Day 108 – An End in Sight

Not one, but four prescriptions came out of my visit to the medical clinic today.  The ear pain hit in the middle of the night and I woke up with a fever so couldn’t wait for my naturopath appointment at 2pm and they couldn’t see me any earlier.

The clinic visit was surprisingly very pleasant – new offices just down the road and I only waited for twenty minutes before getting seen.  The cough I started with was likely viral but it seems I made it worse going on the camping trip and in my determination to not slow down, so that I also got a bacterial infection in my ears.

After poking around my ears and listening to my breathing, the young doctor determined there is fluid in my lungs, infection in both ears plus my elevated temperature.  Yikes.  I’ve never had antibiotics as an adult until today.  I also have an inhaler which I’ve never tried, Mucinex tablets (hate those commercials) and ear drops for the pain.  I literally passed out all afternoon and just now found some energy later in the day along with a normal temperature.  Unfortunately my ear is still blocked though with slightly less pain.

I am very grateful for the friends who helped me out with bringing Emelia home from school today and taking her to dance.  Another friend just finished a batch of kombucha so as soon as I am done with the medicine I will be sipping on the golden liquid in the glass bottle she gave me as a means to regenerate the healthy bacteria I want in my digestive system.  Yum.  Emelia rubbed my head and brought me a water bottle and Nicholas kept giving me hugs so I may not have been able to do wonders for my own self care today, but I had others taking care of me.  I see light now. Finally.

Day 106 – Broken Record

I fear I’ll sound like a broken record if I go into the details of my day.  All is status quo despite trying Sudafed so no wonder miracle there.  More tea, fresh air and rest.  I squeezed in a 20 minute hot Epsom salt lavender bath by jotting upstairs after dinner and setting my timer so that we would get Emelia to bed on time for her first day back to school in over a week tomorrow.  The twenty minutes was joyful and I thought I detected liquid movement in my ear canal.  Someone mentioned a Neti pot to me today.  Never tried but totally open.

It looks like I will be calling my naturopath tomorrow unless I wake up with my hearing again and without the cough.

Day 105 – Bootcamp, Sudafed and Spring Flowers

I didn’t care if I was still hacking this morning.  I went to bootcamp and loved it.  My energy is high otherwise I would have stayed home to rest but my body wanted the workout and so I followed suit.  My nasty cough slowed me down a little and that’s okay.  The days are getting lighter and warmer which means 7am bootcamp on a Saturday is easier to stomach minus the rain and dark.

I finally stopped by a pharmacy later in the afternoon to ask what they recommended for this stubborn cough/stuffed ear and the kind, smiling man in the white coat suggested Sudafed.  I’m game at this point.  I am on my second dose of the day and so far I don’t feel any movement in my plugged ear or soothing to my chest.  I drank more tea, used the silver colloidal drops in my ear and rested a lot again today.  I’m just not used to being sick for this long or in this nagging, not letting up kind of way.

There are spring blossoms popping up everywhere and I can’t wait to take some photos.  I grabbed a quick shot of the pots Emelia and I planted last Sunday with blooms already coming in.  The yellow daffodil popped out while we were at gymnastics today.  Oh the wonders of nature.

Day 104 – Still Recovering

I slept unusually late – 9am – then tore into the day with renewed energy washing clothes, putting away gear, serving the kids breakfast then driving to Costco for the dreaded Costco shop that I’ve been delaying for two months.

I drank an herbal detox tea all day in an attempt to warm and soothe my throat and chest now that the cough is back with vengeance.  I made time to run an edit on my friend’s blog piece which was extremely emotional and engaging.  It definitely felt good to get back into editing mode.

My self care is early to bed this evening – in reality I’ve been sleeping off and on since 7pm on the couch while attempting to watch the movie, Frank, with Kris.  It turns out my body still isn’t ready to get back to technology because my brain refused to click into the storyline or show any interest in staring at the screen.  My humidifier is going again, I’m sucking an herbal lemon drop and just sipped my apple cider vinegar drink non-kombucha style.  Instead I warmed filtered water in the kettle until lukewarm then mixed in the apple cider.

I also went through my photos and reduced the number of usable pictures to 790.  Here are two for your enjoyment – the sign at the entryway into the Islandwood property and a deer that stopped to visit while I was walking alone in the woods.