Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts

Monday, November 19, 2007

Eight Times Eight is Sixty-Four

Since Friday, a migraine has been playing pingpong in my head... I spent last night in the ER so I could have a CT scan. All is well on that front. It seems annoying to have spent 7 hours in the ER so they could write me a prescription for aspirin... but...anyway...

Frumhouse tagged me on an 8 things meme... here goes.

8 passions in my life:
  1. Yaakov
  2. Kinneret
  3. My family of origin
  4. Writing
  5. Ice Cream
  6. Music (listening & singing)
  7. Sleep
  8. Flossing
8 things to do before I die:
  1. Be a loving wife
  2. Be a great mom
  3. Be a wonderful grandmother
  4. Be a Great-grandmother
  5. Publish a novel
  6. Take a skydiving course
  7. Improve my self-image
  8. Achieve complete relaxation
8 things I often say:
  1. Yaakov, can you get the baby?
  2. Princess!
  3. Fuzzy Wuzzy Animal, please don't bark!
  4. I love you (Pumpkin, Princess, Poofster)
  5. We need a car.
  6. I'm tired.
  7. Are you a Hungry Hungry Hippo?
  8. Please don't touch my baby, she's sleeping!
Eight Books I read recently
  1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
  2. Fool Me Once - Fern Michaels
  3. The Book of Ruth - Jane Hamilton
  4. The New Method Preparation for Driving Theory Test
  5. Small Island - Andrea Levy
  6. Dropped From Heaven - Sophie Judah
  7. Siddur Rinat Yisrael
  8. Does the Ikea Catalog count as a book?
8 songs that mean something to me:
  1. HaYalda Hachi Yafah Bagan - Hakeves Hashisha Asar
  2. V'Ulai
  3. Naara Ushma Kinneret
  4. Kan Beiti El Mul Golan
  5. Baby Mine - Bette Midler
  6. Mi Bon Siach - Dveykus
  7. Im Yivaled Li Yeled - Yoni Rechter
  8. White Flag - Dido
8 Qualities I look for in a friend:
  1. Smart
  2. (Mostly) mentally stable
  3. Good Sense of Humor
  4. Self-aware
  5. Kind
  6. Good Heart
  7. Good Listener
8 people I am tagging

  1. Princee D'Tiara
  2. Raanana Ramblings
  3. RachInbar
  4. Kirby
  5. DrSavta
  6. Poofy
  7. Safranit
  8. Abbi - Who can post in the comments 'cuz she doesn't have her own blog.

Monday, May 07, 2007

TV Asthma

I've noticed that a lot of people think that asthma is what you see on tv. People think that asthma is basically hyper-ventilating and that if you just breathe slowly and deeply, the attacks will go away.

Well, here's the thing. The people having asthma attacks on TV are ACTORS. They're not having real asthma attacks. If they were, the camera man would come running and help them rather than continuing to film.

Next, there appear to be several different ways that real asthma presents. For me, it's a weird wheeze at the end of my exhales coupled with coughing fits, complete with choking.

As such, no amount of deep breathing is going to solve it, especially since I can't even build lung capacity right now. The baby is taking up too much space in the chest/abdominal cavity.

Oh and another thing... yesterday I asked for a recommendation for an asthma specialist. I received recommendations for a chiropractor and a homeopathic "healer." Additionally, someone called claiming that he could use hypnosis to cure my asthma. By the way, I don't generally discount claims that people make. In the case of homeopathy, however, the research and science is overwhelming. It just isn't real.

Remind me to specify that I want someone with an MD from a reputable medical school!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Lack of Anonymity

A lot of blogs are anonymous or close to it.
Mine isn't. Not only mine isn't, but people including my husband's manager, my mother, my neighbors, and my father-in-law read it.

Which is mostly really cool. It gives me an easy way to keep up with people, share experiences, etc.

On the other hand, when I really want to rag on someone, I can't. When I want to share some juicy gossip, I have to be aware that even if I don't share the person's name, someone will recognize the situation and know exactly who I'm talking about...

All of this is why I haven't shared a lot of the details of my pregnancy. In an anonymous blog, you can tell people all about the messy stuff - the internal exams, the kegels, the works. But here, I really don't want all my friends and neighbors to know that the Dr. did X or that I'm having Y problem... And it's kinda hard when all I want to do is whine!

That said, I'm now going to indulge in a little bit of whining. Those of you who don't know me very well can assume that I'm censoring myself somewhat because of my aforementioned audience. Aforementioned audience: feel free to skip this part...

