I am finally writing from our new home in Southwest Florida. It is beautiful here! Tonight after putting the kids to bed Jon and I watched the sunset from our front porch, pink and orange over a huge sky. We talked about how I have been feeling, and how amazing it is that we are actually here.
When we first rolled into town at the end of the longest drive of our journey, Cape Coral was deserted due to the Fourth of July holiday. No stores were open, and everything looked bleak and dreary, as a huge thunderstorm had just blown through (which added time to our trip, right at the end when we had all hit our limit of car-time!). Without saying a word, Jon & I knew what each other was thinking: "What on earth have we gotten ourselves into?". We had only visited this town once, for ONE day, during a three-day whirlwind tour of the area. We had never seen our home in person, but simply put our faith in the realtor I had found online, and trusted. We had some idea of the neighborhood in general, but not the specific street or area right around this home. We literally arrived here on faith.
Knowing what he was thinking, because it was the same as me, I told Jon, "Just don't think about it. Don't think about anything. Just get to the hotel, and we will see what happens tomorrow." I knew our emotions were not to be trusted. We had not slept in our own beds or our own home in 9 days. Even though it was fun to see friends and family, we were worn out from so many days of living out of suitcases and being in the car. That day in particular was the worst of all. We had woken at 5:45 AM in order to leave by 8, and didn't arrive in town until almost 6 PM. The hotel experience was less than ideal, only because it had two queen size beds and there were five of us, but we survived. The next morning we once again woke up before 6 so we could have breakfast and be at the rental office by 8 for the keys. By then, the sun was out and it was gorgeous. The town was alive again, and it was as beautiful as our favorite Caribbean island, Aruba.
Our entire family was filled with nervous excitement as we drove to our new home and finally unlocked the doors. It was better than we could have imagined! Beautiful, new, and clean, with rooms the perfect size for us, and giant closets for all the toys from our previously huge playroom (which we don't have here), this house has everything I could have ever wanted, and more. It is not a mansion by any stretch, nor is it total luxury, but it has a lot of high-quality features that seem to make life easier and more pleasant. There is something wonderful about a master bathroom with a giant soaking tub and a toilet with a door. Hello, relaxation! In choosing to live in Florida, one thing we considered a must was a swimming pool. For years in Pennsylvania we had been members of our community YMCA pool, and though we always had a blast there, for me, taking three children alone was more work than it was worth, and thus we didn't use it as much as we would have liked. Here, it is right out our back door, and we have the bonus feature of total privacy, since there are no neighbors next door and the canal behind us provides a generous buffer between us and the street behind. The view is truly incredible as well. There seems to always be a breeze: again, just like Aruba! When I am out there, I breathe as deeply as possible (which is still a little tricky on that pesky right side), and soak it all in.
Symptom-wise, yesterday was the first day I truly began to feel good again. It was also the final day of my SECOND round of antibiotics. 20 days in total, going back to mid-June. Finally, the signs of infection are all but gone, and I am breathing almost normally again. There is a slight sensation of swelling or congestion on the right side, but air is flowing, which feels fantastic. I am continuing with the strictest regiment of twice daily rinses with one pulmicort (steroid) rinse, two nasal sprays, twice a day (an antihistimine and a steroid), and Zyrtec. I am also continuing to take my supplements and vitamins, to which I recently added Calcium at the suggestion of the doctor friend we had stayed with in North Carolina. Apparently, prednisone gets in the way of calcium absorption, something which would have been helpful to know a long time ago, especially considering my age and gender. At least I know now, and am going to step up my calcium to try to make up for it.
Physically I am finally over the feeling of total exhaustion that has been with me for weeks. Unlike with past infections, when I would feel this way for no apparent reason, this time it was pretty clear that I was tired because of the physical labor involved in moving. Also, when I take prednisone I don't sleep as deeply, so probably this contributed as well. Yesterday I slept in until 8:30 for the first time in forever, and it felt great! Now I feel like I am almost back to my normal self, rested and just about over this infection (but not quite there yet).
Despite the boxes to unpack, things around the house have been mostly calm and quiet. The children are in heaven with the swimming pool out back, and they are highly motivated to get along, clean up, or eat all of their food if a chance to go swimming is the reward. Having a one-floor home seems to contribute to cooperation and happiness as well. While I am in the kitchen or laundry room, they are playing in one of their bedrooms just a few feet away. Somehow, it makes things easier and everyone has been super happy.
Now that we are getting settled, we have entered a small stage of having visitors, beginning with my mom's arrival from South Carolina. We are so happy to have her here! It is fun to finally have someone to share our joy with, as we can hardly contain it! In two weeks, Jon's parents will come as well! God has been so faithful to us so far, and we have no doubt that He will continue to provide for all of our needs, including my health and restoration as each day I feel better and better! We are incredibly thankful for all of the friends and family out there who have been praying for us. Keep it up-- it is working! I hope to continue to be able to post positive updates on this blog.
