Healin'

Blogging has been light because I've been sick as a dog and with our upcoming Gleckfest 2008, I've been trying to rest and get well.

It all started last Thursday. I had a bad dream in which I was at the dentist and I was so scared I was having a heart attack. I woke up with a killer headache. I figured I must have been really grinding my teeth in my sleep--now I wonder if in fact that I had this headache come on in the middle of the night and then had the dream as a response to the pain. I don't know for sure!

Anyway, I went to work and then came home and slept. Got up Friday, headache killing, killing, killing me and I could feel what seemed to be a pulsating in my sinuses. Soldiered through, went to work, went to the grocery story for the humiliating experience of proving I am not a meth addict and I don't want Sudafed for nefarious reasons, took a couple, came home, went to bed. Friday night, I was up for a couple hours, and then took a Sudafed PM, even though the regular Sudafed was doing -N-O-T-H-I-N-G- to alleviate my symptoms, and after an hour of tossing and turning, I went downstairs, laid on the couch, and drowned my sorrows in MXC.

Saturday was the first meeting for my Fredericksburg book club that I joined, so I showed up, having taken a long hot shower that seemed to alleviate the pain in my head. I lasted about 90 minutes before jumping ship, coming home, and going back to bed.

Ok, fine and dandy. Got up and made a couple of frozen pizzas so that we could watch the Patriots game, and after dinner, I actually felt kind of goodish. I noticed, though, that when I would stand up or sit back down, changes in altitude if you will, my head would start throbbing. So I started getting really, really nervous at this point. I start thinking, "Hmmm, a three day migraine? Am I having a stroke? What the hell is going on?" I finally fell asleep around 2am and was up by 6am, the pain was so bad. (PS There is absolutely NOTHING on TV on Sunday mornings--I watched 2 Britney Spears biographies, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, VH1's Top 20 Videos, America's Next Top Model, the new TLC show about Miss America, and caught up on Project Runway--with the exception of Mr. Rogers and Project Runway, the rest was crap, crap crap)

So I'm really nervous now, because I have another book club meeting in Alexandria, and I'm feeling deathly ill. My dad calls me and lectures me to eat chicken soup and drink orange juice and that he's going to call my sister and yell at her about me coming up there. I explained that my doctor is up there and I need to go up anyway so that Monday morning I can see the doctor.

I hang up from my dad and 20 minutes later, my sister calls, just about sobbing about how Daddy yelled at her because I'm sick and am I ok and I can bag the book club and no big deal. So I calm her down and tell her that I'll at least get as far as her house so she can get to her book club meeting and then we'll see. So I haul it up to Alexandria yesterday afternoon, and lo and behold, Joe is sick as a dog. I hand Judy the keys and tell her that when I'm ready to go, we have to go.

We get over to where the club meeting is, I'm riding huddled under a blankie, and Judy announces that I have to parallel park, she hasnt' done it enough to feel comfortable doing it.

So we swap seats, and usually I'm a pretty darned good parallel parker, but it took me 3 freakin' tries. We hoof it up to Anne's house, and then I sit for a couple of hours before I just can't take any more, my head feels like it's going to explode. I give Judy the signal and we depart.

I get back to her house, me and the blanket snuggle up on the couch, where Joe and Lucas are deeply engrossed in a documentary about the Freemasons. Joe and I then tune into The Real DaVinci Code while Judy and Lucas busily grocery shop and go pick up the rest of Lucas's stuff from his place. (Yes, my sister actually met someone she loves enough to shack up with!!!! And, a link to his blog "The Ronald Reagan National Liberation Front" is on the right hand side. Go give him some crap if you get the chance.)

They stop back at the house around 8pm and Judy hands me some Tylenol PM, which I pop at 9pm, figuring that's a good bedtime. My headache was so stinkin' bad the Tylenol didn't make a damn bit of difference. So Joe and I learned more about how Jack the Ripper might have been a Freemason and finally he went to bed. I think I drifted off around 11:00, and didn't hear Judy and Lucas return around 11:30 with their final load of stuff from Lucas's old apartment.

This morning I woke up and for the first time in five days, there was no severe pain. I sat up and I thought, "Huh, this isn't going to last." But as I sat there, it was fine. I noticed I had a tickle in my throat, and I was stuffy, but that was it. No more headache! So I'm thinking, "I'm going to chance going to work!"

Well, I got in and went to speak to my boss who took one look at me and gave me a look that clearly said, "You're not staying, are you?" and I told him I was going home after I got a few things done. I actually worked 3 hours today before I decided it was time to drive home and relax. I've taken tomorrow off too, just to be safe. But it's like night and day the difference in the pain levels, I honestly can't believe it! I had a couple nips of DayQuil today but otherwise, I'm doing just fine. I just need to catch up on my sleep before the weekend. :-D