Post of Self-Indulgent Whiny Crankitude

[katallison]

I am so very, very, very, VERY tired of coughing.

I am also so very, very, very, VERY tired of:

--my co-workers' solicitous appearances at my door -- "Are you all right? It sounds like you're DYING in there! You should go home!" Because, work to do, can't go home. (Though I love my co-workers, kindly souls that they are.) (Especially my sweet funny queer-boy colleague A.--::walking in cradling hands carefully in front of him, holding invisible object:: "Hey, I found this in the hall! Your liver, right? I *thought* I heard you coughing it up! You'll probably want this back!")

--also, watching TV. Even watching DVDs of stuff I love on TV.

--also, having no brain whatsoever, and the attention span of a mayfly with ADD.

--also, having no appetite whatsoever for food of any kind.

--also, the entire house being ankle-deep in (a) used tissues and (b) dirty dishes.

--also, my bed, with its rumpled sweat-soaked-and-dried-out-again dirty sheets and heaps of disordered blankets, which I am too tired to change and straighten.

--also, being too damn tired to do anything except crawl into my messy bed by 8 p.m.

Have no concept of how I shall accomplish (a) Christmas shopping, (b) Christmas tree purchase, transport, erection, and decoration, (c) Seekrit Santa story (due in two weeks, ack ack ack!), (d) bazillion overdue projects at work.

Is it 8 p.m. yet? Can I go to bed? ::hack hack hack cough COUGH WHEEEEEEZE::

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

God, that sounds awful. ): I wish I could come over and take care of you.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

You are so sweet! ::snuggling up against you, hacking miserably:; I'll be OK, really, but damn this is a drag and a half.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

The Buffistas were praising the wonders of Delsim OTC cough syrup today. Coughing sure takes a lot out of you, from my experience. Dose yourself up with whatever and get well this weekend, K?

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Delsim, eh? ::making notes: Yeah, the coughing is just *exhausting* -- every evening I feel like I've run a marathon. On the upside, it's great for the abs. *g*

[akite.livejournal.com]

You poor thing. I hope you feel better soon.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I firmly intend to feel better very soon, because *ohmygod I have to write that Sekrit Santa story!* ::freakout, freakout::

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Okay, have you been to the doctor?

Because that sounds like bronchitis.

I was just telling coreopsis about what we call The Good Stuff, which a doc can prescribe -- I think it's called No-Tuss LIQ, or hydrocodone(?). It's a cough-suppressing, sinus-clearing, sleep-inducing, lovely happy haze-creating blend of sudafed, benadryl and a low-dose narcotic pain reliever that acts as a cough suppressant. Seriously, one dose and you won't have that achy feeling in your chest that means you're going to cough again any second.

If you can handle narcotics, I recommend it highly.

This message brought to you by your friendly neighborhood narcotics pusher. ;)

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Dang that LJ code. Meant to say coreopsis.

Oh, and your young queer colleague sounds like a hoot and a half.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

I think it likely is bronchitis, of some mild form; I used to get bronchitis like clockwork every winter, while I was in grad school, but I really hoped I'd be able to give it a pass this year.

The Good Stuff of which you speak sounds *wonderful* -- I adore narcotics (in another age I would've been a great opium fiend), and if I'm not substantially better by Monday I'll put a call in to the clinic and see if I can get a scrip for this.

(And thank you so much! ::hugs::)

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

I went and looked it up -- the generic of No-Tuss is Hydron PSC. Hydrocodone is actually the narcotic ingredient (apparently the same thing that's in Vicodin! I had no idea!).

I would probably make a great addict. I actually look forward to getting colds so I have an excuse to break out the Good Stuff. ;)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Opiates are very good cough suppressants in and of themselves. Dextromethorphan, which is the "DM" in most cough medicines is a chemical relative, and gets people high if taken in enough quantity. (I know somebody who had to go to a residential rehab facility to get off Robitussin -- he was drinking 8 bottles a day.)

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Poor you! I send you hugs -- being careful of your liver -- and I wish I could come over and do your dishes. (Seriously. I rather like doing dishes.) Stay hydrated, even if you don't have an appetite -- drinking lots of hot liquids, especially ginger tea if you like it, can help make things less miserable.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, if you *could* come do my dishes, I would kiss your feet and venerate you eternally. (Not that I wouldn't do that anyway, just on account of your overall fabulousness... *g*)

I managed to spill a drip-pan full of semi-congealed hamburger grease and drippings all over myself/the kitchen floor yesterday morning, while desperately trying to make some coffee. I sort of half-assedly wiped it up, but man, at some point this weekend, I'm going to have to *scrub the floor* ... *whining, moaning* God, sometimes I just want a *wife*, y'know? (As do we all, of course...)

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, if you *could* come do my dishes

Well, you know, I've never been to visit you in wintertime.

(Hm. Seems to me there may have been a reason for that. Something to do with . . . Minnesota weather?)

But if I did come to visit you, I could smuggle you codeine!

