Soonerwife has been sick recently with a series of upper respiratory and sinus infections for going on a month now. I’m not the best husband in the world, but I’ve been doing the best I can to care for her. Well, after three different antibiotic prescriptions and several different remedies, she’s finally starting to mend. This is a good thing because I have a 103.4* fever at the moment.
The joys of marriage.
Now, Mr. Toughguy Infantryvet is about to become Mr. Whiny McSickypants. Really. I fall apart at the slightest sniffle when I’m at home. When I was a Soldier, and particularly an NCO, I sucked it up and drove on, because that’s what you do. I once did a training jump when I had pneumonia. I was hard core, which is to say I was a fucking moron. But not anymore. I get sick these days, and I camp on the couch or the bed in sweats and a comforter with the TV on Netflix and I whine. A LOT.
So, how are you guys failing to cope effectively and regressing to childhood this morning?
Anne Laurie
Oops.
Sorry, Soonergrunt — but at least now you have one more tiny irritant to nourish your hard-earned self-pity…
I’d pull my post, except I have to get to bed, and I don’t trust the FYWP scheduling function.
Meanwhile, hope you are feeling better soon, and don’t forget chicken soup with lots of garlic can’t hurt, while you’re waiting for the remedies your wife so helpfully pre-tested to do their job…
amk
Congrats. You beat Anne.
Best wishes to wifey unit. I used to have such issues and yoga sorted me out.
raven
Can’t fucking sleep so here I am. Goddamn infield fly call ended Chipper’s career and it sucks.
amk
103.4 deg fever? pfft. Be a man. ;)
raven
My wife has been battling sciatica for a couple of months and it’s very frustrating. She started with a deep massage person and it helped in the short term but no real cure. She’s is now going to an osteopath and her bone density test came back ok but not spectacular. She lives for her garden so this is a sucky situation.
raven
@Anne Laurie: Vinegar and a shot of vietnamese hot sauce in that soup will make it better!
amk
Hope this makes you feel better.
mitt’s response to 7.8% bitchez.
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: It’s all good. And I don’t trust the auto-poster either, because it has NEVER worked.
Starfish
My 2-year-old woke up at least 3 times for hugs last night because he has a cold.
Mustang Bobby
Soonergrunt, I just got over a two-week battle with a lingering cold and the rattling coughing that comes with it, and it’s not for sissies. Best wishes to both of you.
arguingwithsignposts
@raven:
I’d say not winning your division and a sloppy game by the team ended Chipper’s career, but I live in a land of Cards fans.
arguingwithsignposts
@Soonergrunt: @Anne Laurie: Interesting. I’ve used the schedule function on several blogs, and the only time I’ve ever had problems was when I screwed up the time because it was on 24-hour time, or I was thinking in the wrong time zone. But whatever.
Feel better sooner, sooner.
c u n d gulag
HEAL, YOU HEATHEN SINNERS!
There, that ought to do it.
Feel better already, don’t you? :-)
Maude
@Mustang Bobby:
I am not over this cold. Felt better yesterday, but today I am staying in. Was going to bus to the market and that’s a no go.
I thought it was me. The thing hangs on.
@Soonergrunt:
Be careful with this. I wasn’t a few years ago and it went into pneumonia. I was very ill with it.
Tell wife I’m glad she’s better but to take it slow for a bit so it doesn’t come back.
Linda Featheringill
103.4?
Call the nurse at the VA and let her tell you to come in and let them have a look at that. That is a high fever. And if it gets much higher, you’re likely to have diminished judgment.
raven
@arguingwithsignposts: And Chipper’s was the crucial one.
Soonergrunt
@Linda Featheringill: who would notice?
Narcissus
103 is pretty dang high.
Linda Featheringill
@Soonergrunt:
“Who would notice?”
:-)
The Ancient Randonneur
I remember the good ol’ days of “jumping out of perfectly good airplanes”. The late night jaunts through the woods. Group hikes in 90+ heat and 90+ humidity. As the son of a career military man, disappointing dear old dad wasn’t an option. Ah the good ol’ days. Remember them well.
Get well, brother.
Hunter
Just getting over my own cold — in bed for 24 hours with fever, the whole bit — and then 2 1/2 weeks of getting up in the morning and clearing the night’s gunk out of my lungs. I feel for you.
