Sleeping with Bread: Baking Under the Influence

Updated below with some miscellany.

It's allergies! It's a cold! It's a sinus infection!

I don't know what the heck it is, but I am in Day 11 of Sinus Congestion 2007. I just need my own nifty graphic and we could follow this story minute by minute with a ticker across the bottom of each posts until the crisis passes.

It all started innocently enough with my helping a friend deliver and set up 30 floral arrangements. The next morning I woke up with a scratch throat and runny nose. It's allergies, I say to myself and anyone else who'll listen to me. Medicine: the usual allergy regime: Claritin, Astelin, RhinoCort, Ricola lozenges.

A couple of days later, my head becomes more heavy and clogged with congestion. I was feeling pretty bad so I stayed down for a couple of days. It's a cold, I say to myself and anyone else who'll listen to me. Medicine: I forgo the allergy regime and begin taking Tylenol Severe Allergy and Sinus with a couple of ibuprofen thrown in for the head pain, the Ricolas have run out and I'm now on Hall's lozenges.

I start feeling better, things seem to be breaking up. I sound bad but I tell everyone who is making sympathetic noises that I sound worse than I feel--and it's true. Medicine: I continue the Tylenol/ibuprofen/lozenge regime.

Friday. It's been a week. I'm feeling pretty draggy. Head Pain. Worsening congestion. Personal Training session, camping preparations, camping, bad air mattress, wedding to go to. I try my nasal wash thing. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably don't want to know.) The saline solution that is supposed to travel from Nostril A to Nostril B via my sinus cavity is stuck in Nostril A. Apparently it is so blocked it can't pass through. Time to see the doctor. I think I might have a sinus infection. Medicine regime remains the same.

Day 11. Well, the nice and lovely physician's assistant in the urgent care doesn't think I have a sinus infection. . . yet. She thinks it was probably an allergy reaction gone bad. She tells me to go back to my allergy meds--all of them, plus add Mucinex. All of them? Yes. Claritin? Yes. Astelin? Yes. RhinoCort? Yes. And add Mucinex? Yes. She also writes me a prescription for an antibiotic in case things don't clear up in the next few days.

I don't think I have ever taken that much medication at one time. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it all works itself out. In the meantime, forgive me if my typing is a little swervy and loopy!


You might guess that all of the above drama is my desolation for the week. Although there were times when I really did feel well, comparatively speaking, the blech was always there. It affected my ability to get things done which badly needed doing. It affected my efficiency in getting ready for the camping trip. It definitely reduced my enjoyment of the trip. If I were ever to have any illusions about my ability to "carry on" in spite of illness or injury, I have none now. I'm a wimp, plain and simple.

On the up side, there are always consolations to be found. Paul helped to pull things together for trip he probably wasn't thrilled to be making. Marley really enjoyed the camping. We were at a state park with a beach and she spent hours playing in the sand and hopping over the waves. We saw a couple of dozen dolphins just past the waves (or the same three dolphins over and over!) I got to visit with other moms from the class, get to know a couple of the dads better. The wedding we went to was so lovely and the couple are very nice and beautiful together (and so young). Their first dance was to a Johnny Cash song which I just love so much. It was recorded after his wife died and release after he died. The album is American V: A Hundred Highways. I don't know how it comes across in his voice, but you hear the melancholy, resignation, wisdom, longing, love.

Rose of My Heart

We're the best partners this world's ever seen,
Together as close as can be.
Sometimes it's hard to find time in between,
To tell you what you are to me.

You are the rose of my heart,
You are the love of my life.
A flower not fading nor falling apart,
If you're tired, rest your head on my arm.
Rose of my heart.

When sorrow holds you in her arms of clay,
It's rain drops that fall from your eyes.
Your smile's like the sun come to earth for a day,
You brighten my blackest of skies.

You are the rose of my heart,
You are the love of my life.
A flower not fading nor falling apart,
If you're cold, let my love make you warm.
Rose of my heart.

So hard times or easy times, what do I care,
There's nothing I'd change if I could.
The tears and the laughter are things that we share,
Your hand in mine makes all times good.

You are the rose of my heart,
You are the love of my life.
A flower not fading nor falling apart,
You're my harbor in life's restless storm. Rose of my heart.

Rose of my heart.


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Miscellaneous Blog Business:

There's a new scenic view up (in the sidebar). This is a cool You Tube clip which features the faces of women in Western art over the last 500 years.

Also, in regards to the book recommendations. I ran to the library on Friday in the midst of all the camping preparations and grabbed whatever I could in five minutes from the list. I ended up with The Professor and the Madman, The Bright Forever and Stones from the River.