Grab bag

Life and hobby updates:
-I'm finally recovering from The Cold of 2009.
-I discovered a new precious beer that is delicious and wonderful. I forget the name. Duchess Borgnone or some such. Tartness at first that quickly warms to an almost cider-like sweetness, thanks to those crazy Belgian yeast.
-The Kathy and Mustafa visit was a whole big load of fun. We had a game day at Josh and Megan's place, complete with waffles and mimosas. Double Awesome.
-Played Imperial at said game day. Double Awesome. It is a non-intuitive economic game with a military component. I lived, I died, I had very vocal moments of despair and tragedy, I lived again, I had fun. Mustafa won on his last turn of the game. That never happens!
-Elaine played at Madeleine's house today. I picked her up, and noticed that she was picking at her shoe in her car seat. I reached back and grabbed her shoe, "ROWRRRR!!!", and my thumb sank into a fresh clump of dog poo. Not Awesome.
-It's cold as the wastes of Heck here. Arctic winds are a-blowing through our little convergence zone. It's supposed to die out soon, and 50 degree weather will return. I'm thinking that I might be able to get out for a run this week. Finally!
-I'm kinda bummed that we don't have anyone on the immediate schedule for visitation and hanging out. I guess we have June to look forward to, possibly.

And now, back to my yummy beer.

Mustafa and Kathy are here

So that's pretty cool. After the marathon house cleaning last night, an attempt to debulk the house of cat hair to keep Kathy's considerable cat allergies at chair-and-whip length, I had my first beer in over a week and then failed to fall asleep. Jill went to pick them up at the airport around 12:30 last night, and I was still up when they got home, and remained so until after 2. I woke at 6 as usual, so today should be interesting.

Follow up

So I went back to the doctor on Tuesday. She prescribed a Z-pak, which is a broad spectrum antibiotic. She also told me that amoxicillin is basically a placebo at this point, so I coughed for an extra week for no reason. I'm also on Flonase, which is a corticosteroid that counteracts the effects of seasonal allergies. This is mostly to open up my sinuses. I think that we're on the right path. I get that there are bacterial strains that are becoming resistant to the best stuff we have, and so doctors need to be careful about handing out Z-paks, but I was pretty f-ing patient through this process and I'm a little annoyed that someone would be willing to play games with me after six weeks of coughing. Grrrrr.

Under the weather

Jill had her most recent operation on Jan. 16. While I was passing the time in the waiting room, I began to get a bit of scratchiness in my throat. I had developed a runny nose by that evening, and the whole mess quickly moved to my chest within two days. Or so I thought. I had what I thought was bronchitis. Most bronchitis is viral, so I waited it out for a few weeks. These weeks, spent largely at work or at the hospital (Jill came home too soon and had to go back for a few more days), were filled with the sound of my rattly lungs and very productive cough. Three weeks after contracting this "ick", I saw a doctor. She said that my lungs were clear, and diagnosed me with rhinovirus, the common cold. She said that it would gradually get better over the next two weeks on its own.

Three weeks later, I had had it (along with my coworkers and friends). The cough had gotten only marginally better, and I was spiking 100-102F fevers on consecutive nights. I went back in and was diagnosed with rhinosinusitis. Basically, my nasal passages were so swollen that everything was going down the back side, causing me to cough. I got high dose amoxicillin, an inhaler, and was advised to take Sudafed. That was Wednesday. I stayed home most of Wednesday and all of Thursday. I went to work Friday, but stayed mostly off my feet. There was somewhat less coughing yesterday, but today feels like a week ago. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken E to the zoo this morning.

Anyway, blah. This has sapped a lot of my energy. I hope that the RN who saw me gambled correctly on amoxicillin. I'm going to be pissed if I have to go back in for a Z-Pak, which is what I expected.

And now....Pictures!!!

The ubiquitous "Uh oh!"


Right before heading out to the zoo



No caption necessary