Medi Centre's... oh how I loathe you!

Ok, so I've been getting progressively worse since I woke up on Monday this week with a sore throat.  I made it through 1.5 days at work before my boss told me to go home and get better (<3 my boss - in the non-creepy way). 

Got a total of 3 hours sleep on Wednesday - every swallow hurt so badly that it jarred me awake.  Tried to take naps, that didn't work.  Swallowing is water/tea feels like razors.

Thursday night, hubby tells me that we have T3's and do I think it would help me sleep... I take one... it lasts for 3 hours, but I take another one and go back to sleep.  Get 6 hours sleep, better than 3 but I am now literally falling asleep anytime I stop moving around. (I fell asleep at my keyboard this morning while typing an email to my boss)

Friday (today) woke up still feeling so tired, had a steamy shower which felt good on my throat (made mental note to get a humidifier), rushed off to the Medi Centre (they open at nine and we got there a couple minutes after nine)... Medi Centre's waiting room is already 75% full (which figures right?)... I grab a number (62 if you're curious) and wait to get called up to the receptionist desk.  Number gets called about 15 minutes later... get asked for photo id and healthcare card... Receptionist looks at me and asks what my last name is, because her system shows two... I can't speak so Hubby tells her... she asks if we got married recently... Hubby and I look at each other (I was thinking why is that important?), Hubby tells her 2006... by the way all of these questions are being directed at me.  She asks for address, phone number, cell number, emergency contact number... then she looks again at me and asks, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "so... what brings you in here today?  Wait let me guess... You've lost your voice"... well DUUUUHHHHHH! She tells us to go sit down again and hubby asks what the wait time is, which she replies I don't know - we don't have any doctors here yet... I cringe inwardly... why do they let people in before the doctors arrive?  Do they enjoy making sick people wait in cold and cramped waiting rooms, surrounded by other sick people?

Well as I have no voice I can't make a fuss or complain so we sit down and wait...

And wait...

And wait...

2 Hours pass... we finally get shown into a tiny, cold examination room.  And wait...

And wait...

And wait... Well at least this room was a little entertaining, you see this room was not too soundproof so Hubby and I got to hear the loud elderly gentleman next door tell a doctor about his diarrhea LOUDLY... and how he couldn't sit down anymore and ... I don't want to fill you in on the gross details we heard.

After being in this room for about 30 minutes we finally see the doctor and Hubby tells him about my suffering, I whisper a little too for anything that Hubby couldn't really answer.  Doc takes a look at my throat, and takes a swab (which is not a comfortable feeling... harsh cotton swab on swollen, sore inflamed throat tissue... not fun - also I have a bad gag reflex so I had to suppress that too).  Doc says it could be bacterial, viral or it could be tonsillitis... so he wants me to have some blood-work done up too...

I don't like needles.... ok I'll be honest, I hate them... they scare me... but off I trudge to the lab... where I'm told my wait will be an hour... which it actually was.  The needle part - well I didn't look at it but it did hurt. A Lot!  the nurse said, "your veins are really deep"... if I had my voice I would have said no they're hiding!!!

I picked up my prescription which hubby had dropped off for me and went in search of a humidifier... there are too many choices BTW... but we finally decided on one and went home.

Humidifiers... I love you!!!!

We ate some lunch and hubby went back to work.  I tried to stay up a bit but ended up falling asleep and waking up a couple hours later...

I'm still super tired but I think I'll be able to get through this... now I just need to wait until my test results come back...

So sick

So yesterday I tried to stick it out and go to work, well that only lasted through until lunch.  It's hard to focus on work when every time you swallow it feels like you have razor blades down your throat.  I managed to painfully swallow down lunch - much to the amusement of my coworkers who thought my wincing was funny.  I think if it was reversed I might have thought it was funny too.

Anyway, I get back to my desk around 12:45 and I start coughing and blowing my nose to which my boss says "that doesn't sound too good", and then proceeds to tell me that maybe I should go home.  Have I mentioned that I love my boss?  My previous boss wouldn't have cared if I came in missing an arm or bleeding profusely.  I guess that's one reason I'm not there anymore!!

So I texted my hubby and he took me home - with a stop to a drug store and a dollar store for a new thermometer and a whiteboard (I have almost completely lost my voice).

So last night after a really long evening of painful swallowing and barely eating anything - it's hard when you have to psych yourself up for each swallow... we finally went to bed around midnight.  I only got about 3 hours sleep and then each swallow was so painful that it woke me from my sleep and I couldn't get back to sleep. 