And oh god, I cringe just thinking about that grease spill. (At least it was cold--for a horrified moment my brain hadn't quite caught up with processing what my eyes had read . . . eek.) Last year I was scrubbing at the kitchen floor with one of those scrubby abrasive sponges ('cause a mop don't do nuthin' for the hardened-on stuff), square inch by square inch, when my stepdaughter came over. "See what you have to look forward to as a grown-up?" quoth I. She winced dramatically.

Ignore it; it's not going to get any worse for a while. Go to bed. Have good dreams.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I second what thisisbone said about the possible bronchitis, and also the narcotics. It's a little known secret that any cough suppressant without them basically doesn't do shit to actually, you know, *suppress* the coughs, so you can sleep and rest and get better.

*lots and lots of hugs*

[reginagiraffe]

I second Shell. Get some codeine, posthaste!

I hope you feel better soon. If I were there I'd change your sheets for you. Greater love hath no man. *g*

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Codeine . . . *happy moaning noises*

And lord, the bedsheets, after a week of feverish hibernation, are just beyond description awful. G.l.h.n.m., indeed. *g*

[caille.livejournal.com]

They're right. Codeine is the most effective cough suppressant of all. Pleasant floatiness is a nice side effect, but it really is therapeutic.

Have you been taking your temperature? If it's been elevated, or if it spikes or something, you've got to go to a clinic or your doctor sooner rather than later. Don't risk pneumonia.

Is there anyone in your vicinity that you've got the goods on? I mean, like potential blackmail? Like maybe somewhere in the back of a file drawer, you have a photocopy of someone's butt, taken during an office party. 'Cause this is the person you need to bully into changing your bed and running a load of laundry. Remember, it's about the power.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

::hugging you back:: I think it's probably a mild bronchitis, something I've had pretty frequently (though not in the last five years or so). The upside is, the cigarette consumption is *way way* down. (I know, I should quit *completely,* and that's coming, I promise.) And I'm going to investigate drug options if this isn't a whole lot better by Monday.

[eliade.livejournal.com]

It's so sweet though, that despite how sick you are, your to-do list includes giving your Christmas tree an erection. You're always thinking of others!

::hides in your pile of dirty kleenex::

I hope you feel better, seriously. If I were there I'd make you soup and give it to you with some kind of six-foot pole device, with a little bucket on the end.

(Dude, I need to step billycrystalling all over the place or I'm going to make it onto your LIST.)

::guilty hugs::

[katallison.livejournal.com]

God, laughing hard just fires up another round of the coughing, y'know? But in this case, it's worth it.

I snug you back, from a safe six-foot distance. (And for *god's* sake, don't hide out in the dirty kleenex, because *eeeuuuggghhhhh.*)

[ineke.livejournal.com]

Oh no! And this has been going on for ages, right?

I'll pass on my one perceived silver lining from having had whooping cough: man, you get some defined abs happenin', baby. All that coughing? Sure, it'll destroy your liver or give you a hernia, but: 6-pack washboard perfection *g*.

I don't know. Is that any consolation?

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Heeeee! You are so right, that's been the one saving grace of this whole thing. After a day or two of The Cough, I had the most amazing sore muscles, but by now -- well, let's just say I could market the videotape, "Abs Of Steel -- The Bronchitis Edition!"

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Oy, I just want to come and make your bed and give you soup. Feck, yes, re: all above comments about drugs. My experience is that by this time of year, if you have a doctor who knows you, they're generally so busy/sure everyone has bronchitis proper that they'll just call in codeine, if not antibiotics too if you have a fever, especially given that it's now the weekend.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

*hugging you back* Wish I could teleport you here, but lord knows you don't need someone else to take care of. I'm going to investigate the drug options if things aren't better by Monday--though I've been avoiding my usual doctor lately, on account of not having followed through with various things she was on my case to do (*quit* smoking, eat vegetables, get blood pressure down, have a variety of disgusting middle-aged screening tests, etc. etc.).

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Lord have mercy woman - get thee to a doctor! Maybe you need meds? I get bronchial induced asthma and your's sounds similar. BAD SHIT! I wish I was there - I would make you come of my wonderful homemade chicken soup with ginger and garlic, change the sheets on your bed, tuck you and then, while you were sleeping, I'd clean the house. When you would wake up to more homemade soup and hot ginger-lemon-brandy tea, you would feel much better.
That's what I would do if I lived closer - but instead because I'm thousands of miles away, I'll send healing thoughts of tea, soup and get-well-soon.

namaste SF Nancy

[debchan.livejournal.com]

I would be more than happy to come over and wash dishes, scrub your floor, pick up a tree, and decorate it. Seriously. I've run out of things to clean at my house, and have already put up not only my tree, but one at work as well. Don't make me sit at home twiddling my thumbs and wishing for something to do.

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Heck, Kat, if you don't want her, can I have her?

[tinyfroglet.livejournal.com]

Sending you lots of *feel better soon* energy.