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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sick, still going on vacation

Friday evening my really cool Pittsburgh friend Shelly who comes to Florida once a year and always makes me do things I wouldn't normally do like camping in the Everglades with alligators two years ago arrives at my door prepared to whisk Charlotte and I off to the west cost of Florida for a weekend of fun. I wake up Saturday without a voice. My little sore throat made major progress throughout the night. I tried to bailout because I can't be responsible for getting friend and her parents sick but she won't take no for an answer. Her mom says come on over, we will all probably get colds but it's okay. Friend cunningly adds, you will have 3 adults to take care of Charlotte!!!! I'm so there.

No voice on Saturday or Sunday and by Monday I sound like Minnie mouse. There are so many things I wanted to discuss with my friend but it hurt just to answer basic questions so I was uncharacteristically silent. It was fine because Charlotte was thrilled to shine in the spotlight. She made instant friends with the parents and by Saturday was clinging to Shelly like she'd known her for her entire 8 months. I finally learned what it means to get joy out of watching my baby have such a wonderful time. She swam in the pool for the first time, when on a nature walk with us, crawled for the first time in front of an adoring audience. It was all about her, mom didn't need to say anything.

Tuesday morning my ear starts to bleed. I've never heard of such a thing. I was supposed to return to work on Tuesday by noon, it takes 2.5 hours to cross Florida so it should be possible until I wake up at 8am, need 3 hours to pack/shower/feed baby, arrive at restaurant at 11:30. Somewhere in there I wrote in sick due to need to visit doctor for bleeding ear. I don't take sick days, the only sick days I've taken in 8 years were part of maternity leave last year. I felt compelled to write I would be on SKYPE later that afternoon due to lost voice to which got a prompt text from boss asking what time? Seriously? Someone give me a primer on how to take a sick day without guilt and continued involvement in work day.

My very old Indian doctor was not phased with bleeding ear. She assigned a cocktail of 6oz. Codeine, Antibiotics, some prescription throat lozengers, recommendation of homemade Ginger Tea and gargling with salt water. She then changed her mind about the quantity of Codeine to 4 oz and throws away the throat lozengers. I'm sitting there wondering about my ear because this all seems to deal with other parts of my head. She then gets confused and hands me the 6oz codeine and Antibotics prescription and advises me to pump and dump my breast milk until I'm done with the drugs.  She also says I can't go to work on Wednesday so there you have it.  I'm grounded.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's awful - I hope the whole ear bleeding mess is taking care of.

I hope you don't have too big a pile on your desk when you get back to work.

R. Molder said...

Thanks K, feeling much better today. Ear seems to be doing fine.

crazywildberry said...

Glad you are doing better.