kate_schaefer: (First Icon)
[personal profile] kate_schaefer
This hasn't been the most entertaining fall or early winter I've ever experienced. From October 15 to about December 7, I had a respiratory complaint which we characterized progressively as a cold, a bad cold with a nasty cough, bronchitis, and walking pneumonia (in modern medicine, they call it atypical pneumonia, but it's still a brontosaurus to me). The treatment was push fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest and antibiotics and albuterol, push hot fluids and rest and albuterol and inhaled steroids and are you sure you understand the concept of rest? At which point my butt spent significantly more time in bed, and my lungs miraculously got all better.

While all this was going on, for weeks and weeks, I canceled some things and did some others, coughing pathetically the whole time. I made Camille jokes and Chopin jokes. My father made Gipper jokes. I reminded him that George Gipp died several years before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, and that I'd have considerably better treatment, though probably no one would ever make a saccharine movie based on my life or death. I got better; I relapsed; I got better again.

My atypical pneumonia was caused by home improvements. We did a big round of stuff: earthquake retrofitting, insulation retrofitting, and long-overdue exterior repaint. The house looks great, if you like primary colors as much as we do, it's less expensive to keep warm, and it won't fall off its foundations for anything less than a 9. Probably. The whole process generated an immense amount of dust. In retrospect, it would have been better had I gone on a nice trip to practically anywhere rather than staying at home while the work was done. We tried to keep the house as dust-free as possible, but it's hard to keep up with blown cellulose.

At any rate, it's all over. No more pneumonia, and we'll have the daughters and grandchildren visiting soon to celebrate the designated midwinter holiday of your choice. Yep. Things are fine fine fine.

I have shingles.

Date: 2012-12-27 01:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bedii.livejournal.com
When my Mom came down with shingles, the local pharmacy recommended an ointment with Capsin in it. Yes, just what a woman with a badly cracked spine needed.

Date: 2012-12-27 02:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kate-schaefer.livejournal.com
It seems counter-intuitive, but that's one of the standard treatments. Dunno how it would sit with the spine damage, though.

Good to see your electrons, anyway.

Date: 2012-12-27 03:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bedii.livejournal.com
Well, after we got enough washed off for the uncontrollable screaming to stop (the person in the pharmacy had failed to mention that you shouldn't rub it on any open skin, and her shingles had opened up to the air--I don't know how) the doctor advised her never to try OTC medicines without calling him first.

And I always read your posts. Don't post much myself because everyone ignores the film reviews I do...

Profile

kate_schaefer: (Default)
kate_schaefer

October 2025

S M T W T F S
   1 234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 23rd, 2026 11:30 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios