marientina: No - I am not on vacation, but thanks for asking

June 26th
Wake up with strange feeling of malaise, a little stuffy. Go to work. Do some work. Sneezing in the afternoon and having strange sensations in my throat. Groggy feeling not alleviated by fabulous gongfu cha ceremony in Jen's office. Go home and promptly gulp 2 tablespoons of liquid acetaminophen. By 10pm, I feel that maybe I have dodged the cold.

June 27th
Yeah - I rule. I kicked that cold in the butt. Yep, no cold. Hello world. Being productive and having fun. As fun as a grants.gov workshop at a scorching hot Health Sciences campus can be.

June 28th
Feeling a little stuffy. Must be the hot weather. Take 30mg of pseudoephedrine to prevent further stuffiness.

June 29th
Hmm...Hello sinusitis. The unmistakable hard congestion, trickle of thick snot down my throat and voice discrepancy. 30 more mg of pseudoephedrine please - pronto. Last minute budget request to categorize every purchase I have ever made at 555 space. Possible computing error on my part on how much money we have left. Panic attack. Feeling of malaise growing. Throat and tonsils swollen. Start gulping 2 tablespoons of liquid acetaminophen every 4-6 hours. Do not exceed more than 4 in 24 hours. Lay in couch limp.

June 30th
Pharyngitis and sinusitis? This sucks. Neck lymph is swollen and throat is red and white. Pressure in my head mounting. Taking liquid acetaminophen and pseudoephedrine and guaifenesin. Still able to cook fabulous dinner for Marcus and guest from Japan. 3am: night sweats and fever. More liquid acetaminophen. I hope my liver doesn't fall out.

July 1st
Just kill me now please. Acute sinusitis. Throat better, but sphenoid sinus throbbing. Changing positions suddenly not recommended. Switch to ibuprofen after 8 hour lag from acetaminophen. I love you liver -- I swear. Laying in bed all day. Taste and smell go away. Sticking my nose into a jar of Vicks has no effect. Drinking water and taking electrolytes. Headache intensifying. 3.35am. Slow crawl into kitchen to take ibuprofen and drink water. Throbbing pain causes me to faint on kitchen floor. I lay there with my knees up and try not to panic. Emergency room? Forget it -- by the time they find my veins I will be cured. Intense desire to vomit and more night sweats.

July 2nd
Can't stand up for more than 1 minute without wanting to faint. Load up on water and electrolytes. Intense nausea from pain. No appetite. Spleen hurts from lying on it. This is torture. Take hot shower with Sudacare vapor tablets. Sanity temporarily returns. 7pm. It is time to breakout the antibiotics. 500mg of clarithromycin. Take with food even if it tastes like cardboard. Bitter taste in mouth within 2 hours. Feel human for a few hours. Able to sleep.

July 3rd
Wakeup with pain near appendix. Slight panic. Please no more ailments. Patience - just trapped gas from antibiotic wrecking my intestines. Take my second dose of clarithromycin. Sphenoid sinus pressure much better. Doing some email. By noon all sphenoid pain has shifted to maxillary and ethmoid. Laying in bed wanting to die by 3pm if possible. Throbbing sinuses. Choking from mucous. Upper teeth throbbing also. Marcus arrives with more Sudacare. Take 600mg of ibuprofen and hot shower with two vapor tabs. It is 4:59pm. Feeling slightly more human right now. Teeth hurt a little less. For now.

July 4th
Blow one up for me. I won't be celebrating.

Comments

The update: from July 5th to 3.30 am on July 9th.

Antibiotics rock and suck at the same time. I returned to work and haven't really stopped working. Despite bitter taste in mouth, intermittent diarrhea, serious dry mouth, zero appetite and a day late on my period, I am doing swell. The mucous has receded without the need for Drano.

But why-oh-why am I up at 3.30am? Admittedly, I slept enough for a month last week, but this is ridiculous. I have been remarkably productive. Too productive?

I billed the Friday/Saturday insomnia that led to 4 hours of sleep to extreme dry mouth. You try sleeping with no saliva. It is not possible.

I slept a full 11 hours Saturday/Sunday to make up for it. Upon waking up, I reorganized my closets based on an idea I had before going to sleep. Yes - it is lame, but I had to reorganize all my clothes, hide the wool, make the charity pile and all that fun stuff. It was awesome. I even took a break to go see Ocean's 13. Brad Pitt was kinda hot although I still prefer George Clooney. Don't judge!

I finished the closets at 12.30am, brushed my teeth and went to bed. And here I am. No es possible to sleep. WTF? So I do the customary google search for the dreaded unlisted side effect: antibiomania.

Apparently, in very rare cases, clarithromycin can induce mania: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11799346&dopt=Abstract). I learn something every day. I love the internets!

That is lovely. What are the odds that I will turn into my mom over a spell of acute bacterial sinusitis?

You have been warned.

If in the next few days you see me hop on the table at ZML and declare that I am St. Catherine the Great, or Cher, or something of that sort, please dial 911 and make sure you tell them to be gentle with the straight-jacket.

I am a delicate flower.

Posted by: marientina | July 9, 2007 3:42 AM

feel better...

Posted by: Scott | July 9, 2007 10:21 AM

poor and dear Marientina, god bless you!

Posted by: yuechuan | July 10, 2007 12:41 AM

marientina

No - I am not on vacation, but thanks for asking

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