I used to be a real guy about being sick, but I’ve learned. It doesn’t last as long if you tackle it right off the bat. I’m more like a cat about being sick, though — I just crawl into my corner and you’d best just leave me alone.
Pen
Colds? Pfft. Fevers? Fugetabout it. Now get me a bad bout of food poisoning and I’m just like you only minus the comforter and add in a straight line to the porcelain throne. LIke I tell my wife I was tough enough when I was younger, it’s my turn to be a sissy every once in a while.
Still if that fever of yours breaks 104 I’d say go in. There’s not much room between even your current reading and brain damage. If that’s not an option a cold water bath and drinking ice water might help, though I wouldn’t count on it as a sure thing.
Phylllis
Hope you feel better. Fevers suck.
Spatula
Whining has proven benefits to the immune system.
Or so I choose to believe.
gelfling545
@raven: If there is a Taoist Tai CHi Society group near you, their Tai Chi style can help a great deal. Many folks do it for pain relief as I did myself and nothing else worked as well. They are experienced (at least the one here is) in modifying the form for people with health problems and have a health recovery class as well as the standard class.
donnah
I hope both of you recover quickly. My husband is a whiny crybaby when he’s sick, so I totally understand. Just don’t leave your snotty tissues wadded up on the sofa.
I work part time in a woman’s fitness club, and the majority of members are middle class, white, Catholic, Republican wives or widows. Most of the time I love ’em, but when politics come up, I have to turn a deaf ear because I want to keep my job. Yelling at them would be hazardous to my position.
But yesterday, when they started tossing out the most stupid statements about the President and First Lady, something snapped. Seriously, they were accusing Michelle of spending our tax dollars on expensive clothes. Um, don’t most of the news stories show that she buys INexpensive clothes and pays for them herself? And all the trips she takes overseas? My god, the crap tha keeps circulating after four years; you’d think they’d get some fresh outrages.
But what I chose to debunk was the flat-out lie that Obama painted over the American flag emblem on Air Force One with his logo. For pete’s sake, really? That was just too ridiculous for me. I grabbed my iPad, pulled up Snopes, and explained calmly, without showing my building fury, that the story just was not true. And smiling, I added that they should check Snopes before spreading any other questionable stories about either candidate.
They acted a little embarrassed at first, then one huffily said, Well, now we know you’re voting for Obama” and I said, “You betcha!”
There comes a time when we have got to just stand up and say “Enough lies!”
As far as I know, I haven’t lost my job.
gnomedad
@donnah:
Good on you. I still can’t get my head around dealing with Otherwise Decent People for whom this bullshit is a bonding activity. I do it, but I can’t explain how I do it.
Uncle Cosmo
Soonergrunt: I started getting late-summer virus infections a few years back & they’d lay me low for 5-6 weeks–the virus would be gone after the first 2 but an opportunistic bacterial infection would sneak in behind it. It doesn’t help that my GP always refuses to prescribe antibiotics until she’s completely convinced it’s bacterial.
At 103.4 it’s bacterial. Hie thee to an MD ASAP & demand they shoot you up with ‘cillins or equivalent.
(This year I caught the summer cold on a night train between L’viv and Kyiv in Ukraine, which made solo touring even more of a challenge than going east of Poland is [NB the sadists who sell tickets for Ukrainian railways took great delight in booking this geezer into upper berths that could only be reached by Cirque du Soleil performers] but at least the anticipated bacterial sucker punch never showed up.)
And, GO O’S HON! Way to scratch & claw your way to a win! Now take out the Skankees!
amk
@donnah: Good for you. Amazing how easily these peeps buy all that crap that is floating around.
ellie
When we were sick as children, my siblings and I would thrash around and cry for our mom. I’m 47 and I still do it when I get sick.
CynDee
This is a nasty illness that’s going around. People I know who have had it keep starting to improve, only to have bad setbacks. It runs for a minimum of three weeks. As soon as you are done with antibiotics, get on some probitotics — friendly flora — or you will also have an overgrowth of the very dangerous microbe C Difficile. Believe me, you do not want to risk that complication. My mister had such a condition some years ago, and it took five years for the digestive tract to get back to normal — and he was one of the lucky ones.
