don't remember what I did around the house, but I'm sure it wasn't enough to make a difference because as soon as I get things straightened and cleaned, someone comes along behind me and messes it up. My ears were beginning to hurt more by now. Sack wanted to go see the Blue cast perform Charlotte's Web, so we went there at 5. It started at 6. They did real well and it was interesting to see who was better and who wasn't. I was thankful I felt like going.
Saturday, church had a block party at Plano and DH, Sire and Cobb went to work at it. Sack had a friend over to play. That worked out real well because it was after lunch so I didn't have to make lunch for them and possibly get them sick. Mind you, I didn't have a fever, just a little sore throat and ear pain. My sinuses on the left side were beginning to get filled up and a bit painful. Sack had her 2nd performance that night and it went great, too. My parents, sister and nephew came to see her and it was all great. We went to Culver's again afterwards. I told DH that I probably wouldn't be able to go to church the next morning since I'm always worse at night and in the mornings.
Sure enough, Sunday morning was as bad if not worse than all the other days. By Sunday night, my sinuses were hurting so bad that I was crying and I took one of Sire's hydrocodones (that he got after his surgery) at 10 PM. At 4 AM, I awoke to more pain, so I got up, ate some crackers in the family room and took another one. It took the edge off, but there was still so much pressure in my sinuses. It was like the sinus pain had won over the ear pain and throat pain, but it was a close race.
Monday morning, I called the dr. and got in at 9:30. She gave me an Rx for Augmentin and said to continue taking Mucinex-D. I was thankful I got in so early in the morning. I tested negative for strep so she treated me for a sinus infection. She said my ears didn't look bad, just pressure on them from my sinuses or whatever/however that works. I also took some Sudafed which I learned later was the wrong thing to take. I had to cancel all students for Monday afternoon. At noon, I took a hydrocodone and an hour and a half later, I was still hurting real bad, so I took another one! DH was gone to the Sandi Patty concert and I didn't do much that evening, but at bedtime, I was crying and asked Cobb to get me some cookies and milk and she did it, but she laughed at me. So rude and disrespectful. She just wasn't taking me seriously. Sometimes I don't know what I have to do to get my family to understand that I have feelings, too! Ugh. So, that night, I took DH's hydrocodone which was a 10/650 (whatever that means, but Sire's was 7.5/325) so I'm thinking it was a double dose. However, about 6 hours later, I awoke to continued pain. I ate some bread in the family room and popped another 10/650 hydrocodone pill.
Tuesday morning, Cobb was in bed with me, as usual, so that I can poke at and prod her to get up. However, after doing it twice, I pressed OFF on my alarm instead of SNOOZE and I went back to sleep. DH came in from running at 6:45 and I realized that she was still asleep! Needless to say, she missed the bus and DH had to drive her to school. After I dragged myself up to eat breakfast, fix Sack's hair and lunch and snack, I came home crying worse than I had cried before. I called the dr. and left a message at around 8:05 for the nurse to return my call. I sat on my bed, crying, with my phone next to me. At 8:30, they still hadn't called, so I called back and pressed "1" to make an appointment and told her (while bawling) that I had called and I was in so much pain, I just couldn't wait and what could she do. She promptly connected me to the nurse and she said come right in, for which I was thankful. Well, I had already had a 10/650 with my breakfast (that's 3 of them in less than 12 hours!), so I didn't think I should drive all the way to the dr. So, Sire took me and m.i.l. picked me up. I sat in the waiting room with my face in my hands, crying and sniffling. I thought for sure someone in the waiting room would say, "Oh, let her go in front of me" when the nurse called their name. But, that didn't happen. Finally, she called me back and I told her what was going on between crying spells. Oxygen, pulse and temp. were good. Dr. came in and I had to go through it all over again while crying. Luckily, I came out with a strong antibiotic shot and a cortisone (steroid?) shot and 4 prescriptions. My m.i.l. took me to Rite-Aid. I had to go inside, limping because of the shots, because her car windows don't roll down. Of the 4 things he prescribed, I didn't get the hydrocodone 10/650 Rx since we have some at home. I didn't get one of the nasal sprays because it was $124!!! Crazy, huh? I did get the OTC nasal spray that he wanted me to get and I got the store brand and it was buy one, get one free! Wow! I felt lucky! The other Rx was 800 mg of ibuprofen and it was just $4! We left Rite-Aid and I held my breath and asked m.i.l. if she would take me to Wal-Mart so I could get bread and ham. Yesterday, I had no ham and had to eat a peanut butter sandwich. She said yes, and the guy in the deli was slow, slow, slow. Anyway, she was patient and didn't mind so I was thankful. I got home, ate lunch, took my pills and also gave myself a shot in the nose with the spray. I felt so much better after I ate! Sire wiped some counters down, put his sisters' shoes away and put a few other things away. He wanted to start the dishwasher, but when I told him the dishes needed to be straightened inside it, he said forget it. I was thankful that he was wanting to help. I was sleepy, but it was a good kind of sleepy, not a feel awful type of sleepy. So, at 12:15, I laid down and slept on and off until Sire came home from his last class. Cobb came home around 3:10 and I stayed in the bed until about 3:15, which was right before Sack came home. Sack came looking for me to see how I was. By 5:00 or so, I was starting to hurt and wondered how I could be hurting after I had felt so good before. So, here I am, I've taken all 3 ibuprofens like I was supposed to, I've taken all 3 antibiotics like I was supposed to, gotten 2 nasal sprays in my nose like I was supposed to and took 1 10/650 hydrocodone to take the edge off. Oh, and I have a slight fever. During all this, I've been taking my temperature and I think my normal temperature is 98.2. Tonight it was 99.4. So, that's over a degree higher than my normal. I think that's like 100 degrees to most people. But the strange thing is that I don't feel like I have a fever. Just a little weird. Usually a fever knocks me down for a while and then it takes a couple of days to recover from it. So, I'm thankful that I still have a sense of humor and I can still participate in conversations with my family.
Since I got that steroid shot, I'm thinking I might not sleep well tonight. Especially since I slept so much this afternoon. I haven't had a shower since Saturday! That's awful! I feel so gross.
At this moment, I still feel like I've been "hit by a mac truck" as they say, but I'm hoping that I'll feel better when I wake up. I seriously don't think I'll be able to make it to Moms in Touch. I'm hoping to make up 8 lessons tomorrow afternoon, but if I have the slightest bit of pain tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to cancel them. Not just reschedule them, cancel them. And that's an awful thing for a piano teacher. I've always prayed to not be sick on a Monday or a Tuesday and last Monday and Tuesday I wasn't "sick". But I began the sickness then and who would've ever thought that I'd still be sick now, a week later?
All my prayers have been answered like I had prayed. Now to pray for my students and their parents.
