Sweet Catastrophe

My allergies are really taking over today. I’ve taken meds to no avail for the first time in a long time. My nose is running like crazy and I’ve been rubbing my eyes with a  fierceness.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but I suspect Ms. Willow has something to do with it. I think she slept on my head and just moved right before I woke up.

All my allergy meds and the inhaler have my heart rate all jumpy today. Supposedly I have some condition that makes my heart rate go all wonky, which makes me feel exhausted,but it has no other effects–I suspect that’s not exactly true and I’ll one day fall dead or something. Then again, that could easily be the hypochondriac in me!

There’s a pretty steady rain out right now. Looks like the perfect opportunity to get a good nap, which is exactly what I think I’ll do.

Wow! I seriously just learned something new from Youtube. I was browsing through videos and came across a bunch about cats with asthma! I had no idea cats could even have asthma!

I’ve looked through a few sites and learned that only about 1% of cats develop asthma, but apparently the number is growing due to pollutants.

If your cat ever experiences something that seemed to you like a really stubborn hairball, only no hairball ever comes, you  should consider discussing this at your next vet appointment. You can glance at some of the videos on Youtube to get a better idea of what a cat experiencing and asthma attack looks like. I’d post some here, but they’re breaking my heart! I know it’s not necessarily a serious problem in every case, but I know how the poor kitties feel!

I developed asthma towards the end of middle school. It was brought on by a combination of my horrible allergies, and my constant exposure to cigarette smoke. I’m one of a handful of people in my family who doesn’t smoke. There’s a definite downside to developing asthma versus being born with it. Many people who are born with asthma eventually grow out of it. The chances of someone who developed asthma later in life ever outgrowing it are slim to none.

I’ve only ever had a few serious attacks in my life. The absolute worst was probably in my Jr. or Sr. year of high school. At the time, for one reason or another, I only had one inhaler. I woke up around 4a.m. wheezing, and reached for my inhaler. At this point, I didn’t really need the inhaler,  but I have a really hard time getting to sleep while I’m wheezing. I found myself panicking when I realized my inhaler wasn’t there.

The trick to avoiding a full attack is to calm yourself down and get control of your breathing. That’s a pretty impossible task when you know that if you can’t do that, you’re pretty screwed. I knew where my inhaler was. It was sitting next to my register at Kmart, so my dad drove me up there, but of course, the store wasn’t open yet. The doors can’t open without a manager key and I had no way to get in contact with whoever was opening that morning! It was absolute torture sitting in front of the store, looking directly at my inhaler through the window. After a four hour attack, I finally got that glorious puff and I was okay again.

I ended up in a world of pain though, later realizing I had strained all the muscles in my chest. Imagine what it would feel like if your lungs were physically bruised. That’s how I felt. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to talk…on top of that, the stress caused some major heartburn so I had do deal with just about every possible symptom of that.

I can’t imagine how helpless a kitty feels while having an attack. For me I know there’s help. I know that at the very least, I can go to a hospital, and after they make me wait a ridiculous amount of time (nope, no quick inhalers to get you out of the way, they don’t give a squat!) they’ll give me an oxygen treatment and send me on my way.

Even though kitties generally cause my asthma to flare up, I’m sending my love to all the asthmatic kitties of the world!

It’s not something most of us care to think about, but at some point in our lives, most of us will eventually experience the effects of Alzheimer’s. Though more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, relatively few understand just how severe the disease can be.

Progression of the disease strongly varies from case to case, but can develop to a point where the individual cannot perform such simple tasks as brushing his or her own teeth, or using the restroom alone.

At this point, my grandfather has never been officially diagnosed, but for quite some time now he’s shown symptoms characteristic of not only stage 2, but as severe as stage 6. There’s a lot I haven’t witnessed on my own, but I’ve had conversations with my grandmother about the more serious aspects. He goes to bed quite early these days, and it’s not uncommon for him to accuse her of being unfaithful to him, simply because she’s not going to bed immediately when he does. He’ll lie awake, and even though he can hear her in the living room on the phone, or doing dishes, etc, once she goes to lie down he becomes very hateful and lets wild accusations fly.

