Getting better all the time…

Well, now I am. Up until Wednesday, I was actually getting quite a bit worse.

Friday night – as I was watching Glen Burtnik’s xcellent Xmas Xtravaganza (more on that in another post), I began to get cold. Really freakin’ cold. And I kept on having to run to the bathroom, which I attributed to the Mongolian barbecue we’d had earlier, even though it had never affected me that way before.

I made it through the show, but then Kathy drove us home. My plans were to go into the city on Saturday and Sunday for my comic book writing class. Didn’t happen. On Saturday, I was just way too sick in the morning, and though I felt a bit better in the afternoon, by the time I would have made it there, class was over. On Sunday, I started to feel better, but still really didn’t feel well enough to sit on a train, write all day, then sit on a train again. I was pretty beat.

Sunday night was awful.

Monday, sick again. “Just a cold,” I thought. “I’ll get though it.” I was downing every old piece of medicine we had in the little basket we use to keep the stuff in. It was like Easter for Rush Limbaugh.

Tuesday – okay, I need new medicine. Went out and got some. It did a bit of its job – at least the Cepacol soothed my throat for like, five minutes. But by Tuesday night, hanging ornaments on the tree, I had to stop after hanging two or three to catch my breath. My ear was also starting to pop, or throb, or whatever. (I’m not sure whether popping is the good thing or the bad thing. Let’s just say it started to hurt when I closed my eyes too hard.) I went upstairs and updated my primary physician online, so I wouldn’t have to drive to Hightstown to get me some cure.

Wednesday – My ear was killing me. I called my new doctor as soon as I could. He had a really busy day, but could fit me in at one. I sounded awful. (He asked me how old I was. I told him 35. He said “Oh, so you're not some really old guy with all sorts of problems.” That’s how bad I sounded.)

I watched some episodes of Oz until it was time to go. That was the only thing that could keep my mind off the pain – inmates doing to each other what I felt like was being done to my ear.

When I got to the doctor, I waited. I read the remaining four issues of my Usagi Yojimbo trade paperback, then I just stared at the fish in the tank in the waiting room. When my turn came, the doctor – a very nice guy – looked in my ear and said “Oh, that’s bad. That’s real bad.”

He had his assistant make an appointment for me at an ear, nose and throat specialist. This took some time. I waited. My ear was killing me.

I hadn’t taken any medicine because I thought it might interfere with whatever the doctor would prescribe, so I was in crazy amounts of pain. I noticed that I had some Tylenol I had bought in Las Vegas last year when I was also crazy sick (but which went away on its own, like good colds do), and downed a couple of them without water on my way to the new doctor’s office. I don’t know my way around here very well, so it took a few frustrating wrong turns to get there.

The Ear Nose & Throat guy looked in my ear and said, “Whoa, that’s bad.” (He also asked me if my nose has always been this way, or if I had ever broken it. Turns out I do most of my breathing from my right nostril. The left one is pretty sad – it’s not mechanically conducive to intake. This was news.) He mumbled a bit, which isn’t a good combination with a guy who can only half hear you.

I had a big bubble of fluid between my ear drum and middle ear, which is what’s causing the pain. And he wrote me out four (!) prescriptions. So now I’m taking two pills, nose spray, and ear drops.

And judging by today’s progress, they’re working like a charm. The bubble has burst – my ear has been leaking goo all day. I originally thought it was just the drops oozing out, but now I realize that there aren’t enough drops in the bottle to make this much slime against my cheek. The nose is getting better (although still no real intake from lefty) and my throat doesn’t hurt anymore. My voice suddenly and inexplicably changed into gravel late tonight (“Holy Shit! I’m Selma Diamond!”), but every other message from the magic eightball has been positive.

I’m still staying home tomorrow – more than anything else, I don’t want to put my ear through the pressure change of the tunnel during my commute – but I have some work emailed to me. I’ll be happy to concentrate again.

So here I am. Hopefully I’ll get a post in on the Xmas Xtravaganza tomorrow.

Rob