I have asthma and I feel like it's killing me. I keep coughing and coughing and well, if you've been pregnant, you know that coughing can have yucky side effects. And I don't mean just the incredibly painful tearing sensation in my abdomen.

A few weeks ago, when the wheezing was very bad, my doctor gave me a prescription for a nebulizer and some medication that goes into it. The stuff pretty much works. Not perfect, but it helps a lot. I ran out, and asked him to prescribe more, and he didn't renew the prescription. (I have to ask him to call me tomorrow to tell him that I'm wheezing again). I went to the other dr in the clinic, and he said a regular inhaler is plenty. However, the regular inhaler seems to do zero. As in, I feel absolutely no difference at all.

So now, I'm coughing and coughing, and I'm out of medication that sorta works and all I have is stuff that doesn't work, but I'm still taking it in case maybe it has a cumulative effect or maybe I would actually be worse without it.

But I'm thinking jeez. I have another 9 weeks to go before the due date, and my mom and sister pretty much consistently went over, so I could have as much as 11 weeks to go. How am I supposed to live with coughing, difficulty breathing, wheezing, and that tearing sensation in my side for the next 9-11 weeks?!

And let's just say, for argument's sake, that I somehow live through this (not like I have much choice, unless I choke to death)... How am I supposed to get pregnant ever again, knowing that pretty much as soon as the nausea ends, the asthma begins?? I don't know if I could handle this again?! I'm just crying my eyes out with frustration and pain, and Yaakov asked if I wanted to go to the ER, but ... I can't go to the ER every time I have an asthma attack - I'd have to take up residence there. I just can't stay like this. I don't know what to do!

There, whine over... thanks for listening.

t.c.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Wrapping up the Week

roses from my parentsIt's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone Modiin.

On Sunday, while I was writing my previous post, I guess the subject matter really got to me, because I felt faint and weak, and went to lie down. I put my feet up, but I kept feeling worse, so I called the Women's Clinic. They told me to come in, and the doctor there sent me to the ER at Shaarei Zedek. My mom was in Petach Tikva, picking up some stuff from Shai Bar Ilan's Office for the trip to China. Yaakov and I don't have a car (and I couldn't have driven anyway, the way I felt) so I went through the list of people I know, and after careful consideration of all the possibilities, I hailed a taxi. Yaakov met me at the hospital a little while later.

After about a half hour of poking and prodding, they took blood from me and hooked up an IV and gave me a liter of fluids. They also did an ultrasound so we could see that the baby is nice and healthy, and a baby monitor so we could hear the baby's heartbeat. (The baby was pretty uncooperative, so most of what we heard was my heartbeat.)

Then the sent us to another doctor. Although I hadn't had a fever earlier, at this point I did. He gave me two Acamol (think Tylenol), and told me to go back to the doctor who'd sent me to the hospital (he was at the hospital at this point) and get released.

So... after 6 hours, I was released with 2 acamol and a liter of what basically amounted to water...

That was a fun day.

Monday, I felt great. I mean, perfectly healthy. I had some work to do, so I got it done. I took care of all kinds of stuff I've been meaning to deal with at home. Then I went over to my sister's house. Her son had to give some kind of book report in class the next day, and he had read 8 pages of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Eight! Out of 120. The thing is, he's a slow reader - it's a problem when it's not your native language. I read terribly slowly in Hebrew. So I read him the next 112 pages. It took me two hours, and by the time I finished, I felt like I'd been through a war.

Tuesday, Yaakov and I both woke up feeling miserable. We went to the doctor and he couldn't find anything wrong with me, but Yaakov had an ear infection, so he got ear drops and antibiotics. We came home and slept all day. Wednesday we were too sick to do anything, including take me to the doctor. I went to the doctor on Thursday, and I have bronchitis, so I'm on antibiotics too.
Abigail Rebecca Inbar
Thursday was my birthday. My parents sent me flowers, and my sister gave me a really cool t-shirt that she made herself. She came over with her daughter, Guli (Abigail Rebecca). Guli was supposed to sing "Happy Birthday," but she got a little shy, and I think Poofy scared her a little. He did calm down eventually, and she was able to give him a ball, which he promptly took in his mouth and chewed on. But... back to the t-shirt that my sister made... As you can see, it's a picture of Baby G., complete with umbilical cord! It's a night shirt, because Yaakov thinks that elbows should be heard and not seen or not heard and not seen or something like that... Anyway, it's a nice big comfy shirt and it's seriously cute! She's thinking of offering them for sale on one of those sites where you can make t-shirts and then people buy them and you get a percentage. I think it's a cool idea, although it's odd that the bafetus - travelling in style!by's picture is on my chest when the baby is clearly in the belly (of the beast?). By the way, apparently us Americans are supposed to spell it traveling, but that just looks soooo strange that I prefer the UK way. I'll stick to color and gray, though. And don't even get me started on that silly re/er thing, I mean, come on, it's center. If you spell it centre, it might as well say "sentry..."

