And don't underestimate the importance of body language!

This is my declaration that I am going to start blogging more. It is something that I do really enjoy and I really do like keeping a record of things even if I rarely go back and read it. Don't even ask me about my several failed attempts at trying to make my blog into a book using Blurb. It just would never download. So frustrating- I get so upset when I can't figure things out with technology.

But I do want to blog more even if it is just about the mundane parts of life. I find writing to be a great outlet and it makes me feel good to get my thoughts out.







Right now is a great time for me to write my thoughts as I have had laryngitis for the last two days. For someone who loves to talk as much as I do this has been a challenge. I think I am on the mend but having phone conversations has been a real challenge and it's hard for me to get Kona to stop doing things when she can't even hear me.

It has been fun though to think of myself as Ariel- you know my favorite Disney princess. I really thing when my voice comes back I will swim up a rock and let my beautiful singing voice out.

Most days its hard for me to keep up with my house so when I am sick it is even worse. These wood floors get so dusty and when I am well I really love to sweep them. And I would like to blame the disorganization on Rodger but generally it is all my stuff that is splayed about. It will be my life's challenge to clean up after myself.

Well I finally washed my hair for the first time in like four days so it's time to go brush out the mane with my dinglehopper.

For every one's visual pleasure.

My Best Phlegm

I have had a cold or some version of a cold since the night before Christmas Eve. That night as I was baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and cleaning I knew a cold was coming on. I kept telling myself it was allergies but I knew better. I awoke Christmas Eve morning with a full blown cold. The thing was, though, that I couldn't be sick. There was no time for it, it was Christmas and I had a half dozen events to go to. So I went to all of them and took my cold along with me. My cold and my Cepacol and my Halls Vitamin C. That was Christmas.

And this is January 17th and my cold and I are still together. A version of it, anyway. I wake up with sore throats in the morning (though it may be allergies) and my phlegm and I are constant companions. It's behind my nose and down my throat. It makes me constantly blow my nose which makes my nose constantly dry.

What's a girl to do? I have heard Mucinex is good but it seems kind of expensive. I bought nose spray but all that is doing is occupying my thoughts of when I get to put that heavenly spray up my nose again. I don't actually think it's eliminating anything. I think it's just giving me a momentary high. Only two to four squirts every 24 hours though.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Until then me and my phlegm will be together. Checking each others color.

Sick Pants

Rodger and I have colds. He has a bad cough and I have chills all over my body and am all stuffed up and last week I had canker sores and yesterday a cut tongue. Rodger hardly ever gets sick and I get a cold a few times a year.

I didn't go to work yesterday. I spent my day in a "Ny-Quil" induced haze meaning I pretty much slept all day and what I did do I can only vaguely remember. I woke up twice last night drenched in my sweat. This happens to me a lot, not just when I am sick, but this was a lot of sweat. Plus there was a high speed chase on t.v. last night and I slept right through it. I hate that, it went right though Monrovia and everything. I went to work today but couldn't get warm and then when I did get warm I was very hot.

I think we are both getting better but colds do take awhile to go away. Poor Rodger has to sleep elevated because of his cough. He has to get all better by Friday because it's his birthday and you just can't be sick on your birthday.

So that's our status update. It was too long to put on Facebook.

Also, we went to Sonics tonight because we bought malts there earlier this month and if you take your receipt back before the end of the month then you get your whole order again for FREE! Two chocolate malts- just what the doctor ordered.

Also, I did a complete yoga back bend tonight. I was so proud. The past few weeks I haven't been able to get the top of my head off of the ground but all of sudden tonight I just did it. I went so high up that the bottom my pony tail was touching the ground. I was like a little kid, "look Rodger I'm doing it!". Yoga is amazing. I need to do it more often.

Time to go blow my nose again. Goodnight.

Off Balance

I have been dizzy lately. A little off balance. I finally went to the doctor today to see what the problem is. The doctor told me that it is most likely an inner ear viral infection. I am not 100% convinced it is not a brain tumor, but I am feeling better about the situation than before I went to the doctor. The doctor prescribed me medication.

Two notes regarding this medication; and let me preface this by saying I have pretty much no knowledge when it comes to the medical community and absolutely zero knowlege when it comes to the health insurance industry.

1) It's over the counter so not covered by my insurance. It was only like $1.50 more so I didn't flip out too much but this is so stupid, the doctor wrote the prescription out and signed it, that should not be over the counter. Over the counter should be only for things I don't need to consult a doctor about. If I spent two and a half hours at the doctor today I want medicine that is covered by my insurance not medicine that I could have picked up in ten minutes at CVS. I hear more and more about occurances like this. I don't understand it but I mean I have insurance so let's keeping making medicines that are covered. If Paxil or my thyroid medication ever move to "over the counter" I'm screwed.

2) On one side of my prescription bottle it says "Take 1 tablet by mouth 3 times a day as needed for dizziness". On the other side under side effects it says "may cause dizziness." Okay then.

P.S. Please for the love of God if anyone has a story about dizziness related to a brain tumor or any other horrible condition please do not put it in the comments. Unless it is something to the affect of dizziness has absolutely nothing to do with brain tumors.

A Record of Sorts

Yesterday I went to the dentist to see the Endodonist for a Root Canal. I had to see the specialist because it was a more complicated root canal (not sure why). The Endodonist gave me four injections of Novocaine and I could still feel what the doctor described as pressure. After I told her that it was actually pain she gave me a few more injections of Novocaine and went to work. After she gave me the shots I started to have this weird feeling. It was kind of a lightheadeness and a chill over my whole body.

