an interesting week

It's been a very interesting week. Joe says I've been a living episode of "House", but he also thinks I have leprosy so he might not be the best judge of the situation. Last Tuesday afternoon I went my PCP for what I thought was a mild UTI. I started antibiotics that evening, but woke up at about 2 am with shaking chills, high fever, nausea, and vomitting. Last time I checked antibiotics were supposed to make you better, not worse, so I called the doctor. It was decided that the infection had just spread/gotten worse before the antibiotic has a chance to work, so I was to push fluids (which is lovely to do when it hurts to pee), take tylonal or motrin for the fever (which never broke), and wait for the bactrim to kick in.

That was Wednesday morning. So when Friday morning came along and I was still throwing up and running a fever I called the doctor again. By this time I was so sick/weak from a) not eating and b) running a fever for 3 days, that when I tried to shower I just ended up sitting on the floor of the tub because I was so dizzy, etc that I couldn't stand long enought to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. When Joe got home from work he had to help me out of the tub and into fresh PJs. (yeah, I know....what was I doing trying to shower when he wasn't home? Well, did you ever think that way when you were 24?) Anyway, it was decided that the bug had traveled to my kidneys and that it was resistant to the antibiotics I was taking. So I switched to a different one, macrobid, and I took that for the first time on Friday night.

On Saturday I woke up feeling much better. My fever had finally broke, I could keep a bit of food down, and I could stand long enough brush my teeth all by myself. That was when I saw the thrush on my tongue, which I was thouroughly annoyed by. But that was nothing compared to my reaction when I saw the rash on my chest a couple hours later. After a lot of swearing (I was pissed) Joe took me to the urgent care clinic where they told me I was having an allergic reaction (duh?) to the macrobid. So they gave me cipro, nystatin for the thrush, and told me to take an OTC anti-histamine for the rash. Ok, so I can get better now, right?

Not so much. On Sunday I woke up with swollen lips, tongue, face, hands, etc and the rash had taken over my entire body - everywhere but the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet. And then it started to itch. My fever was back, my head hurt again, and now this... I was smart enough to immediately cut off all of my finger nails, but naive enough to think that would stop me from trying to scratch my skin off. Ugh. Back to the clinic....more antibiotics....steroids for the reaction...anti-histamines (2 kinds) for the itching...continue the nystatin...push fluids...follow up in two weeks (after I was done with the antibiotics). I spent most of Sunday evening and night in a bathtub full of oatmeal and water, and when I wasn't in there I was in an anti-histamine induced coma. Monday night I finally started to feel human again and Tuesday was my first official day without a fever. Hey, it only took a week, right?

It picked a bad week. I got sick the day before I usually clean the house, so that didn't get done. I hadn't gone grocery shopping in forever and we were out of everything ...milk, bread, eggs....everything. I think Joe ate Ramen Noodles for dinner one night. I hadn't done anything to prepare for Thanksgiving, had a group presentation in my psych class, missed a test review in my algebra class, and caused Joe to miss his soccer tournement on Sunday. I told him to go, but he wouldn't have it...he actually stayed home from work one morning to keep an eye on me. So when Tuesday came I had a lot to do and very little energy to do it, having eaten only a few pieces of toast and a couple bowls of applesauce in a matter of 5 days.

I wasn't real thrilled about the fact that I needed to go grocery shopping two days before Thanksgiving, but I sucked it up and went. I've found that you can survive WalMart at any time, no matter how busy it is, so long as you go in a certain state of mind. If you accept that there will be an infinite number of rude, inconsiderate people in the store, then you can take a moment to rally all of your patience and calmness to accomodate those encounters. Take a deep breath, find your happy place, and embrace the experience. I think I'll call it Walmart Zen.

Oh, and make sure you're not on a schedule. If you're in a rush you're screwed.

Anyway, I spent two hours in WalMart getting everything from shampoo to sweet potatoes and went home, totally exhausted. Then, about 30 seconds after I walked into the house I realized I'd forgotten something. Something very important.

I forgot to buy a flippin' turkey.

Oh, and by the way, I don't actually own anything to roast a turkey in.

Eye yi yi...

But Joe and I went out and bought a turkey and roasting pan later than night and my very first Thanksgiving dinner that I cooked all by myself turned out pretty good. I was a little perplexed by the turkey itself...the Joy of Cooking said to cook it uncovered...but the Moms said to cover it...I don't have a turkey baster...does it really take 3 hours to cook? How the hell do you carve one of these things anyway? What am I supposed to use to tie the legs together? I found the neck, but where's the heart and all that junk? It was an experience, but it's results were tasty so I'm happy. Joe, Sara, Sara's Mom, Jake, Jonny, and Sam all came over for dinner, then we had pie and played board games. It was a pretty good turkey day, and it was kinda nice to make our own tradition this year.

So yeah, very interesting week.