Weekend Update

I have mostly kicked my cold. I have a slight cough and runny noise but otherwise I feel much better. Of course Alison is sick now. Also Keith called yesterday and he is not coming in today because of a fever. I have (or someone else has) successfully passed on the bug.

Last night my family went to Peter Lugar’s. As usual it was a fantastic steak. I think morgan liked the bread and water more though! What does she know, she is 1. I had the steak for 2 with my brother in law. It was dam good. I even made room for desert. Cheese cake. It was good too.

Unfortunately I had to take migraine medication both Saturday & Sunday. Saturday a mild head ache was dogging me all day. By the evening I took the drugs because I felt it might deteriorate quick. That is the big fear, so I took some Furiset.

Sunday I took the meds because I wasn’t sure if I was getting one but I wanted to be ok for dinner. I didn’t want to have to cancel twice for my birthday dinner. Normally I wait too long and the drugs are less effective, today I probably took them too soon. Sometimes I feel like I am always medicating. Then I think about a really bad migraine that I have had, and I realize I don’t care if it will prevent even one of those from happening.

Sunday I got some, but not allot of work done. Instead I cleaned up my apartment. I also cleaned out my closet. I got rid of some old clothes or stuff I don’t ever wear. Then of course I went on line and got some new stuff. I spent more than I would have liked at LL Bean. I am finding I like that store allot.

OK, maybe being over the cold was a premature statement. As I sit on the train writing this I am coughing like crazy. I wont speak about being better again. That way I won’t jinx myself.

I cleaned off allot of shows on my Tivo. I got through a big backlog of stuff that I haven’t watched. I still have loads of crap on it but the recent stuff that I wanted to see is taken care of. I love getting a weekend to just sit and veg out.

Blogging On The Train

With the Powerbook back, this is my first blogging session on the LIRR since I sold my old Powerbook in November. Jayson took an early train. I had stuff to do and I also wanted to get a quick hair cut, so I took a later train. With no one to talk to, I get to do some blogging. I haven’t done allot recently.

I still have a stuffy nose and a dry throat today. I think it is because of the dry heat in my apartment. I left my heat on high 2 nights in a row and I was bad ever since. I thought it was a cold last week, but I was fine Saturday and Sunday. It has to be an alergy or the heat. Of course I am not a doctor so what do I know?

Ready Or Not Work Starts Tomorrow

I had one last day of rest and now work starts again tomorrow. I did my laundry and cleaned a bit today, but other than that I took it easy. I still have a nasty cough, but other than that I feel allot better than I did last week. Not 100%, but better. My parents came over to measure stuff. I am getting my new furniture (there old furniture) in a few weeks and we wanted to make sure that everything will fit. I did an awesome Visio of my apartment and all the furniture in it. it was to scale and everything. Unfortunately I cannot seem to find it. It was lost when I had my hard drive issues a few months ago. I cannot seem to find it in my backups. I am not happy about it. A work skill finally put to use for my house and it is lost. I found it so funny that my sister was amazed at that visio, and it only took me like 1 hour of measuring and about an hour an a half of work in Visio. 🙁

My mom talked me into getting more stuff than I anticipated on. I am getting this huge plush chair for my bedroom. I need to get rid of my Pier 1 papizan chair to make it fit. I love that chair but it is starting to break anyway. It is take this chair from my parents or buy another $300 papizan chair. The only think I will need after this furniture arrives is a small kitchen table. I am not even sure if I need one, but I will have the room for it. I can always eat on the dining room table.

OK, I am off to bed. This will hopefully be my last night on Tylenol PM. I need to wean myself off that stuff.

This entry was written while listening to American Girls LP from the album “Hard Candy” by Counting Crows

Why Am I Still Sick

If you have been reading this blog you will have noticed that I have been complaining of being sick on and off since October. Well this is disturbing since I normally get sick with a cold once or twice a year and that is it. Well I have counted what can be 3 cold’s and the flue since October. Needless to say I am not happy.

This whole week I have been coughing allot and had a stuffy nose. It is weird, some colds you just feel like crap and don’t want to do anything. This one I just coughed like crazy and sounded like crap, but I was able to work. Thankfully I had off Thursday and Friday. I left a bit early from work Wednesday and started taking Tylenol PM. I have been in a haze ever since. I woke up this morning and wasn’t tired anymore but I could not concentrate at all. I ended up watching movies and lying in bed most of the day. I couldn’t do anything else if I wanted to.

Late this afternoon I felt a bit better and decided to rearrange my desk a bit. I took my Athlon XP desktop out of the closet and set it up on a corner of my desk. I totally cleared off my desk when I got my iMac but I decided that I had some use for my XP desktop to be out. So I shifted the iMac over and placed the monitor for the XP box in the corner. I have less desk space now and things look a little more cluttered, but it isn’t that bad. If I don’t use the computer I can always put it back in the closet with my server.