Joel
103.4? Um… you should call your doctor. That, combined with upper respiratory illness.. I dunno, could be flu, the real kind.
aimai
Mr Aimai suffered horribly, for years, with what we eventually found out was a kind of chronic allergy/sinus infection. He used to double up coughing, like an 80 year old man. We finally got him on massive doses of Flonase, a steroid you shoot up your nose, basically, and Loratidine all through the dangerous months. He just doesn’t get those sinus infections anymore. Look into this for your wife. Hugs to both of you.
aimai
RaflW
@donnah: Well done, ma’am! I haven’t been in a service industry job for a while, but I used to work retail in a very upscale suburb. I had to keep my mouth shut a lot, and it can get really, really exhausting.
Schlemizel
Sooner – the girl foolish enough to marry me fought this same crap for nearly a month & ended up getting antiboitics that cleared her right up.
I started down this same road 3 days ago & its a treat! I’m afraid to take a decongestant because I already have no moisture in my throat.
RedKitten
Yep, being sick truly sucks. I had a cold teasing me on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Wednesday night, it decided to stop fucking around and get down to business. I was so congested that I was actually gagging about every half-hour or so. So between the stuffiness, the gagging, and a preschooler who decided that sleep was for pussies, I got about 3 hours of sleep Wednesday night, and spent all of Thursday on the couch, trying to convince aforementioned preschooler that an all-day Dora marathon would be just fun, and no, he didn’t need to go outside to play.
Being sick when you’re home with a small kid is NOT restful.
Opie_jeanne
@raven: agreed. That was a terrible call.
Pen
@donnah: Good on ya. I’ve often found that the fine-line balance between polite refutation and “are you really that fucking stupid?” isn’t one I can see most of the time. The result? I tend to not pipe up at work. That’s what I get for working at a company owned by a billionaire Tea Party acolyte and his “yeah we’re privately owned and have no shareholders but long-term planning be damned, I’m the CEO now dammit” son. I’m more likely to rip into my family’s Young-Earther/anti-vax contingent, they can’t fire me.
I’ve got one year left at the place before I quit and head back to college, pretty sure I can handle it for that much longer. But boy, the wife’s master’s didn’t seem like it would take this bloody long when we planned it out :(
El Tiburon
I also turn into a big weenie when I get sick. I want to be left alone with zero contact until I am better. Usually I medicate with Nyquil and hibernate through the illness.
SHARK JR UPDATE: Couple weeks ago my son had to go to the hospital via ambulance. (He is 21 months old. It was nothing too serious – he was low on oxygen so the doctor wanted to put him on oxygen immediately at her office. The preliminary diagnosis was pneumonia. We went in Friday afternoon and Shark Jr. was released Monday afternoon. The final diagnosis was acute bronchiolitis. He is fine and we were never really concerned, but, still, seeing him in the ambulance and hooked up to an IV and other assorted monitoring devices is unsettling to say the least. But he was a trooper the entire time. The worse part of the experience was being forced to watch the UT vs. Ok. State game on a shitty hosptial TV. (I kid.)
I am self-employed and therefore my insurance is not the top-notch variety I had before I left my previous company. So, I have a $2,500 deductible among other restrictions.
So, when the doctor informed us she wanted to put Jr. in an ambulance, my mental calculator started whirling. I offered to drive Jr. to the hospital. The doctor strongly urged against it. So, ultimately I agreed.
Now, I felt really bad that while my son’s doctor was telling me what needed to be done for his health,, I was thinking about the financial aspect of the situation. It was sickening.
Then I was informed we really had only two choices between two childrens hospitals. I guess I could have told everyone to wait while I called each facility and do some price comparisons as our conservative friends suggest. And I guess I could have questioned the ICU doctors and staff on each and every procedure to make sure they were 100% necessary.
The final damage was close to $30,000.00 for 3 nights in the hospital. The only procedures were a couple of chest x-rays, IV and vital monitoring. The numbers aren’t in yet, but I will owe in the $7,000-8,000 dollar range. This is on top of my $700/month premium to the insurance company.
Hopefully we will be able to work out a payment plan.
