This. Just. Sucks.

Warning, the following is a bunch of .. well… whining.

I’m sick.

The first few days were… eh… not a big deal. Sore throat, sinus pressure, feverish. Went to the clinic Sunday to make sure it wasn’t strep. It wasn’t. “It’s probably a virus”. recommend some OTC stuff and gave me a prescription for a gargle that was the consistency of Elmer’s glue. Even if the stuff had tasted decent (which it definitely did NOT), I wouldn’t have been able to handle it - not with my overly-hyper gag reflex. Cripes, the nurse was barely able to get a throat culture as it was.

But on Tuesday morning the throat wasn’t feeling so bad, so I braved a half-day of work. Which went fine… until the coughing started. A cough that hasn’t stopped since.

It’s a dry, hacking cough… that I’ve come to realize makes me sound like one of those barking seals or something. And it seems to rip my throat apart every time it hits me.

Thursday morning I go to the doctor, almost hoping it’s turned in to bronchitis or something along those lines. But despite the 103.5 fever the night before, I know it’s not. My breathing is fine, heck… by this point, even my sinus’ are fine. I just can’t stop coughing.

“Upper Respiratory Viral Infection” according to the doctor. Nothing to do but treat the sysptoms and wait it out. And that’s what I’ve been doing for over a week now, and it’s still kicking my ass.

The last three days or so, my sleep has been coming in fits and starts, usually I get an hour or so before the coughing really kicks in again. Since I got the codeine cough syrup from the doc on Thursday, I’ve been able to stretch that out a bit at times. Got almost three hours at one point this morning.

So then I get up, drink a bunch of water or juice… try to relax. It’s amazing how many muscles you use during a coughing fit.. muscles you didn’t know you had. Maybe get in some mindless surfing (watched the very first episode of Fraggle Rock on YouTube), whine and moan for sympathy from friends. Some are nice about, Some are like Isa (she know’s what I mean).

This whole thing is just bizarre. I’ve been hit by the whole virus thing, usually at least once a year. Starts in my head/sinus’, moves to the throat, down to the chest and bang, three-four days total and it’s gone. Just an unpleasant memory and minor interuption. But this has been different.  The fever is better, it’s up and down around 100, but mostly down. Pop a few Aleve and it’s taken care of.

But this cough…

Friends tell me it’s good, that it’s breaking stuff up… but there’s nothing to break up. And this cough isn’t coming from my chest. My chest is fine. I’m breathing fine. No, this cough is coming from… well… only way I can think to explain it is… you know that point you feel in your throat when you swallow? Right there, no… just below there. That’s where this is coming from. Somewhere in my throat before it even gets to the lungs.

Today seemed to be going better. I was up for nearly eight straight hours today. Even managed to go to the Grocery Store to stock up on a few things. I was going a bit stir crazy and all. Got to the point this evening that it was time to crash again. So hit up the codeine and went to bed. Hour and a half later… I’m hacking like I’m trying to lose a lung.

I’m trying to wait a little bit so I can take another hit of codeine. I figure if I go 3 hours instead of the listed 4 I’m ok. Only waiting 2 hours might be pushing it. So while I wait, I figured I would write this up.

Now, one of the worst parts of all this, unless there’s some miracle in the next 24 hours, I’m going to miss the birthday party for my niece and nephew on Sunday. Can’t risk passing anything on to either of them. This is what is making this reaaaaly suck right now. Knowing I’m going to miss their 8th birthday. They probably won’t even notice, with all the attention from the grandparents and other family…  but I’ll know.

And in the end, that’s why this just sucks.