I am also giving the apple pro speakers that came with my mac a try. They don’t use a subwoofer and so at first I didn’t want to use them since my creative speakers have a subwoofer. The only thing the apple speakers have going for them is they don’t take up much space. They don’t actually sound so bad now that I have been listening to music on them for the past 2 hours.

The only problem I have now is that I think half of my computer table is not level. it is not visible when working on it, but I know that it is, so it is driving me crazy. I am to much of a perfectionist…

This entry was written while listening to Unwell from the album “More Than You Think You Are” by Matchbox 20

Been Sick Again

Every year I get 1 or two colds and that is it. 2 weeks out of the year I take Nyquil and complain allot. Then I am fine except for allergies and migraines the rest of the year. This year is not going according to my normal plan. I had a cold in AuGust. I got the flue for two weeks in October and a cold. Now I have another cold this week. I am not pleased. I took yesterday off to try and kick the cold. It helped a little, but I still feel it.

I went from the soar throat phase monday and tuesday to the ears and nose problems Wednesday and thursday. Then today I have the nose and cough going on. What fun.

Got My Sleeping Habbits Back

I finally am able to sleep a bit better this weekend. I have been unable to sleep normally since I was sick. I finally was able to sleep to a normal hour this weekend. I also slept through the night. Good news for me. Bad news for all those projects around the house that I was going to do if I continued to be unable to sleep.

So Bored!!!

I slept like crap again last night. I can’t understand why I am so tired when I am sick and yet I cannot sleep. I also can’t understand the lack of appetite. I didn’t eat anything at all from Tuesday night till Thursday night. I then didn’t eat anything bread until this morning. I got the chicken sandwich last night and then as funny as it may sound I wasn’t hungry for it. I ate it for breakfast this morning. I also ate a slice of pizza for lunch. Don’t tell my dad since when he called to find out what I wanted for dinner he laughed at me for asking for pizza. So I had my mom bring me another chicken sandwich. I didn’t even finish that one. I am just not hungry. I would figure I would be. I am also surprised that not eating for only a few days messes up your digestive track like it does. Enough said about that!

I checked some email from my desk for the first time since this all started. My dad thought it was a good sign I also watched some TV and some movies. I spent less time in bed today. That is good. I spent it lounging in the Pier 1 chair I have. I am so bored. I cleared off the tivo of anything I will probably watch. The rest will just sit there until it gets erased, even if I think I may one day sit and watch that crap. This was that day and I didn’t touch it. I did watch the good movies and some shows I watch done.

I am now back in bed with the powerbook. This time with pillows propping me up. Man this is probably very bad for my back. I do like it to write though! I stopped writing the blog’s right into Kun-Log (the offline blog tool I use for Mac OS-X). I am writing the blog in word and then pasting it into Kun-Log. The position I am in the font’s in Kun-Log are too small. In word I can pump the display up to 500% normal. I do have bad eye sight so it helps. Right now I have it at 300% normal on the PowerBooks 12” display.

It is just after 10PM in NYC and I am bored. I can’t go out. I am tired but sleep won’t come, yet again. I hope I get a normal night sleep tonight. I was told I could take a Nyquil last night but I didn’t. I thought about it. I had one out at 2AM but I didn’t take it. I wanted to get on normal sleeping habits. Well without the drugs I didn’t get onto one yet. Lets hope tonight is different.

When you were a kid did you ever look forward to a sick day, or a snow day? Just a change of pace? I used to. Now that I am older and working I look at things a bit differently. Staying home sick is boring. I have been cooped up since Wednesday. Granted I have been in no condition to do anything, but that is half of it. Now that I am feeling a bit better I want to get out and do SOMETHING, anything. The problem is the medical people who are so helpful when you are sick are also a pain in the ass. My dad is “suggesting” I stay in another day. His suggestion’s are usually do this or you are stupid. I am feeling a bit better today. So I wonder why I can’t do anything tomorrow. The answer is that the body needs time to fix itself. I am listening since I don’t want this to come back again. Twice for me is more than enough. I am so bored I will probably remote in from home. I got permission to do that, but I was told to “take it easy”. I know he means well. I am not off the hook with doctors anyway. My doctor wants to see me, and he wants me to speak to a headache specialist again. I may not have been in contact with my doctor, but since he is friends with my dad he has been in constant contact with him this week. It is nice having people in the family that can do stuff like that.