Fortunately Shark Jr’s mom and I were able to be with him the entire time. But we are slightly upper-middle class. And we had it pretty easy compared to kids with serious illnesses like cancer. How parents with no cars or the inability to take off work or otherwise could handle a similar situation is beyond me. And I can only assume kids with no insurance would have received the same treatment – but I don’t know.
I’m thankful we have such great health services, at least in Austin, Texas. But we still have a long way to go in fixing our system.
And thanks for all of the well wishes on the last thread.
donnah
When I checked Snopes for the difference between the amount of lies about Obama and the types of lies versus the list of those about Romney, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Romney gets off pretty easily in the hateful retaliation department. Obama’s list is three times as long.
Opie_jeanne
Soonergrunt, I hope you feel better soon.
And all of the rest of you, thanks for reminding me to get my annual flu shot.
Beth
Hope you both heal very quickly!
I’ve had to deal sinus problems for a long time as well. Although you probably know all this, as things start to heal up, I find it helpful to use a Neti pot, and keep using it everyday as a preventative once I’m well.
There is also a new nasal-spray prescription antihistamine that works like a miracle for me. I can get the name later if anyone wants. It makes me drowsy, but I don’t care, plus great for getting a good night’s sleep.
I often sleep a bit propped up as well.
The thing that has permanently helped me, ironically, is getting fanatical about my dental health. I was not lackadaisical before, but this has been a game-changer for me. I use several mouthwashes, ayurvedic oil-pulling, a tongue scraper, and of course plenty of brushing. This seems to help, and reduces inflamation around my body generally, as health researchers are finding that mouth germs and inflammation travel around the body. The neti pot also clears out lots of germs as well.
Also, if there’s something bothersome in the air, we have a special heating/cooling system that we use that has a HEPA filters to clean the air in our house, once we’ve closed all windows. We leave it on 24/7 during certain pollen events!
Long winded, and maybe TMI. Best wishes, speedy recovery, and no return of the nasties!
muddy
I had sinus infections, ear infections one after another for 8 years, the seasonal allergies were just terrible.
Then we tore out the carpet, and I haven’t had it since. And the seasonal stuff was barely noticeable once the poison no longer had me at the brink.
Pen
@El Tiburon: Glad to hear your son’s ok. When my little guy was born 3 months early he spent 77 days in the neonatal ICU. On top of that my wife spent two days in the maternity ICU room #1 and ended up having a c-section anyway from pre-eclampsia. Total bill for the two of them: just shy of $980k. Our bill after insurance: $8500 on a 3 year payment plan.
When people ask me why I put up with my crap job while I put my wife through college I just throw those numbers out there.
Violet
So sorry you’re sick. I agree you might want to get to a doctor. Take care and rest up.
gogol's wife
@donnah:
Good for you. It’s very hard to do this. In June we went to a neighbor’s party, and the former Republican mayor of our town was present, and he started haranguing me with what I later learned were all Romney talking points, about how Obama had exploded the deficit, the stimulus made the economy worse, etc., etc. I was like a deer in the headlights. I knew he was lying through his teeth, but he was throwing around all these memorized statistics and I had none memorized. I think this may be a tiny version of what Obama was confronted with the other night. It’s very hard to combat vigorously spewed lies that have the spurious authenticity of “statistics.”
Pen
@gogol’s wife: Gotta love the Gish Gallop. It’s not just for creatonist anymore and it’s definitely the same shit Romney pulled off during the debate. When you’re telling the truth you’re always going to be playing defensive against a debate opponent who brazenly lies and never gets called on it.
Hawes
You’re not whiny… You have a MAN COLD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ
divF
@The Ancient Randonneur: My Dad (a retired MSGT) did his Basic Training at Ft. Polk, LA in Spring of 1946. He wrote in the memoir for his family:
Further on:
He did, too.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Soonergrunt, get well, bro’. What works for you today is the bst possible thing you could do for yourself.
At three score and a few, I take out the memories of much earlier days every now and then. After a while I carefully put them away and go back to Netflix or committing art. Good times, good days, as long as they aren’t fodder for futile comparisons with now.
divF
@divF: Sooner: you two get well soon, also, too.
Thought you’d like the story.
ThresherK
First, something’s been going around our Eastern Elite home also, which my spousal unit and I are trying to keep from pingponging.
