Tragic Sandwich

Tag: sinus infection

  • Hey, Remember Me?

    Wow, it’s been a week and a half since I last posted anything. That’s a long time in Blog World.

    The reason is that I’ve been sick. I started feeling bad last Tuesday, and on Wednesday I had what was clearly a sinus infection, complete with monstrous headache. Naturally, I went to work.

    In the afternoon, I went to see my doctor, who said that, yes, I had a sinus infection, and did my right ear hurt? Because I also had an outer ear infection. So I walked away with prescriptions for an antibiotic and eardrops, and a sample of a nasal spray that kind of scares me–and requires pre-qualification for a lowered co-pay.

    Thursday I stayed home sick. I watched Thor. It was disappointing because it wasn’t even remotely better than I expected it to be. Also, it failed to explain much about Loki’s mindset in The Avengers, which was the whole reason I watched it. (Seriously, what is his deal? He clearly has power, but he gives up really easily a lot of the time. Is he just lazy? And what on earth happened to the quality of Kenneth Branagh’s directing? Because he started with the ability to do this.)

    Friday I went to work, and then at 11:30 I went home.

    Saturday, Baguette didn’t nap. On Sunday, she did, but then she played with the iPad too late in the evening (it turns out) and was up chattering and singing until after midnight. (Our recent adventures with the iPad are worth their own post.)

    Monday I went back to work and also got my doctor to call in a new prescription for antibiotics, because the first one wasn’t working that well. Certainly not as well as it should have been five days in. And by the end of the day my voice was so raspy, I wasn’t sure if I’d have one at all in the morning.

    But I did, mostly, and I can tell that the new antibiotic is slowly, slowly working better. Although I noticed a difference yesterday and today it seems to have plateaued, so I don’t know. It definitely isn’t fast enough.

    And all of this is why I haven’t been blogging. But I want to, so hopefully next time I’ll have something more interesting to say.

  • This Post Probably Won’t Get A Lot of Views

    Because, really, how many people want to read about someone’s vasomotor rhinitis?

    All my life, I’ve had lousy sinuses. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t have to have a box of Kleenex next to my bed. In middle school, I took so much Dristan that it stopped working. For decades. In high school I started taking the first of any number of steroid nasal sprays.

    Allergy tests always came up negative. (“You’re mildly allergic to pet dander, mold, dust mites, and Johnson grass, but not enough to warrant shots.”) X-rays showed nothing that could really be improved by surgery. At least in grad school I had plenty of company; everyone I knew kept a box of Kleenex next to the door, because chances were good that a visitor would need a Kleenex even before they could say hello. Apparently Williamsburg, Virginia, kills everyone’s sinuses.

    A couple of months ago I had a CT scan and a consultation with an ENT specialist. I’m in a “grey area” regarding surgery. A couple of weeks ago I saw an allergist, who said, “Well, you don’t have allergies” and repeated the vasomotor rhinitis diagnosis I got from an Army doctor 30 years ago.

    That’s right, my sinus problems are caused by the weather. Thanks a lot, weather. It’s probably good that I’m not Ororo Munroe, because instead of being a powerful and largely benevolent member of the X-Men, I’d just use my powers of weather control to make my sinus problems more manageable.

    So, if I don’t have allergies and it’s not bad enough to mandate surgery, how bad is it? Well, let me put it this way. Before Baguette was born, I was on an Internet forum where someone posed the question, “Is there anything you don’t want your baby to inherit from either of you?”

    It took me about one second to type in: sinuses.