Finally got the first good night's sleep I've had in nearly a week, although I probably could have easily slept another three or four hours, considering how much I've been shorted over that same period of time. Still, it's nice to be able to pull in a lungful of air without feeling like I'm going to cough up an actual lung on the exhale; now it's just a regular cough, probably due to all the irritated tissue down in there.
Of course, even being sick hasn't prevented me from continuing to swim in the deep-end of the tax prep-pool; including a full day on Sunday, I had evening appointments scheduled last night, and more of the same tonight, only because I couldn't fit them in anywhere else. After this it's back to the normal Sunday/Monday evening schedule through to the end. So far, things haven't gotten too ugly, that is, no insanely complicated returns, although, as is usually the case, I've dealt with a couple of people already who are going to have to sit down with a nice rep from the IRS and hash out a payment plan; unfortunate for them, but then, I'm just the messenger.
After finishing up last night (mercifully, an hour ahead of schedule), I stopped by the theatre to check on facilities items: inventorying soft-goods, and unlocking the dumpsters for early Tuesday a.m. disposal. I haven't been there for maybe nine or ten days, not that long really, but for me that's an unusually long stretch. And of course, in that time I've missed some things; the hallway has a new paint scheme, some furniture has been rearranged, and a lovely, yet sort of creepy photo display had been hung, presumably for the fundraiser that was held over the weekend that I missed because of being flat-on-my-back-in-bed. It was a little eerie seeing all the changes, made me feel a bit like a ghost wandering through, particularly since the public areas were deserted, although there was a rehearsal going on on-stage and I was trying to be quiet while I moved around the space; I don't think anyone even knew I was there.
Fever, In The Morning, Fever All Through The Night
I started coming down with some sort of cold/flu bug Thursday at work, and except for a brief sojourn out yesterday to refill over-the-counter meds, have spent most of the last three days flat on my back sweating like a Swede in a sauna, and listening to my sinuses wheeze and gurgle like a radiator in a 5th floor walk-up. Of the roughly 36 hours I've been in bed, I think I got maybe 12 hours total sleep; after a certain point I think I maxed out on TheraFlue and Sudafed to the point that, I'd get maybe 1 1/2 hours of symptom relief for each 4 hour dosage.
Have a full day of tax prep today, which I can't cancel because I've got no slots left for rescheduling. Trying to go cold-turkey on the meds today, if only so that I can get maximum effect from them when I finally get a chance to crawl back into bed this evening; needless to say, all social engagements have been called off through the weekend, and although I'm pretty sure I'm on the downhill side of things, I may still be iffy for going in to work tomorrow.
I've traditionally done little paeans to my part-Irish heritage on past St. Patrick's Day, but today I figure it would be just as easy to direct you down the left column to the Archives section, where you can peruse posts from previous March 17th's (A of All: because I'm a bit busy today and; B of All: because I couldn't think of anything new to add to those posts).
I'd been sitting at the computer for about two hours working through a problem with my SD card slot, consulting via chat-room with a nice person in some far-away land, (who, despite a less-than-stellar command of English grammar skills was nevertheless quite helpful), and after we'd finished up our session and logged off, I stood up to stretch.
Only, I couldn't stand up, not fully upright at any rate, without sending explosive stabs of pain down my lower back and most of the length of my left leg; really nasty spasms, that just about dropped me to the floor.
Once I was able to straighten myself, I hobbled over to the bathroom, downed 800 mg of Ibuprofen and went to bed, hoping the pain would subside by morning.
But, despite a relatively good night's sleep (well, there was that one dream involving an Oscar Meyer "Weenie Mobile", a couple of friends, and a foot-long hot dog topped with bacon - I'm not even going to presume to attempt to analyze this, BTW - and no, nothing untoward happened; at least nothing that would involve more than me possibly partaking of a couple of Alka-Seltzers, and really, who wouldn't after eating a foot-long Oscar Meyer hot dog with bacon?), I woke up this morning to find the stiffness & pain had barely subsided.
So, a few more Ibu's, and now I'm sitting here at work, getting ready to perform a rote, repetitive task that I HOPE won't further aggravate the problem.
To those of you who experienced back problems earlier this week, and to whom I may have imparted gentle admonishments seeing as you seem far too young to be suffering excruciating old person pain, my apologies.
Karma, she is ruthless, no?
Update Friday:
After generous application of heat last night, the pain has subsided quite a bit, although I still get twinges if I bend or twist from the lower back without support. Still, heck of an improvement over yesterday. Hopefully, at this rate things will be more-or-less back to normal in a couple of days - just in time to start in on my first full-day of tax appointments.
I can't speak for the rest of my fellow Pugetopians, but I for one am So Over Our Winter Weather. I can handle the persistent snow flurries, but frankly, the constant near-freezing temperatures are starting to get to me - literally.
Now, I grant you, we're nowhere near experiencing the sort of perpetual deep-freeze of say, a Minnesota or Wisconsin winter, but for this part of the country, it's unusual, to say the least, to go this long with overnight temps hovering around (and frequently below) freezing. Going to work in the morning has invoked a daily ritual of layering for well on four months now - going back to our pre-Christmas SNOWPOCALYPSE - and even on the rare days when Sol does deign to peek out through the cloud layer, or worse, on even rarer days of clear skies, it just never seems to warm up much above the mid-40's, which again is not life-threatening in the least, but danged if the sheer persistence doesn't begin to wear down ones resolve.
And of course, now that we've just "sprung ahead" we're back to early mornings of gray twilight that only add an element of depressive ennui to the chill.
I'm not asking for much; just a couple of days of bright, sunny weather with a temperature in the low 50's. That would be a refreshing, not to mention invigorating, change-of-pace.