Second, I intially caught, and am now suspect for the rest of my life, to viral bronchitis because some idjit, off the clock, had to “man up” and come in on a Saturday. So screw “sucking it up”.
ThresherK
Yeah, WP wouldn’t let me edit: In the interest of “less productivity”, and “not making co-workers sick” I ask others to consider screw “sucking it up” sometimes.
(Of course with antibiotics and a 103F fever, this doesn’t apply to Soonergrunt.)
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Sympathies, we’ve had the exact same Bouncing Plague issue over here. (She spent 3 weeks struggling through work, then essentially sleeping 14+ hrs a day over the weekends to recharge).
Then my turn came. The cold/sinus/fever (not that high though) seems to have finally passed, but now my throat feels like I’ve been gargling razor blades. (I’m told this phase lasts a few days).
Fun stuff. Also pissed because it’s a four-day weekend for me, and unseasonably warm outside (probably some of the last nice weather we’ll see up here for months). Wotta waste.
ThresherK
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: Sounds familiar. Are you, likewise, simply amazed at how long the “discharge” (for want of a more polite word) keeps being created considering how many days into the illness you are?
And, yes, we’re sleeping sooo much too.
If you get tired of chicken soup, miso soup or pho are a great change-up. (Being an elite effete coastal liberal, I’m chockablock with take-out places for these. Hope you are too.)
Frivolous
Hope you get better and feel better soon, Soonergrunt.
I suppose it’s not unusual for a man in otherwise excellent health to feel extra poorly when he is sick.
cckids
@El Tiburon:
Best to you and your son. With 29 years of extensive hospital experience due to my son’s many medical issues, I do have to say that while they are children, the care is the same; Medicaid or insurance, I’ve never noticed any difference. When he became an adult, tho, we’ve had many issues. In fairness to the hospitals, though, most of those seem to be related to the degree of his disability, not to the fact that he’s on Medicaid.
Also, due to the fact that I can’t have a job due to having to take care of my son full-time, & my spouse being self-employed, we’ve got no insurance. I’ve done that mental dance with my other two kids, also for myself & my spouse. It sucks to infinity.
I LOL’d at your comment about calling around to get the cheapest hospital. Why would you not do that? Are you the 47%?
Mnemosyne
@Beth:
I could NOT get a traditional neti pot to work for me. I ended up buying a Nasopure bottle instead, and it works much better. I could never get my head tilted at the right angle with the neti pot and would end up with water in my ear.
Ruckus
How am I today?
I leave in about an hour for a job interview. First one I’ve had in 18 yrs.
Thursday I finished signing up for the VA. Have to say that this is absolutely not the old VA from decades ago. Everyone very nice and professional.
So now I have healthcare once again. Yea!
You do the math, for me life is happening again.
Sooner, buck up dude, you’ll get better, you’ve had worse.
Ruckus
@El Tiburon:
Glad to hear things working out and the little one is OK.
Antonius
Sick as well. Not whining much, but definitely presenting a slow-moving target.
piratedan
may your day be blessed with the savory aroma of chicken noodle soup and a irritation free nostril area
gelfling545
@RedKitten: I still remember the first time I got really sick when my elder daughter was a baby and realizing that you can’t call in sick to that job!
keestadoll
I recently made a “convert” to a more holistic way of coping with respiratory distress. My brother and sister-in law’s son tends to veer off towards to pneumonia when getting a cold. Most recently, this very athletic kid (I mean, jv football, small town QB wunderkind) was in the throws of a severe cold and was likely to miss all the Homecoming activities that week. I begged them to try putting an essential oil diffuser in his room and to put eo of eucalyptus (decongestant/expectorant, anti-viral and anti-bacterial) and a dash of eo of chamomile (sedative, anti-inflammatory)into it. I also asked that they give him some raw tumeric instead of ibuprofen. The kid went to bed that night, tumeric taken, diffuser going, and woke up the next day with no fever and with almost all symptoms gone.
Here at home, I have two diffusers going in the house and this time of year (kids back in school, cold season begins), I use eucalyptus essential oil along with other oils to basically “fortify” the house. It has worked wonders.
Obviously there are situations that require urgent care and a trip to the doctor, but it’s well worth tring this protocol to at least try to stay ahead of the nasty cold/flu season. Cheers!