I'm sick of being sick and tired of being tired.

It's Friday night and nearly like Jamee we had pizza and movie night but without the pizza and only half a movie. Then we fell asleep in front of the tv while waiting for some YSA's to come pick up a tv were are giving away. I told them I'd be up after their activity. My fault.

Lesson: NEVER take narcotic painkillers at 8 pm when you are expecting a YSA at 9 pm.

The one I took today made me hyper. I figured this one would, too. So I drank a Coke Zero to take the edge off the percocet so I can stay awake long enough to load a tv for somebody else for free.

Update: just got a call. He forgot about it and went home. This is ok since the percocet is in royally major affecting me mode.

Here's another update on my chronic cough: I have been coughing for almost four weeks. It's a deep chest, burning cough, which comes in fits. I sometimes cough up various colors of chest debris, from deep green to lime green to a sort of yellowish to a pasty white gunky color. See the chart below:

First time I went to the doctor, I had to find a new doctor in town. I tried the "urgent care clinic" which is open from 9-5, M-F, with walkins at 9 and 2 only, I AM NOT JOKING. I went there at 8:55 am and there was a line around the building in a slightly seedy part of town, so I moved on. The hospital has a medical building attached so I went there.

I walked into a multi-doc office and told the receptionist my sob story and I hacked up color number one above, but swallowed it in the interest of public courtesy. She was not interested in talking to the doc about taking new patients and my only "walk in" time would be an appointment the next day. I declined and went down the hall to a one doc office. Desperate, I went in and they asked me to come back that afternoon. Fine. I did.

The doc could not find any sign of infection in my throat, ears, nose, nor could he hear any congestion in my lungs. So we decided to try some antibiotics in case there was an infection he was missing, but he thought it was likely a virus and could only treat the symptoms and make me comfortable. It was the first day of my seven day run of midnight shifts.

Nothing worked for seven days. It was on this run that I did my first iteration of the color scheme above. My poor coworkers.

I finally went back at Cindy's insistence (Bless Her Heart, really) and he was very concerned about this, as I had a full blown coughing fit complete with a near fainting spell right there in the doc's office. No blood but the color was somewhere in the middle of the scale.

He gave me two nebulizer runs in the office which helped talk off the edge nicely, but made me feel like I'd had a six pack of coffee. It's caffeine based, he explained. I think there must be steroids in it, too, because after doing it I itch quite acutely all over. Cindy will scratch my back for me, but any place I can reach she will not scratch. So that "Bless Her Heart" only goes so far, bless her heart.

He also prescribed a blessed narco pain killer. I can't take hydrocodone or codeine based stuff because I have halucinations and not nice ones. So we discussed what to do, finally settled on a very nice one and I obtained nebulizer drops and the very nice narcotic at Walmart. When I went to pick it up, the clerk loudly demanded my driver's license. Ok, like that is going to keep me from abusing it. I made some joke about not liking the taste of gasoline in my meth, and he smiled but was probably forbidden by corporate policy to laugh at such jokes, bless his heart.

Then I was referred to the pharmacist who asked me some personal questions and explained about addiction, driving, overdosing, etc, at which point I made no joke at all about anything but simply asked if I could still carry my concealed weapon. No, just kidding. I did not do that. I was wearing my firearms tee shirt, though. They were such things to prom around here, I understand. The girls, I mean.

The nebulizers open my trachea and the other little air tubes, but make me nauseated, unless I have a full meal before. The script calls for every 4 hours, but there is no way. It helps a lot but I can't take the nausea.

See? I would have made a lousy pregnant woman. It's hard enough LOOKING like a pregnant man. Shut up. All of you.

The percocet, that's what it is, really helps the cough. I can take it every six hours, but it only lasts about three, but of course I don't want to abuse it so I take when I really need it, say about every 8-12 hours when I just really need to sleep. And I do the nebulizer in between percosessions.

I was supposed to work four day shifts beginning today, but I called my boss last night, since the doc had ordered a chest x-ray just before thinking it might be pneumonia. When my boss heard that, he basically ordered me to take TWO days off, Bless His Heart. I am grateful for that.

So today I nebulized and percoceted and inbetween unpacked boxes from the garage. Cindy had done the lion's share of unpacking. BLESS HER HEART.

She is perfect at knowing where to put things on the walls, how to display things, what to leave in boxes, etc. Me, I am perfect at lifting heavy things. I thank God, truly, that I do not have a bad back. Or a bad wife.

Today she showed me where my book boxes were in the garage and reminded me, which I needed, that I had books under my bed, too. So I got them all unpacked and put away in shelves, organized by fantasy, sci fi, humor, church history, doctrine, Norse mythology (I have a bachelor's degree in meteorology, and a minor in Scandinavian Literature. It works as a good lead in to gospel discussion, trust me.), classical literature, and travel. Oh, and a partial Hugh Nibly collected works section. I have truly missed my books.

I even have a nifty sculpture of a grizzly bear eating a salmon, which I picked up in Juneau, which was made in Thailand. sigh...

Now I am tired and sleepy and wired and wishing I could stop talking and hoping you are all kind to me and get some grins from this, because that it all it was intended for. That, and an avenue to dissipate some Percocet Zero energy.

But I digress. The x-rays were apparently clear, since he never called back, though his last words were, "I'll call you if something shows up." I hate when they do that, since I've known on several occasions, for them to NOT call when something DID show up. Oops.

Cindy mentioned Grandma Connie's chronic cough and wondered if there were a drug connection. Cindy is always very intelligent but sometimes she's a genius. I have seen Mom cough so hard it brought tears to her eyes, and double her over and almost made her faint. Finally, she died and I wonder if the constant cough and strain on her abdomen had some effect on her bowel and it just kinked. I know my gut muscles hurt and ache, plus I also have a hiatal (sp?) hernia like she did. So Cindy tells me to check on my meds online for side effects. Sure enough, my hypertension med has "chronic cough" listed as a common side effect, and it can get worse with time.

I'll be following up with the doc this Wednesday.

The GERD and extra weight can't help. I have to admit that I gained 35 pounds in three months in the hotel, but I've lost just over 16 pounds in the last four weeks on Weight Watchers.

Ok, I know I am rambling. I will stop now.