Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Whoever said all kinds of crazy things

Whoever said life was simple?  Yes, in fact, he did.  "He" being James Whoever.  A total ditz, if you ask me.  He's said all kinds of nonsense.

I have no idea what I just typed, but that's to be expected, because I'm nursing bronchitis.  The culprit is the combination of high tree pollen plus high humidity.  I called the VA for a doc's appt. and the lady on the phone reported that "lots of people are sick."  Despite that fact, hopefully I can get in tomorrow.  Our local VA is incredibly efficient--so is our huge, big-city VA.  I'm lucky to live in central Ohio, I guess.

Being an old hand at respiratory infections, I can easily explain the connection between high pollen and bronchitis.  Bad allergies=extreme congestion.  Which easily leads to a sinus infection.  Which can progress into chest issues.  Been there, done that.  The great thing is that I'm NOT in the hospital.  I credit my not being in the hospital to the asthma-management meds I've been prescribed.  I like not being in the hospital.  I prefer it, in fact.

Perhaps the strangest thing about me, medically, is the way I can have a raging infection turning into bronchitis without registering an elevated temperature.  It's spooky.  I don't know how many times I've heard, "Well, you don't have a temperature."  My standard reply?  "I never do."

Which isn't true--every once in a while, I'll register a slight fever.  If I'm at 99 or 100, I'm waaay sick.  Trust me.  The better response, therefore, would be a qualified one, such as, "Typically, I don't (have a temperature)."  Or, "I hardly ever do."  Or, "If I had a dime for every time I've heard, 'Well, you don't have a temperature,' I'd have huge piles of dimes."

And what good are huge piles of dimes?  No one uses pay phones any more, and the days of dime phone calls are long gone.  I remember those days, though.  My Mom gave me and my brother an "emergency dime" in case we needed to call home.  In those days, young kids were allowed to ride buses by themselves in the big city, play in parks all day, and so on.  No one called the cops because your children were on the playground without adult escort.

Don't mind me--I'm just rambling.  Maybe I do have a temp.  Better check.

Update: Yes, I had a temp.  VA prescribed me Prednisone and antibiotics, and I got all better.


Lee


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