...Experienced a Streak of Bad Luck

I have become quite familiar with bad luck the past two weeks. It all began the night after the totally awesome KU/MU game. My throat hurt. I know, I know. That is what I get for sitting out in the rain and snow for several hours, right? Well, I still think it was worth it. That was the best football game I have ever seen. Plus, we got to ride to Arrowhead in this wicked cool bus with hardwood floors and a huge flat panel TV [which we watched highlights from last season on!]. You're jealous, and that's okay. I would be too.

Anyway, back to my bad luck. The next day was Sunday and I spent the entire day curled up on the couch with chills, aches-n-pains and a fever. I was fearful I had caught the flu even after receiving the shot in October, so I stayed home from work the next day to rest. Wade's foreman sent him home from work to take care of me. What a sweet guy. I still felt like doodoo on Tuesday with a headache and a sore throat but figured I could pull sitting at my desk, responding to emails for 8 hours. By Thursday afternoon my teeth and upper jaw began to ache. Ah, yet another sinus infection. Brilliant. That night I woke up at 1:30 am and felt like Wade had been kicking me in the face all night. I stumbled into the bathroom and mixed up a cocktail of distilled water and whatever is in a sinus rinse packet and proceeded to shoot it up my nose. What came out of my nose that night haunts me still. Di-sgust-ing...and yet fascinating, ya know? I layered ice packets on my face and watched Erin Brockovich on Showtime...and then half of Enchanted on HBO until I finally fell back asleep around 5:30 am.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday came and went, and I still had that stinkin' headache and sore throat! While at work on Monday I had decided I was going to stay home the next day to rest and kick this Sinusitis' ass once and for all. What I didn't know was that another bug had bitten my ass - a nasty vomit and diarrhea causing bug. Yep. That's right. I was up all night Monday puking my guts out into the trash can while sitting pretty on the toilet. In between puke sessions, I lay curled up in bed praying that my kids would not catch what ever was ailing me. I had that scene from Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood where all four of Vivi's children are in the bathroom vomiting and pooping everywhere embossed on my brain. Remember how she stepped in it with her bare feet? Ugh! Having both Finn and Ceci sick at the same time scares the living hell out of me. I am most definitely a sympathetic puker.

On Tuesday I had Wade take me to the the doctor at 3:00pm. Come to find out I was very dehydrated and my heart rate was pretty high because of it. My nurse said the heart beats about 60 to 80 times a minute when we're at rest. My heart rate was 140. Yikes! My doctor gave me two bags of fluids, a round of an antibiotic called Rocephin, a short term and a long term anti nausea medication and my favorite - Demerol. This blessed drug put an end to my headache and allowed me to stand laying on the doctor's hard ass exam "bed" for four hours. I think Demerol has replaced Percocet as my favorite drug. Don't worry Mom, I only take them when prescribed... and I enjoy every minute of it.

The needle the nurse used for my IV was a small one and on top of that my IV was positional, so it took FOREVER to get the two bags of fluid in me. Wade was able to pick up sandbags for his truck at Ace Hardware, go to Home Depot to get parts for our house, pick up the kids and take them home so Nana Marla could feed them all before coming back to pick me up. I got home around 7:30 pm and passed out.

Wednesday I slept all day and it was wonderful. The arm that had housed my IV was a bit sore, but I thought nothing of it - that is until I pulled up my sleeve and noticed a red, hot puffy streak traveling all the way from my IV site up to my shoulder. Uh, this can't be good. Called the Doc, they said, "Nope that's not good. Come in right now." I have what is called Phlebitis - basically inflammation of the vein caused by the IV. My Doctor said it was pure "bad luck." Uh, yeah. I'm familiar with that phrase as of late. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory med for the vein and gallons of fluid and time off from work because I still looked pale when I stood up. So I set up camp on the couch and watched a lot of Showtime, HBO and Encore.

Thanks to my handy dandy Blackberry I was able to keep up with my work emails right from the couch. My favorite email came from my fellow sCREWed employee, Janice. It had the subject line "Come Back Soon...Please!" with this photo attached. A couple coworkers had constructed a "stand in" for me out of boxes which had accumulated in my cube during my hiatus. [Christmas presents I had shipped to my office.] I guess Freaky Megan, as she affectionately came known to be, was a tad shorter than I and therefore did not fool some. Damn, because I was hoping to reconstruct her in case I needed a few more days off in the future.