Off-leash

Marcie has not been getting much playtime lately.  Eric is back to school.  I have been sick.  It has been over 100 degrees out every day for over a month (maybe longer!).  Anyway...she's feeling cooped up like crazy!

This morning I tried to lay down to catch up on my word games (I found a new one I love - on top of Words with Friends and Hanging with Friend - called SkyWords.  LOVE IT!).  Marcie was absolutley against the laying down thing.  She was pawing me and whining.  So, I decided to take her out for a walk.  It was still before 10am, so it shouldn't have been TOO hot out.  Remember that is all relative in Texas.  Not too hot means it may have still been only 90. 

I decided to try to let her off leash on the wooded path in our apartment complex.  I've always been afraid to let her off leash.  She was a stray and the shelter doesn't really know anything about her past.  What if she had run away from her previous owner...and gotten lost or something.  Anyway, that has been my fear.  She's such a good dog though, so I decided to try it out.  She did AMAZING!  Everytime I stopped and told her to come back to me she did.  She never turned on the path to where she couldn't see me.  The few times there were forks in the path she waited for me to tell her which way to go.  I have a great dog!

When we got home she totally collapsed!  Exhausted dog!  When she's really tired she doesn't sleep on the beds (ours or hers) or the couch.  She sleeps on the floor under the IKEA chair in my room by the window.  Always.

Relapse

I thought I was feeling better so I went back to work this week.  I wasn't 100% sure though, so I called ahead to ask for a fairly easy patient assignment and with prior approval from the manager that I could stay only 8 hours (instead of 12) if I needed.  Well...I stayed 8 hours, but it was difficult.  I didn't reallly realize how tired I was still.  I went back the next day, but apparently my headache was obivous to my coworkers, several of which mentioned to the charge nurse that I needed to leave.  I only stayed 4 hours that day.  I napped for 3 hours when I got home too.  Geez!  I am really trying to kick this, but it is harder than it seems!  Today I have done absolutely nothing...and I am feeling better.  I have more energy than I have in a while, so that's good!  I am going back to work tomorrow for a full day and I am determined to make it work!  I am stronger than this stupid virus!

Relaxing

For anyone worrying about me...I would like to start by saying that I am feeling much better.  My headache is mostly under control (pain medication 2-3 times per day now) and I am only napping once a day.  I going to the doctor tomorrow for a follow-up appointment and hope to be back to work by Thursday.

As for this time I've been home...I have been relaxing a lot.  Here are few random pictures.

I made a peach pie last week.  With peaches from the farmer's market. I have never made peach pie before (and to be honest, I had never eaten peach pie before.).  I think it turned out pretty good.



Logan came over and played on my porch last week.  Before I was sick.  I just hadn't posted this cute picture yet.  He is just about the cutest thing ever.  Mimi posted the cutest picture of him to date on facebook...I will have to repost it here later.

Marcie was very glad I came home from the hospital.  She has been taking over Shawn's side of the bed when he's not in it so she can be close to me.  She loves me :)

Lastly, I have never had much of a green thumb, but I try occasionally.  I found this beautiful plant at the farmer's market months ago and it has been growing very well for me!  It is a Texas Buttercup and I love it!  It was doing so well, that I decided to take one of the new sprouts and replant it in its own pot.  Success!  The new plant is still small, but doing well and today finally had its first flower! Yay!

That's all for now.  Back to my recovery.

Viral Meningitis

So...time for the story of my week.  It's quite an exciting tale so get ready for a page turner.  Well, not exciting for me, but interesting anyway.  I'll start where it started for me.

Sunday evening.  I was cold.  Really cold.  Shivering cold.  It was 100 degrees out.  It was over 80 degrees in my bedroom.  Why was I shivering?  No clue.  I put on long sleeves and socks and went to bed.

Monday was a busy day.  Shawn and I were out running errands.  I started with a little headache that morning.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but by lunchtime it was getting much worst.  I was having some nausea along with it and some sentivitiy to light.  We came home early from our errands and I took a nap (from 3pm-7pm).  When I woke up my headache was better but I was still tired.  I went to bed for the night at 10pm...after all I had to work on Tuesday.

Tuesday was an up early day since I was scheduled to be in charge at work.  I had a headache all day, but nothing I couldn't handle.  I wasn't overly hungry but I wasn't nauseated either.  I had just a twinge of sore throat with some phlegm early in the day but it didn't last (so I assumed it was from the fan during the night).  Again, when I got home from work I was exhausted, so another night in bed before 10pm.

Wednesday is when it all started going downhill.  The headache was till with me when I woke up, and had actually woken me up during the night once.  I tired to get some stuff done by rotating ibuprofen, Excedrin, and Norco...but nothing was helping.  I called the doctor to make an appointment but they weren't going to be able to fit me in until Friday at 4pm...no way I was going to last that long with this kind of headache.  I started having muscle cramping too...just another thing to add to my discomfort for the day.  I tried to just relax.  Took a hot bath while keeping an ice pack on my head (and by ice pack I mean a bag of frozen peas).  I made mom turn off all the lights (and if you know her at all you know she hates not having the lights on!).  I sat on the couch with my feet up with the "ice pack" on my head and mom and I watched a quiet movie.  Still no change in the headache.  When Shawn got home from work we decided it was time to go to the ER.

After a head CT scan and a Lumbar Puncture in the ER...the decided I had meningitis.  At that time they weren't sure if it was viral or bacterial (and it makes a huge difference in treatment and prognosis) so they decided to keep me in the hospital.  The only thing that was working for my headache was morphine IV (and they had tried Dilaudid too...) so after 8 hours in the ER I made it to my room in the hospital.

The Infectious Disease doctor says I probably got the virus from Logan.  He said kids in daycare typically will come home with a fever at least once a month (Logan does).  He says this is usually due to a virus of some sort.  Not ususally bad enough to make the kinds really since (they have such strong immune systems) but sometimes it can get transmitted to other people (like helpless Auntie Lisa) who get he virus too.  The virus will ususally take 2-3 days to cause an infection (Logan had a fever at my house last Friday - 2 days prior to my shivers) and the infections are usually non-specific type symptoms (like a cold or something).  Occasionally it can move to a part of the body it shouldn't (like the meninges of the brain and spinal cord) and cause meningitis.  Which is what happened to me.  There isn't really any treatment, just pain medication to help with the symptoms (the headache) and I just have to rest and drink plenty of water and wait for the virus to be done with me.  I'm hoping I'll start feeling like myself again in a few days.

So that is my story.  What a week.