While there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, but there are drug-related, and non-drug-related treatments that can help with cognitive and behavioral symptoms, to make living with Alzheimer’s easier. Best of all, we’ve learned most of what we know about Alzheimer’s in just the last 15 years, so there’s still an ongoing effort, worldwide, to to find even better ways to treat it, delay it, or even prevent it altogether. That’s where we come in!

The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research, raising over $225 million since 1989.

These walks are held annually,in hundreds of communities across the nation, at various times throughout the year. There are 21 scheduled walks within the state of Georgia alone. I’m happy to say the one for Valdosta is scheduled for October, so there’s still plenty of time for me to work out all the details for that. Sign up, and sign up early!

The best help you can offer is awareness, and these walks bring much needed awareness, and much needed funding to the cause as well.

I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron….but hangover is definitely the word of the day! Last night was a good friend’s 21st Birthday so I went out with him and some other friends after work to Cj’s for a few drinks then back to their apartment for Super Smash Bros and Guitar Hero…and more alcohol.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to let loose comfortably. I hadn’t planned on really drinking, but Levi wouldn’t have a Birthday shot alone, so I bought us both one, and a drink for myself ’cause…well why not? lol

We left the bar a lot earlier than I thought we were going to, so I felt a little cheated considering what I had just spent on drinks for a mild buzz! Anyway, we settled in and since I hadn’t eaten since lunch, I decided I either needed a cheeseburger, or more alcohol. The decision was made for me, so Catie rode with me back to my apartment to pick up some Golden Grain and dump my car. (Ryan dropped us back off and picked me up later, when I was done getting my drink on.) The rest is pretty much history.

Lessons learned:

• Let someone more sober add the ingredients for your mixed drink or you’ll end up with about twice as much alcohol as intended.
• Your sober boyfriend knows what he’s talking about.
• Drunken conversations about Mitch Hedberg are tons of fun!

(Disclaimer: I drank in moderation. Today’s hangover is not an indication of drinking too much last night, but of eating too little yesterday. I don’t get hangovers. This is probably only my 3rd ever.)

Now I leave you with Pearl, as she’s been on my mind today. You remember Pearl, right?

What’s wrong with you people? We’ve graciously asked for your help, yet, you’re not quite flocking to help us cure Fab of his sick obsession. I’m fully aware that Colleen has a sweet ass, but Fab’s focus on this has caused irreversible damage on his already frail psyche. Help us stop him from further slipping into his own reality where Colleen’s sweet ass roams free.

Skeet, Cass and I have already done our part. Now, even these sweet animals who’ve probably been attacked or molested by Fab in the past have literally put their asses on the line:

What’s holding you back? He’s slipping further every day and you’re just sitting there, letting it happen. Even worse, you may actually be contributing to it!

An ass is just an ass.

Skeet needs our help, and bless her soul, she’s not asking for herself! This is the big one; this is what it’s all been in preparation for. It’s time to cure Mr. Fabulous of his psychosis. It’s time to cure him of his obsession.

What obsession? How to cure it!? His obsession with Colleen’s sweet ass! Skeet’s done it; she’s gotten to the bottom of Fab’s insanity and she’s absolutely right! It all begins and ends with Colleen’s sweet ass!

But what can you do? Firstly, no matter how much he begs, no matter how many sexual favors he offers, do not give in to his pleas to add the phrase, “Colleen has a sweet ass,” to your blog! Just by mentioning that Colleen has a sweet ass, you’re fueling his obsession and undoing any progress that might’ve been made!

I admit, I was tempted to splatter my blog with hidden messages stating, “Colleen has a sweet ass!” All in hopes to find myself in Fab’s good graces, but we’ve got to take a stand! Just say NO! You remember that from elementary school, right? It still rings true today.

What else can you do? Bring on the proof!!

See Fab? Skeet’s right. An ass is just an ass. Keep repeating.

If we unite in our quest to cure him, maybe one day Fab will be a productive member of society again…just maybe.

It’s almost 4am. We went to the dollar movies early tonight to watch Fantastic 4…it was pretty lame. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was expecting it to be a little more exciting with the Silver Surfer, but whatever…

Popcorn and Sugar Babies were yummy. I honestly didn’t eat that much, but now I’m sitting here, waiting for the Dramamine to kick in. My face is burning (no fever, just that internal sick-warmth) and I’m trying very hard to concentrate on not vomiting. I know I blog way too much about being sickly, but hey, it’s my blog, if I want to whine, I’m pretty sure I’m paying to do so ;) Besides, what else am I supposed to do at 4 am while I’m waiting for the pukey feeling to pass?

Logically I’d say I just ate too much junk, or it could easily be that I didn’t cook my chicken quite well enough, but something tells me it was the popcorn butter…either way, bleh =(

All I have here is Dramamine and Pepto. Catie gave me some Phenigren, and I’d love to take that, but I’m not positive which pill it is. Can’t remember. Last time I took Pepto, it pushed me over the edge rather than preventing the upchuck factor, so now I pretty much don’t take Pepto. So Dramamine it is. It needs to kick in soon. I’m le tired.

What do you guys do when you have an overly upset tummy? What meds do you take? What do you do to keep your mind off it till it passes?

I woke up this morning to find something missing….my voice. Ugh…while I don’t really mind it much–I have some odd fascination with being hoarse and losing my voice, all that….either way, it was a pain in the ass at work today.

I still went into work ’cause, well…how would I call in anyway? It took 3 hours before they finally told me they’d let me leave at 1 if I felt like I couldn’t stay. Everything went well enough. It was nice to see a handful of people sort of taking care of me and paging things and calling departments for me when they knew I’d need it.

Things got a little rough when I was up at Returns for the last little bit though. Everything got hectic and there were a lot of complex Returns that required explanations, and questions and such. Luckily the customers I dealt with were really understanding, even the gentleman with the hearing aid–we were definitely a pair!

Overall, I’m feeling a lot better, but I certainly don’t feel well. My chest is tight, and I keep having these spells where my throat feels like there are about a million thorns running up and down my throat, trailing lemon juice behind them to sprinkle about…in other words–ouch.

So here I am, at home. Bored. Everyone is off at work and elsewhere and I’m home early, feeling too well just lie around on the couch, but not quite well enough to do much else. I’m not even really feeling up to sitting at the computer long enough to finish one of the movies on here, so I’m not quite sure what I’ll do for the afternoon. Suggestions? Obviously not karaoke though…

I think I’ve finally figured out what I’ve got. I’ve been sick since Wednesday. Extreme sore throat, high fever, body fatigue…the whole shebang. For a while I was just thinking flu….then as the fever fell I started thinking more about strep or something like that since the sore throat was getting quite severe-to the point of tears….I think it’s bronchitis though. It makes a lot more sense now that I’m really thinking on it. I have a tendency to develop my illnesses in an odd way anyhow, so I guess it just took a while to settle in but now I feel it in my chest and the coughing is definitely settling in.

I’m hoarse right now, but I don’t mind that. I have a strange fascination with being hoarse.

I have so many ridiculous health problems, sometime I don’t even know what to do with myself. The funny thing is, it’s all hereditary. I think, basically, every ailment in my family history that could be passed on–landed on me, no joke.

So many chronic this, and prone to that, and allergic to everything. I think my acid reflux is the only thing I didn’t get from someone else and that’s caused by all my stressing! Maybe if I didn’t have all these health problems I wouldn’t be so stressed, eh?!

If I had known when I was a tot that I was gonna end up with all this crap, I may well have just jumped off the monkey bars!! X-D I kid, I kid, but really though, who else can say that all the women on one side of their family have a giant, random hiccup on almost a daily basis?

I’m dealing with one of my most hated, even infuriating to the point you just want to scream, cry and rip out someone’s….something all at once–ailments. Thanks mom. Thanks grandma. Thanks great-grandma. And all you others before them.