I don’t mind going to see my doctor. Tony is cool. He is my dad’s doc, and I just hop on the 4 or 5 train by his office and I can be at work no later than like 10:30. The headache guy is another story. I went to him once like 2 years ago. I stopped going since I left one health insurance company and went to another when I started full time work at my current company. At the time they had a bad company that he didn’t take. Now we are on a different plan and he takes it, so I can go see him. The problem is the first time I went he sent me for an CAT scan. Never fun. It was my second “head shot”. I had one when I was like 11. they found nothing. That is good. The headache guy wanted to put me on some heavy duty preventative medication. He told me the side effects of them and I said no way. The compromise was the Nadolol that I am on now. The next time I go see this guy I am taking my dad with me. All of my dad’s medical friends including Tony think this is the best guy around for headache’s. at least if he is going to want to put me on powerful drugs I can have my dad around telling him he is on crack or something.

Ok enough depressing crap. Most people don’t want to read about my medical issues. And the truth be told is this blog is more for me than anyone else. But I don’t want to turn off the 3-5 readers I do have. I am just bored and writing like this is good. I like doing it. I just write what I am thinking about. Right now it is how I want to be better and doing something else, anything else than what I am doing now.

Written while listening to Pink, Just Like A Pill…

Real Food Is Here

So my dad just dropped the chicken sandwich off. Being hungry all day and now I get real food and I don’t want to eat. It is probably because of the bread I had an hour ago. One thing about doing nothing and puking allot is that you don’t want to eat much.

I got scolded about typing. My dad said I shouldn’t be looking at the computer screen. Then I showed him how I was doing it in bed without looking he laughed. Every time I tell him I can type without looking at my hands he gets a kick out of it. Then I seems to forget that skill I have had since the 5th grade. He always wonders how I know I am typing the correct thing if I don’t look at my hands while doing it? Try telling him spell check and looking at the screen does wonders.

He was happy about how I looked and sounded. That was the good news. He also didn’t care that I was still really tired. He said that I should rest. That is the body’s way of fixing things. He says that by being tired I am not fully recovered. And then I got the lecture on that is what I did last week when I was sick. I went out too soon. I personally don’t think I did, but I cannot argue with results. Me being sick again is the result I am talking about.

I at least was given permission to take something to help me sleep tonight. This is the first medication I have had since Wednesday morning. We have been afraid I couldn’t keep anything down.

I am going to try and watch a bit of tv and then try for sleep again. More later.

Sleep Wont Come

I am lying here (since Wednesday) and I just cannot sleep. Have you ever been tired all the time but you can’t sleep? I am lying on my back with my knees raised holding my powerbook because if I sat up to write my head would start to get dizzy probably after 5 minutes. That is the length of time I am good standing upright. I just came back from getting a role, and some lemonade. I cant stand the Gatorade I have been forced to drink so I switched to lemonade. By now I am told that is fine with my system.

So what exactly happened you might ask? Well Wednesday morning I thought I was fine. Tuesday I had a bit of a headache and went to bed early but that happens every so often. It all started about an hour before a meeting I was going to have with our phone integrator’s. I started getting the sign’s of a MIGRANE. I thought ok, I just dealt with a major network problem and I didn’t sleep that well the night before (due to the last headache) so lets medicate what appeared to be a migraine coming on. So I took some zomig. It was too late by then. I took it too late. I got back to my desk and within 15 minutes I started feeling the headache come on full strength. I called Gus and told him that I was missing the meeting and then never left my desk.

First I put my head down and just tried to remain very still. That didn’t work. The next section of this blog will get graphic in the detailed bodily function type of way. If you don’t stand for that sort of thing skip to another entry). The lying still didn’t do anything. I started getting really dizzy and got an upset stomach. A little while later I threw up for the first time. I don’t know how long it was from when everything started to the time I puked but it felt like forever. The thing is I thought I was going to puke for a while. I wished I didn’t because the act of throwing up is not a pleasant one. On the other hand I also wanted it to happen in the hopes of feeling a little better after it was done. Well I did feel a bit better, but not much. I remember feeling very numb. I also remember sweating allot. I lied with my head down for what felt like hours (but it wasn’t) and threw up a few more times. By then I had someone (I think Keith) get my sweatshirt and I used that to put my head on. Then I just got onto the floor and lied on the sweatshirt. By then I knew I was living through a major migraine breakout. Now I get migraine headaches. But with preventative medication and the stuff I take when I feel one coming on I don’t normally get a full on migraine. If I do I usually get fair warning signs and am able to get home in time. This one came on so fast that I had no time to get anywhere. The medication also had no effect.

