I know most of you have been wondering where I vanished to.
Usually I just inform my Council and Maze Staff, and let the word spread as it tends to do.
I know those who frequent the board have seen my posts, and wonder why I have not been in camp. Well... luck took a shit on me again. I started with the headache from hell. Two or three weeks straight, so bad I was unable to focus/concentrate on anything for more than maybe fifteen minutes or so before I had to move, get a compress, close my eyes, whatever I could to try to ease it some. I was taking Tylenol like tic tacs and even that did not help. The odd part is I have never been one to have headaches. One would come once in a blue moon, but was usually muscle tension or eye strain, pop a couple Tylenol and press on. Not this time.
Just when it seemed it was starting to ease off a bit, woobie brought me home a gift from work. The gift... a cold. Not just your garden variety cold... but the biggest, nastiest, snottiest cold imaginable. In addition to that, she also brought home a case of the cruds about three days later. You are familiar with the cruds.... upset stomach, nausea, hurling at high velocity, you know the drill. Now I was miserable AND more ill tempered than my usual pleasant self.
Then the joint pain and temperature hit. Oh lucky lucky me.... I'm a lucky sonuva.... nevermind. I shook the temperature in a couple days and the aches and pains diminished. The cold from hell had left me and for a day or two I was able to finally relax a bit. I never should have relaxed. It did not leave me.... oh no. Nothing could be so simple. It was just relocating..... into my chest. It relocated and settled in quite well as a matter of fact. I could not breathe, was gasping with the slightest movement, had no breath to really even talk and no voice to go along with it. Was coughing heavily and I felt like I was drowning. I hacked up enough fluid to float Big MO, or so it surely seemed.
Then I began noticing a bit of pink in what I was hacking up. Odd... I didn't recall eating or drinking anything pink. Within a few hours it was definitely tinged with blood. Wonderful. By the next day there was no doubt. I was coughing up blood. Nice and deep red goodness. Now I was pissed. Not upset, not irritated, not angry, downright no holds barred mean assed black pupil-ed eyes PISSED!!! I have no doubt this was why nurse woobie gave me lots of private me time all alone. I was so pissed, heading to see my Dr Babes was out of the question. I was in my "Bring it on" mode.
Sleep is your friend. I slept, woke up and took a break to relax so I could sleep some more. Then I slept even more because sleeping can really make a person tired. And when a person is tired, its time to sleep. So I did. And then slept some more.
Eventually the blood stopped and my lungs began to clear. I still have a cough, but I can live with that. Now.... and you thought that was all.... silly dreamer.
I must have gotten some sort of sinus or ear infection. I am already mostly deaf in my left ear from not wearing earplugs when playing loud music, and from years of regular gunfire without hearing protection. I know I know... "Hey ya'll, watch this". But this infection, unfortunately, involved my right ear. My ear was so damn tender... swollen along with the side of my head and down my neck. I could not even get my jaw to align, open wide, or even bite down. I diagnosed this all by myself. Amazing huh. I checked our stash of medications and with the assistance of nurse woobie and online information, I began a regime of antibiotic sized horsepills and antibiotic eardrops. One night as nurse woobie was removing the cotton to help me get the drops in, she shows me the cotton with blood on it. She informs me, and the rest of the neighborhood with her bellow... which I just managed to hear, that my ear was bleeding from inside. Oh happy day. If it was damaged, nothing we could do about it. So the regime of drops and horsepills continue.
It seems to be working. The swelling is going down and the tenderness is diminished. The bleeding has stopped. I am able to chew again almost normally. But so far my hearing has not returned. Hopefully in time it will. Its a different world without hearing. You do learn to lipread on the fly, I can hear the TV is it is turned up full volume. I can talk on the phone but that is a one sided conversation since I can't hear the person on the other end. So talking on the phone is pretty much impossible for now. There are still moments when it feels like an icepick is shoved into my ear and I just retire to the bed and try to relax and get through it. My balance is off so I figure I was correct in diagnosing an inner ear infection.
So that is where I have been. That is what I have been up to.
I wish to extend my apologies for letting my family down and not being in camp as I should be. I will return as soon as I can.
Rags