Yaakov and I had been planning on going out to dinner, preferably someplace with nice, juicy steaks for me and equally juicy burgers for him... but alas, since between the two of us, we barely managed to do one load of laundry and take the dog out for his walks. we decided that it'd be more prudent to order in. So I had a steak sandwich (which was ok) and he had a burger (which was pretty good) and we both had some wings (which were too spicy), and a whole bunch of people called and wished me a happy birthday, and I rambled incoherently to most of them.
Eliyah Katz is SOOOO cute!
Almost forgot. My neighbor Eliyah (with some help from her mom) made me a really sweet birthday card. On the outside, it says Happy Birthday, and inside there was writing from S., Eliyah's mom, and a picture of the sun that Eliyah drew herself. There was also a lot of writing by Eliyah, but I had a hard time reading it. Often times, I find that it's a little difficult to read a 3-year-old's writing, because it seems that each individual 3-year-old has his or her own writing system. Usually by the time an adult manages to learn to read it, the child has giHappy Birthday Cardven up the writing system and writes using the boring conventions that we all use.

Now it's Friday, and the chicken and rice are cooking. We're both feeling a little better, but still not great. And most importantly, we made it through a kinda rough week... Shabbat Shalom, all.

And hopes for a good week for everyone next week.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Feeling Groovy

Well, maybe not groovy, but we're feeling better.

Both Yaakov and I are still a little wiped out from our battles with various virii, but we seem to be doing better. Half of Yaakov's company is down with similar issues, so no one was particularly upset by his missing a week and a half...The particular bug that got him seems to be very strong. Thank G-d, I didn't get the fevers he got.

Thank you so much to those of you who offered help and support while we were sick. A special thanks to both the Epsteins and the Hess family for offering grocery help. We really appreciated the offer.

I'll write more at some later point. Just didn't want to leave our audience in suspense.
t.c.

Friday, January 12, 2007

In Sickness and in Health...

I'm making chicken soup for Shabbat, because Yaakov and I have been pretty sick this week. My sinuses have been congested and he's been coughing, sneezing, and running a fever.

I'm feeling a bit better, but not enough to feel like a human being. It's been a rough week. On Sunday, Yaakov came back from France. He arrived in Israel around 8pm, and went straight to work. When he finally came home, I was mostly unconscious and quite annoyed that he didn't just get into bed and leave me alone until morning...

He woke up with a fever Monday morning, and I made us some tea. All day long, people from his work kept calling and asking for help, and Yaakov tried to help between cups of tea. Tuesday, I dragged us both to the doctor, and the doctor said he had an ear infection and gave him all sorts of nifty medicine. As a pregnant lady, all I could have were nose drops - the kind that sting when they go up your nose.

Tuesday evening was my nephew Tzvi's Bar Mitzva party. We went, and between the two of us, had enough onion soup to feed the population of a small African country. Then we moved in on the tea. I think there were some other people there, and I remember some stuff with harmonicas and a recorder. There was also some kind of skit which I hope was well videotaped, because everyone was laughing and I was groping around for another tissue. I think Tzvi was practicing his sedra (Torah reading) and his siblings were trying to make it difficult for him.

I think I'll try to digitize it and put in on YouTube.

Anyway, it was a lovely Bar Mitzva! We only wish we'd been fully conscious for it.

Wednesday and Thursday, we spent mainly sleeping, and this morning, I finally forced myself to go grocery shopping. Chicken soup is a-boiling. It's filled with all kinds of good stuff like rutabaga and Jerusalem artichoke and carrots and celery and onion (and some chicken).

I hope that tomorrow, I'll be well enough to go to the party in honor of my neighbor's new baby daughter. Today, I saw the baby (from a good distance away - I tried to avoid breathing on/near her) and she's very very sweet and cute, which isn't surprising because both parents are fairly attractive and her big sister (2.5) could be a model.

In the meantime, I have to go finish cooking for Shabbat and check on Yaakov.

Shabbat Shalom
t.c. Goodman