One of the only enjoyable parts about the dentist (besides the movies you get to watch there. I have seen "The Blind Side" on three different visits there, which is fine because every time I see it I love it more) is listening to the dentist and the assistant's conversation. This particular endodonist is from Iran so she always has something interesting to say about her family. This time though the assistant was telling the dentist how she is afraid of needles because when she was growing up in another country she had measles and had to be given injections three times a day. And then in her twenties she had to take antibiotic shots. The whole time she is talking about this I am thinking "this woman has her hand in my mouth and is hovering over my face". So gross. This made me feel even more dizzy.

Once the root canal was finished I went home and had chills all night. This morning I woke up and felt even worse. I went to work anyway but couldn't stay long. I felt so feverish and couldn't stop shaking. I came home and tried to get warm and called the dentist to see if I could have been having a bad reaction to the Novocaine. They said no but that sometimes the body just reacts to the shock of the shots and the procedure and has to recover. They gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

I am feeling better now. Still achy and have some chills but don't feel shaky and feverish. Such a strange experience. I have never reacted to a root canal like this before and hope it doesn't happen again.

Because I am sure there are more root canals in my future. The Endodonist said that she had never seen a person that has had so many root canals. Thank you, thank you, no applause. You're far too kind.

My sincerest apologies to my kidneys

I have a cold. This would be my second cold in less than a month but I fear this one may be worse than the last one. It's cold season so it's really no surprise and as long as I don't contract the Swine Flu I will take these colds all winter long.

I went to work today (what a trooper I am) and decided that I would need to take two Tylenol Cold pills to get through the morning. (These work really well, by the way). About an hour after this a staple got stuck in my finger, deep in my finger, like it took me a while to get it out. I will not scream, I will not cry, I will not scream, I will not cry. I must say I handled the situation very calmly, very unlike myself. After the blood situation was under control and I had rolled some white-out on the blood that spilled on my desk calendar I was left with a throbbing finger. So I took two Advil for the pain.

Uh oh, that would be four pills in less than an hours time with no breakfast on the stomach.

I don't know what it says about me or my body that I felt completely unphased by this. Not a single side effect but still will do my best to not make that mistake again.

Once again, dearest kidneys, my sincerest apologies.

Now back to treating my cold, aka laying in bed watching tv and eating cupcakes and keeping my germs to myself.

Achy Breaky Feet

My feet hurt. This happens every summer. I wear un-supportive flip-flops and my feet ache and then my ankles hurt.

It has to be the sandals, I can't think of what else it would be. Since the summer started there have been nights where I can't fall asleep because my ankles and feet are just aching. This happened last night, and it was bad enough that I got out of bed and filled my bath tub with a little water and soaked my feet in Epson Salt. It helped. The strange thing about this is that my wrists hurt some times as well. Could this be arthritis? Could my joints be swelling from the heat? Have I mentioned how hot it has been lately?

Last night while soaking my feet I decided that it was time to get a new pair of supportive sandals. I can't bring myself to were my Nike tennis shoes out and about during the summer. They don't go with anything I wear in the summer and it is too hot to wear socks and shoes. Today I got a new pair of Rainbow sandals. The ones I have now are old and dirty, and most recently crunchy from dipping them in the pool in Palm Springs. I love Rainbows because they will form to the arch of my feet and be much more comfortable. They were $45.00 ($54.00 with tax, hello 10% sales tax) which seems like a ridiculous amount to spend on flip-flops but they will last a long time and I just need my feet not to hurt.

I am hoping by this time next week that thanks to my new sandals my feet and ankles will be ache-free.

"Just think of it as a power nap with assistance"- R

On Friday afternoon I have to go to the dentist and be "put under" to have the beginning of an implant put in for one tooth and another tooth pulled. The tooth that is getting pulled is a back bottom molar (are there top molars?) and the implant is for a top tooth, both on different sides of the mouth.

The implant is being put into a tooth that had been pulled at the end of November because the crown didn't have anything to hook onto anymore. They pulled the tooth and put in a bone graph. On Friday they are putting a hollow screw into that bone graph, this is what they call an implant.

I am a little nervous mostly because I don't want to be in pain after it is over but I am glad that I will not be awake for it. Last time I was awake when I got my tooth pulled and it was much worse then I thought it would be. What the dentist called "pressure" I call horrible pain. As far along as they have come in dentistry the pulling of a tooth is still pretty barbaric but when they get it out it is sweet relief but it stays sore for a couple of days. I have some jitters but I just keep thinking that I have to do it and I will be happy when it's over. All I will have to worry about then is paying off the dental bill. For the amount of money it costs these aren't the kind of implants I had in mind. (Actually I really don't want any kind of implants but I never thought at 26 I would be getting a tooth implant. Oh well!)

So be thinking about me on Friday afternoon and eat lots of good food for me this weekend because I have a feeling I will be on a liquid diet.

WHAT???????????????

I have pretty much lost hearing in my right ear for the time being.

On Sunday when I was in Santa Rosa for vacation (see future post) I was swimming with Rodger and I got water stuck in my right ear. It would not come out so I decided that sticking q-tips in it to try and work the water out was the thing to do. I think I went to deep in the ear. As a result the next day my ear was very sore and hurt to the touch. So Tuesday morning I bought some ear drops and put those in. I think I over did it with the drops and as of last night my ear is completely clogged and I can feel the liquid inside of it.

Today I decided to go to the doctor who, of course, is on vacation until August 1st. I think I am just going to let it "dry out" like my dad said unless it starts to hurt worse at which time I will go to Urgent Care.

So as a result I can not look at people when they talk, I have to turn my head to the right and hope that I am not talking too loud.

Anyone else ever had this problem? Any advice or is everyone else smart enough not to stick things in their ears?