I don't know what happened in between the end of Thanksgiving and oh.. practically the day before Christmas, but somehow, time got away from me. Work has been insanity with a lot of hours and not a lot of recognition, but at this time of year when lots of people are out of work, I have to be grateful I have a job and a fairly decent one besides. But this time of year makes you reflect, creates a sense of longing for lots of things as the year comes to a quicker end than you thought possible..
Oh and I also came down with the best bladder infection known to man. So when they say your medical insurance is great - maybe read the fine print. It's amazing to me how they admittedly use people as guinea pigs. The doc sent me home with a prescription that only worked for one of the two nasty bacteria occupying my insides saying 'Let's see if that works,' which should've been my first clue. Three days later, the doctor's office called saying I needed to come back so they could tell me the second bacteria was resistant to the first set of antibiotics so they were going to prescribe me another - even tho this could've been done over the phone. They asked for another co-pay and I defiantly said, 'Uh.. no. They asked me to come back.' Yeah, screw you.. I thought.
Then randomly that weekend, I came down with a migraine for most of the nicest Saturday we've had in a while. And one should know that I don't get migraines - and yet, there was a pretty bad headache plaguing me from the moment I got up til about 6pm that night. I've had three in my life including that one. One very light one years ago with halos and everything and one while Boy and I were in the midst of one of our do-we-break-up-on-our-scheduled-date-night-or-not-and-we-love-each-other-so-what-do-we-do cry-fests of mine which reduced me to a whiny, horizontal blob, eyes closed due to the pain and the massive nausea so bad it felt like the worst hangover of my life and I literally couldn't move til the pain subsided.
Saturday I thought it was just a caffeine headache.. but I was feeling nauseous after trying to do a few errands and with only having had three drinks in a span of six hours the night before, it couldn't have been due to that. I had so many plans that day - a date, the gym, a list of things to do and spent it horizontal trying not to throw up, wondering why ibuprofen wasn't stronger, and wishing the pain away.
Then, last Tuesday morning, half asleep and in the shower trying to wake up, I noticed my arm was covered in little red bumps - and I realized it wasn't just on one arm, but All. Over. My. Body. And I thought - damn karma.. because after freaking out and heading to the doctor's again, she told me the hives had come from an allergic reaction to the antibiotics most likely. Awesome! I'm so glad you gave me medicine that made me a different kind of sick! And an itchy kind at that! Yay! Love it!
She told me to stop taking them. Right Doctor Obvious, except that I'd finished the prescription two days before that. So for another $20 co-pay, she told me to keep taking Benedryl and let her know if it got worse. Um.. really? No cortisone shot? Nothing stronger? Ooook.. so off to work I went. All day. No sympathy from my boss and jokes if I should even be there or was contagious which just exasperated my already exhausted self. By 6pm, the last co-worker at the office had noticed my face was blotchy and red.. and the hives had spread and when I checked my arms, had become a lot more concentrated so I had the on call doc paged who was super nice and prescribed me a much stronger antihistamine. I tried not to freak out, but I called my mom on the way home crying because I was just so mad and felt like a walking circus side show. And my mother - God love the woman, but she pronounces Washington with an r in the middle, and even SHE knew the hives were caused by the antibiotics. Apparently, a sulfa base medication is a common allergy. Common? Yup - even the pharmacist said the same thing. THEN WHY DO THEY PRESCRIBE IT?!?! For someone who doesn't have any allergies, that should tell them something. This is not a good medicine.. and in fact, is not medicine at all.
So finally, after a very long week of work with lots of overtime, crabby afternoons and company-free evenings because I couldn't bear to have anyone see me, I met up with Vi for some holiday improv downtown on Friday night, and it was so nice to be out and social I would've asked her to hang out longer if we weren't both so tired.
Saturday, finding myself deficient of able-bodied men who are responsible for things like the bbq, killing spiders and hooking up electronic devices, my friend Ryan generously offered to help hook up my new LCD flatscreen my brother gave me even tho we wondered if at 19 inches if it was even necessary since it's eight inches smaller than my giant and ancient version, so how much sense does that make? But it takes up less room and is actually kind of kick ass.
Ryan's part of the group of new friends I made dating Boy. His progressive church group uses Boy's theater on Sunday mornings to meet. They also voluntarily work the box office and that's how I met them. Nothing against God, but He and I are good and I just don't feel the need to go to church, even an awesome-sounding one as theirs probably is. I grew up Catholic. I got plenty of church, thank you.
But my POINT is they're so funny and some of the nicest people I've met in ages. They drink, they allow me to be myself around them, they don't preach, invite me out all the time to their homes for dinner and game nights and they're sort of my favorite rockin' extended family, which I was in sore need of this year. How could I not hang out with them when they asked? We played Scattergories last night, drank, ate a bunch of not-good-for-us homemade mac n' cheese in addition to fondue and candied pecans I brought.
Today I'm hitting the gym, hanging up my Christmas lights no matter how much it makes the upstairs neighbor's dogs bark and hopefully meeting my new niece, Leila, who is Cayenne's new baby girl.
These are all much better ideas in my opinion than fighting the holiday shopping crowds. It's just too much madness for me this weekend. I'll try to get it done this week before I leave for Mom's Thursday night because yes, my office is open for business on Christmas eve and yours truly will be wondering why I'm there when the phones will be completely dead and not one of my clients will be in their offices. But I'll get to spend four days with my family after that - uninterrupted. Not sure if that's a good thing or not considering Mom never likes what I get her and last year I swore she was getting cash only. Seriously. But I'm bringing a great bottle of wine, we're ordering Chinese in, and probably watching a lot of movies, which is just fine with me.
I hope none of you are plagued with illnesses and find yourselves hive and swine flu free this holiday season. Be good to your mom, even if she drives you crazy, travel safely, reflect wisely, forgive yourself your mistakes this year, breathe before you snap at the driver who just cut you off or the Prius driver who doesn't know how to use the pedal that makes the car go. See a good movie, hug your loved ones, and relax. Next year will be here before you know it and the madness of forgetting what's important to us will start all over again.
Happy holidays everyone!
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