I'm sick this week and a total space-case. I haven't replied to anyone because I'm either staring at the screen trying to think if what to write or I'm asleep.
I start a new job on Monday.
I go on vacation in a week.
For the full story:
Being sick:
So for the better half of this week, I've felt like my head is floating somewhere about three feet above my body. I can't breathe and I'm in such a daze. I went to the doctor, knowing that yet another sinus infection is upon me. It's actually been quite some time since the last one, so I was kind of surprised. I've actually been hoping that I was "done" with them. I used to get strep throat every five months for about five or six years, all while getting sinus infections every few months. My mom gets them too, it's our family 'thing' I guess.
Eventually I stopped getting strep, and started getting uvulitis. Yayyy. If you don't know what that is, I hope that you never have to find out. To really simplify it, it's basically insane inflammation of your uvula. It feels like you're choking, all the time. For me it's worse in the morning, probably because I snore so it gets irritated all night. It swells enough to touch the back of your throat, so there's constant gag reflex, you can barely eat because you can't swallow anything past it (when you swallow, it retracts, but when it's all swollen, it doesn't retract fully), and when you talk, it sounds like you have a - well - something in your mouth. It's horrible. Luckily, this seems to only come once a year.
Anyway, I'm usually in denial when I am getting a sinus infection, mostly because I get them during weird weather changes, so I just chalk it up to traditional colds. I try the old 'extra sleep' and 'tons of vitamin C' routine for over a week, and more often than not, this fails. Sometimes I get a sinus infection and uvulitis at the same time. I can't even begin to describe this experience. All I can say about that is Dante lied: there are more than nine circles of hell.
So, this week I was all over my symptoms. 72 hours after the first moment of feeling shitty, I went to the doctor. I went to my primary, which I don't often do. I usually got right to the ENT, because, well, that's where my problems are so it makes sense to just go to them. They know my history so well that sometimes they don't make me come in. I call, they look at my chart, they say, 'yeah it's about that time' and they call a prescription in for me.
But because I start a new job on Monday, I had to get in to a doc this week, and the earliest opening at the ENT was Wednesday or something. Primary had one this morning. Primary it is.
I gave her the rundown. I'm all stuffed up to the point where I can't even blow my nose, I cannot breathe, and starting this morning my glands are starting to swell. I'm just getting to that point where it feels like I have a stiff neck.
But noooooo, according to her it's not a sinus infection, it's allergies. Alleriges! I also realized that every time I go there, they're wrong. To make matters worse, I've been on allergy medication for the past fifteen years. So to hear her tell me to take Allegra when I already fucking am, just pissed me off. Especially when she barely examined me. She took my temp and listened to my lungs. That was it. Never felt my neck - which is hard as a rock - or looked, I dunno, up my nose.
Allegra and Nasonex. It made me remember that the first time I had uvulitis, I went to my primary first - again, because it was faster to get in there than my ENT - and they told me I had acid reflux disease, and prescribed Prilosec. #kickbacks
Seriously though, I still laugh at that to this day. I kept coughing through the exam, a little throat clearing thing, because, well, as I've said, a swollen uvula feels like there's something in the back of your throat all the time.She actually friggin told me, 'Oh, that's acid coming up, that's what you feel.' BITCH, do you see the ping pong ball sized tissue back there? I think that's what I feel. She then asked me if I eat spicy foods. I said, yes, I love spicy foods. Well, that was enough for her. She asked me if I ever have heartburn. I told her I don't even know what heartburn feels like, I've never had it. Oh, well, do you have this, this, this, as she runs down a list of the top ten symptoms for acid reflux disease - I don't have a single one. She writes the scrip for Prilosec anyway.
I called my ENT immediately.
Anyway, this broad is telling me it's allergies, but - BUT if I'm not feeling better by Monday, to give her a call and she'll call in a Z-pak for me. To me, that sounds like 'Well, you're probably right, I'm just going to buy some time.'
That being said. I have to reply to a bunch of messages, but being creative is so hard right now. I'm hoping to get to them by this evening.
New job:
So, the new job. It's further from my house than I'd like it to be, and frankly, the job is below my qualifications, but I'm pretty sure that's how this company sucks people in. Almost every job title is listed as "Operations Specialist" and all have the same vague job description. I worked for this company in the past as an "Operations Specialist," but my actual job was a closing coordinator. When people were about to close on a house, I was the one who looked up the tax info to make sure their escrow was calculated correctly, and called their insurance agent to make sure they had the correct info for our bank. Mortgage processors and the actual closers were also called "Operations Specialists." However, the people who worked on the banking side of things, for instance, people who review credit card apps and such, are also called, "Operations Specialists."
This job is dealing with records at a bank branch, and I'm pretty sure it's a glorified file clerk. Don't get me wrong, any job is important to keep a company afloat, but I didn't bust my ass to acquire all the knowledge I have to not use it. That's why I hated this last gig so much, there was no need to use my brain. I'm pretty sure I made several phone calls while sleeping.
However, will working a normal day again, I'll probably be back to only being Pop-active at night, but not until 5am anymore. I'll probably settle into my old window of 9pm-1am. Maybe 2am. We'll see.
Vacation:
FINALLY! Seven days to go. Eight, technically, but whatever. Next Friday (the 4th) will probably be my last active night, maaaaybe going until the morning on the 5th, because I'll be too excited to sleep. The next earliest possible time you hear from me will be Sunday the 13th. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO