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I'm sick. I went to the health center Thursday and they told me I had two outer ear infections and gave me ear drops... and everything's gotten worse since then. I can't sleep for more than four hours, when I wake up and take tylenol, and I have no appetite and it hurts to chew so I haven't eaten to speak of in two days and last night I was gagging and throwing up only nothing came out... probably there was nothing in there. Today I went back to the health center... I'd taken tylenol an hour and a half before but my temperature was still 99.8 (my normal temperature is 97.6 or so. When I'm healthy, it never hits 98.) so I wonder what it would be if I wasn't taking tylenol.... the nurse practitioner there told me that my ear canal is swollen completely shut so the ear drops just aren't getting in there at all. She gave me prednisone for swelling and oral antibiotics and a prescription for a stronger (...too expensive for them to give out) ear drops. And I'm supposed to put hot compresses on my ears as much as possible, especially right before I put the ear drops in. And she said to keep an eye on my temperature and she mentioned the emergency room a couple times. I don't know whether it's the fever or being sick without my mom but I've been crying for days, I think. I'll be fine and then one or those sappy tv commersials will come on and I'll lose it. And I *really* lost it after I went to the health center today. I called my mom and she's coming up to get me so I can spend one night home in my bed. This is the first time I've been really sick without my parents around. When I was at summer camp I got an ear infection but it didn't get near this bad. My dad used to stay home with me when I was sick more than my mom did. He's got really flexible hours and could work nights while I was sick... my mom could've taken one of her one sick days but she always feels guilty about that. She's been maxed out on sick days for years, which always strikes me as crazy. It means that she could call in "sick" one day, hang out at home reading or whatever she wants to do, and not lose a thing for it because all her additional sick days right now are just getting thrown out. I've been sick a lot.... starting when I was in third grade I had chronic sinus infections and in fifth grade I had this cough nobody could figure out.... they even sent me to Buffalo Children's for tests and they couldn't figure it out... my mom thinks that was "school avoidance." ...which makes sense- I hated school, except for ORBITT days, and my cough always went away on ORBITT days. (ORBITT was this awesome program I went to one day a week. Maybe I'll explain it some other time.) Sixth grade I had the worst case of chicken pox my parents had ever seen... I was out of school for two full weeks and went back with my face completely covered in scabs. I lived on the couch eating rainbow sherbet. I think I'm completely rambling... and I think when you're sick that's allowed. I'm thinking of putting my book list up here. I've been keeping a list of all the books I read for almost exactly two years now.... people who know me and look at it seem to be surprised how short it is. It's been two years and a month and there's 168 books on it. Course the thing it doesn't take into account is all the Ms. and Sun magazines (which take forever to read, especially Ms.) and all the newspapers and movies and the internet.... back when I had AOL, before the flat rate, there was a definite inverse relationship between how much the AOL bill was and how many books were on that list. But I've always thought you can tell a lot about a person by what they read.... I think I'd like being a librarian. I wonder what it pays.... Anyway, the point is I just finished reading "One True Thing" by Anna Quindlen and I think I should've known better than to read a book about someone whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer. By the time it occured to me that it might be a bit too much, I was too far in it to stop. It was really hard, though.... and I'm glad I didn't go see the movie last weekend... I was talking about it... I think it was just luck that I couldn't fit it in my schedule. I think maybe the prednisone is helping.... my ear isn't throbbing quite as much anymore. Maybe I'll go pick up my room some... i really shouldn't let my mom see it with dirty kleenex and dishes all over the floor.... I had a really rough night, and Nicole wasn't here because she went home for the weekend, so I didn't worry about picking stuff up.... maybe I'll do that now. |