Tag Archives: sinus headache

Being “Normal” Sick While Chronically Ill

First of all, it’s extremely difficult to determine if you’re actually sick, because colds, the flu, and infections tend to mimic the symptoms of the chronic illnesses… differentiating between a cold and a flare can be extremely difficult. (I go more in depth about this problem here.)

cold-156666_1280I realized I was sick this time because I suddenly felt like I was swimming through cement. I also was having a lot more gastrointestinal distress than comes from eating the wrong thing, and it stuck around for a few days. My digestive system decided to switch from my normal IBS-C to suddenly having IBS-D type behavior. (It’s calmed down a little now, but I’m still having some problems.) Then, I started getting off and on fevers in the evening. My fever spiked to 100° F (my normal is 97.6° instead of the average 98.6°) before I decided I should really take some Tylenol for it.

Then, after a week of most definitely being sick, and still having to carry on with life… it got worse! I woke up with a start because both nostrils had swollen shut and I could barely breathe. Then, when I sat up (far faster than I should have – thanks dysautonomia) to be able to breathe better, I realized it felt like I’d been hit in the face with a sledgehammer. Every time I would bend over during the day, I got severe pre-syncope symptoms. Same would happen while I was standing/walking. So I called my doctor and managed to get an appointment for the next day. Continue reading →

Potential Silent Reflux

The last several weeks, I’ve been absolutely miserable with allergy symptoms: crazy amounts of phlegm in my nose/sinuses, crazy amounts of post-nasal drip, even more intense nausea than normal (probably from swallowing all the phlegm), extremely itchy skin, itchy eyes, itchy ears, itchy nose, etc. It’s been extremely painful actually.

So why all the symptoms? I just assumed it’s because EVERYTHING is blooming. There is so much cotton blowing around (from cottonwood trees) that it looks like there was a giant pillow fight somewhere; the cars have been yellow for weeks thanks to the amount of pollen in the air.

Pollen Death

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The Husband and The Head

Days like today make Dan’s job ever so slightly less exciting. It’s Saturday, he’s at work. Yesterday was supposed to be an off Friday (every other Friday they get off, they work 9 hours Monday-Thursday then 8 hours every other Friday), and he worked yesterday too. They’re trying to launch a rocket. Thursday was the first attempt, got scrubbed (cancelled for the day) due to weather. Yesterday, scrubbed again due to weather. Today, same percentage chance of getting scrubbed again due to weather. Tomorrow, thankfully, he won’t have to work (his coworkers are covering his support position because we had plans), but they’ll try again, and it’s the same percentage. If necessary, they’ll push it to Monday, which has a much better percentage of launching. At least they switched to a two week pay period, so he can flex his hours, which will make next week very short.

oa4_supportimage

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