This winter has been a sucky one in terms of getting sick. The kids have only had a couple of minor colds, but since November, I've been battling my typical sore throat/sinus infection/bronchitis trifecta off and on every few weeks. I'd be sick for a couple of weeks and then feel alright for a few more and then get hit again. I know me and I know my body. Usually, I ride it out unless it gets unbearable. (And, you know, I'm a tough chick so "unbearable" means "pretty effing ridiculous and intolerable.")
Needless to say, I've been riding it out. I don't remember if I've blogged about this before or not, but I'm a bit of a "sickness eater." There was this movie a while back (yeah, now I think I've mentioned this before but I'm going to be lazy and not go back and find the link...sorry) in which a character offers absolution to a dying person by eating his/her sins, clearing the path to Heaven. Ever since I saw that movie, I've joked that I'm a sickness eater. I catch pretty much everything that's going around at any given time. Working out has been a major boost to my immune system, but I still get hit. Rarely, though, do I go to the doctor. I just suffer and wait. Usually, I'm down for 10-14 days and then I'm good as new. Now, the really weird part is that no one, I mean NO ONE, has ever gotten sick from me. In over 13 years of marriage, J has never once gotten sick from me. Sure, we've been sick with the same thing at the same time, but invariably he contracted it first. Throughout my entire life this is how it's worked for some odd reason. No one gets sick from me and I always get sick in the same way. I get a sore throat for 2-3 days, then I develop a sinus infection (I have sinus disease which sounds way worse than it is...basically, I have impacted sinuses so when I come down with something my sinuses get hit hard because there's always something going on up there), and, lastly, I develop bronchitis. This is how it's been ever since I can remember. The severity of the sore throats lessened after I had my tonsils out when I was in 8th grade, but still, that's how my body rolls with sickness. There's not much to do about it other than wait it out.
The last time I went to the doctor for being sick like this, I was 5 months pregnant and was beyond wrecked. Pregnancy complicates illness anyway, and I was crazy sick (I had to sleep sitting up for a long time and ended up moving down to the couch because there was no position in bed that worked for me...I stayed on the couch for the rest of the pregnancy and beyond). I've been sick now for over two weeks. Liam came down with it first and kindly shared with the rest of us, including Cait and Jeeps. I, of course, was hit the hardest. The kids must have killer immune systems because they were only out of it for a couple of days. J was hit a little harder and had one bad night of the chills and sweats. I thought I was getting better and then BOOM! It rebounded on me on Thursday. It hit me like a damn Mack truck and I finally relented and went to walk-in care today. Well...drum roll, please...I think I've been battling the same thing all winter, with it getting progressively worse over the months. Now, I have an ear infection and pneumonia on top of my usual (well, OK, substitute pneumonia for my usual bronchitis). (This on top of having my wisdom teeth removed on Monday - it's been quite the week!) The doctor, for his part, doesn't want to ever hear about how the pathology of my illness is always the same, nor does he care one whit that I'm never contagious...what the hell do I know? I've only been living in this body for nearly 35 (!) years. He just writes the scripts and tells me not to wait so long next time. Yeah, well, I don't really have time to be sick, sir. It doesn't usually turn into pneumonia.
*coughcough*. So...that's me, in the corner, curled up in a ball attempting to breathe without hacking up a lung and trying not be too doped up on my cough medication.
How are you?
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