By this time everyone seemed to be getting worried. Gus wanted to know if there was anything to do? Cari who also gets them wanted to help. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think I was going to make it home and that was the logical place to go. I called my dad from the floor of my office. I was calm until I got him on the phone. Then I just broke down and cried. I didn’t know what to do and I was in so much pain. He told me to go home and try to rest. That was the only thing he would have told me then. He told me later that he was very worried and was almost ready to have me come to the Montie ER. Gus wanted to send me to the ER. I just wanted to sleep. I asked cari to call a car service and I hoped I would make it home without puking again.

I physically could not get up when the time came to get the car. I got to my knee’s and went back down again I think. I also think I puked again. By this time it was just bile and dry heaving. The worst king of puking. Cari helped me to the car and I don’t know how I made it home. I just had the wind blowing on my face and felt numb the whole time. I made it to my apartment complex before I puked again. Thankfully car provided a bag in the chance that I had a problem. I puked in the car for a while and then in the elevator. Some old women wanted to know if I was ok. She did this while holding the door open on her floor. I was telling her I was fine while I was thinking get out of the way lady and let me get to my floor so I can lie down. I know she meant well, but lets keep the sick guy waiting.

I honestly don’t know how I made it home. I got to my apartment and threw up one more time before collapsing on my bed. I must of finally been able to fall asleep because the next thing I know it was 5PM or so. I actually felt a bit better. That looking back was the calm before the storm. At the time I thought it was a migraine and that was all. Exactly what happened last week. History was painfully repeating itself. The next morning at 2 am I was sadly mistaken. I still felt sick. I actually felt worse than I did at 5PM the night before. I couldn’t eat, my head was killing me.

I called my dad. He said it was most likely still the flu, and that I probably didn’t get it out of my system from the week before and it came back to get me. That was probably what caused the migraine. He also later told me that relapses are worse. And he was correct. I spent the entire day Thursday and Friday morning in agony. I couldn’t eat all day Thursday. I drank a little Gatorade my dad brought me. I tried some toast, but I was in too much pain. By Friday at like 1AM I felt a bit better and ate more toast. I felt crappy again at 9AM but according to my dad sounded allot better. That as the breaking point. I if didn’t improve I would have been taken to the hospital and put on an IV. I hadn’t ate anything that I kept down since Tuesday.

By mid Friday I got enough strength to get my powerbook out of my bag and plug it in next to my bed. I listened to music most of Friday. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t. either it made the time pass or I fell asleep because the day went faster. I was also in allot less pain.

Dad brought more Gatorade and toast Friday afternoon and hung out again. He came Thursday for a while but I don’t remember much of the visit. Friday I sat on the floor and actually talked and ate for a little while before getting dizzy again. For someone who was so tired I could not sleep. Thursday or Friday night sleep was difficult. I tossed and turned from 2AM Saturday till 9AM when I couldn’t sleep anymore. I tried some TV. I was able to do that till like 11AM. Then I had to lie down again. I am still so dam tired. I listened to more music this afternoon, but the elusive sleep didn’t come. It almost did I think, but I got a phone call. I never could get in that relaxed position again.

My Mom and Dad just called they are coming over with some dinner for me. I have been on bread only since Tuesday and I want real food. They are bringing me grilled chicken with nothing on it. I am told no BBQ sauce or anything since I don’t want to upset my stomach again. If that works out, I can try normal food tomorrow. I am eager to get normal food again. I think not eating anything but bread is keeping me weak. My dad say’s it may be we need to take it slow. I stopped drinking the Gatorade and switched to lemonade. I cannot stand Gatorade. It just doesn’t taste right. My dad likes it because he says it is flavored IV solution. It is also probably what kept me out of the hospital. I am told I was about 3-6 hours away from going there. At the time I didn’t care about going to the hospital. I was more worried how I was going to survive the trip? Moving at all hurt.

It is now Saturday evening and I am still tired. Dinner should arrive any second. My parents just called. I just refilled the lemonade squirt bottle I have by my bed. Still sleep eludes me.

My dad says I should take it easy this weekend. Like I would be able to do anything else? He says I should play it by ear about going to work Monday. As of now he is saying not to go. He wants me 100% before I go back. I agree but I don’t know if I can miss another day. I have the vacation time. That is not the problem. I just have allot going on. Maybe I will work from home. I will see how I feel Sunday night I guess.

Through all of this I missed Morgan coming to visit my parents 2 days in a row. I also missed out on babysitting for her. Man that kid is growing up. My sister took her to a pumpkin patch today. I hope to get pictures. That will be cute.

That’s it for now. More later when I can sit up and do this. My neck is starting to hurt propped up on these pillows.

Off To Make Dinner

I finally got my appetite back from being sick. I defrosted a steak (filet of course) and am warming up the George Forman Grill. From meat to a cooked steak in 3-4 minutes, but I want it now:)

Written while listening to REM, The Great Beyond…