So now I'm trying to take a nap, but the darn painful swallowing is keeping me up... the most I've closed my eyes for since 3am is about 15 minutes then I swallow and it wakes me up. :(

Lessons learned

• Cherry flavoured Chloraseptic does NOT taste like cherries and it may make you throw up - which is very horrible when you have a sore throat... luckily I didn't spray too much in my mouth and only threw up a little.  
• Mint flavoured Chloraseptic is at least a little better tasting, though both are very harsh medicinal mixed with stinky sock.  
• Cepacol lozenges will numb anything they are in contact with, so if you feel like reminiscing about how it feels after being locally frozen at the dentist - these are the ones for you.  If you happen to have a sore throat both at the roof of your mouth and further down, they help a little, but they taste fairly awful and you end up with a frozen tongue too... so is it really worth it? Not so much I think.

If this is still bad tomorrow I will have to make the dreaded trip to see a doctor - who knows this could be strep instead of just a flu.

Anyhoo... I'm going to gargle some more mint chloraseptic and try for a nap...

Happy Administrative Professionals Day/Week

Still feeling pretty sick, my throat feels like I swallowed razors and I've pretty much lost my voice, but when I came into the office today, on my desk was a lovely bunch of flowers from my boss!  To top it off, when he asked me how things were going and I told him in my very quiet sick voice that I was sick, he actually was concerned with my health and showed compassion.

It's such a different atmosphere in my new job compared to my last one and it's sometimes still a shock to be treated like a human being.

So to all of the Admin's of the world today... Thank you for doing a GREAT job!

SPRING!!!

So most of the snow has melted and it hit an unbelievable 15 celsius today, and the sun was shining and birds were chirping and even though I am sick, I am so happy that spring is here!!!  I have brand new strawberry leaves popping up in my garden already!! I can't wait to be able to spend all day outside again!!  Yaaaaay!

Spring is no longer just around the corner... LOL

Dyed and Gone to Easter Heaven!

Hello All... I just came back from spending a lovely Easter long weekend with my in-laws.  I hope you all had a great Easter too!

We hung out, played games, watched movies, ate turkey, munched on chocolate, gave gifts, joked and laughed... and DYED EASTER EGGS!

There is one thing I love most about Easter, and that would be colouring/painting/decorating Easter eggs!  Almost all of the in-laws joined in on the fun of it... even my husband dyed one!

Here are a couple pictures of some of the ones I worked on

# 1 - The Eye Egg (jointly with my mother-in-law)

#2 - The Plaid Egg

#3 - The Tie Dye Egg

#4 - The Easter Scene Egg (jointly with my sister-in-law, she dyed the egg and I added the scene using my nephew's crayons!!)

All in all I had a pretty great Easter despite waking up Monday morning with the flu.

I am the Easter Bunny

Easter is this weekend and since I am into giving I made Easter Baskets for my group at work (there are only 4 of us - so it's not a huge expense).  I found different sized plastic eggs at a dollar store and filled them with peeps and chocolate eggs.

I really do love to do stuff like this for all of the holidays... like for Saint Patrick's day I found small green leprechaun hats and filled them with chocolate gold coins and made green and white cupcakes.

I usually find any excuse to bring something yummy in to work - I guess it's my way of showing I care.

Please just STOP!

Ok, so there is this girl (a temp) that works in my building who doesn't really have the best social skills.  She's a nice person but she hasn't quite figured out what to talk about when our group gets together for breaks or lunch.  She drones on and on and ON about aspects of her job that no one else cares about.  She starts a conversation with you about something that she talked to you about last week (that you have already forgotten) usually in the middle of a different discussion or interupting someone else.  She also ALWAYS has either an opinion or a suggestion... even if you're not asking for one.

She's desperate to get hired by our company (but we're in a hiring freeze) and is always whining about how everyone else seems to get the jobs but her.  She even tried to buy her way into a special conference because she thinks that just because she's been temping here for 7 months means that she's is a regular employee like the rest of us.

I'm a pretty patient person but lately everything about this person is driving me and pretty much everyone else crazy.  It's getting akward lately too since she wants to join in on all of the social things we do, like going out for lunch etc and gets really upset if we want to go out at noon since her lunch break is a half hour before ours... the universe doesn't revolve around her, but she doesn't seem to know that.

None of us really know how to tell her that she's annoying the crap out of all of us without really making her upset and or creating a crapstorm in the process.

This has gotten me thinking, "what if I'm annoying the people in the group too?" Would they tell me or are they complaining about me behind my back?  I think I will start making sure I'm not interrupting people and that I'm not just talking/complaining about work.  I also hope I'm not horning in on people's excursions outside of the office... I don't want to be the chick that always has to tag along.

I wish I could read minds... or that people would say what they were actually feeling/thinking.