Tomorrow we are taking our first excursion over to Sanibel Island, which we visited back in April. It is one of the most gorgeous natural settings we've ever visited! Mom has never been there, so it will be fun to explore it some more with her, and to relax and let the kids play in the sun and sand for as long we we care to stay. After all, it will only be a thirty minute ride back home again!
Showing posts with label steroids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label steroids. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
On Our Way
I am writing tonight from the home of good friends of ours in Maryland. The kids are all sound asleep (finally!) and I have a moment to write a brief update.
The movers were swift and efficient on Monday. Although, what took them 7 hours to load would have taken us days, so we were incredibly thankful for their service! After the weeks of intense packing, it was a needed luxury to hire professional movers. They loaded the last items by 7:30 PM, and we hopped in our car behind them to stay at Jon's parents' house for the night, where the children were already, having a blast. As predicted, I took my last Biaxin pill on Monday, but was not 100% better.
Yesterday was a cleaning day, and it was an all-day affair. By afternoon, the house was in good shape but my body was giving me signs that I still had not cleared the infection completely. No more achiness or fatigue (if you can even sense fatigue when you are working as hard as I was for several days straight, I am not sure), but still complete congestion in my right nostril. Zero air flow. Slightly better in the left, but overall stuffy, and certainly not the healthy type of evidence you would expect when blowing your nose. So, I called my ENT's office during the day and was told to leave a message. I received a call at 6 PM from a nurse who said he would call first thing in the morning. I informed her that we were planning to pull away at 9 AM, but there was no call by 9:30, and when I called his office, they could not tell me when he would be able to get back to me, since he was in with patience. I completely understand that, but it was so tough that it came down to the last minute, and it is difficult to get a quick response in this type of situation. Because I did not want to leave the state with no instructions or new prescription, I ended up making a last-minute appointment at my primary care doctor's office (thankfully it was within 30 minutes of my call), leaving everyone waiting at the house with the car all packed.
An hour later, I had a script for a different antibiotic (Augmentin) for 10 days and a week course of Prednisone (the steroid). My family doctor was really great about it and listened to my full story (I see different doctors there, and since I started seeing an ENT almost exclusively more than 3 years ago, none of them really follow my status). Everything that he questioned me about has already been explored, which confirmed to us that, as we believed we had, we have truly exhausted all of the typical avenues for this illness, to no avail. My perfectly healthy post-surgery sinuses must have been exposed to some irritant or trigger. The mystery is finding out just what that is, and this move is just one piece of that puzzle, a rule-out if you will. A big one, granted, but one that makes sense to make after we have already ruled out everything else that we could control for in our current environment.
So here we are, Day 1 of our 8 days-on-the-road moving adventure (or Day 3 of 10 if we count Monday with the emptying of our house, since we haven't slept there since Sunday night). The expected arrival of our belongings on the moving van is exactly one day today, possibly a day sooner. So, tomorrow we head out of here to the home of another wonderful family in North Carolina, where we will stay for a few days so the kids can catch up, we can relax, and to avoid the holiday traffic on key days this weekend. After that there will be one night with my mom in South Carolina, and then the long 8 hour haul across Florida, where we will be spending the Fourth of July this year in a hotel. We hope to see fireworks over the nearby Cape Coral bridge. What a way to begin our life in this new town!
The movers were swift and efficient on Monday. Although, what took them 7 hours to load would have taken us days, so we were incredibly thankful for their service! After the weeks of intense packing, it was a needed luxury to hire professional movers. They loaded the last items by 7:30 PM, and we hopped in our car behind them to stay at Jon's parents' house for the night, where the children were already, having a blast. As predicted, I took my last Biaxin pill on Monday, but was not 100% better.
Yesterday was a cleaning day, and it was an all-day affair. By afternoon, the house was in good shape but my body was giving me signs that I still had not cleared the infection completely. No more achiness or fatigue (if you can even sense fatigue when you are working as hard as I was for several days straight, I am not sure), but still complete congestion in my right nostril. Zero air flow. Slightly better in the left, but overall stuffy, and certainly not the healthy type of evidence you would expect when blowing your nose. So, I called my ENT's office during the day and was told to leave a message. I received a call at 6 PM from a nurse who said he would call first thing in the morning. I informed her that we were planning to pull away at 9 AM, but there was no call by 9:30, and when I called his office, they could not tell me when he would be able to get back to me, since he was in with patience. I completely understand that, but it was so tough that it came down to the last minute, and it is difficult to get a quick response in this type of situation. Because I did not want to leave the state with no instructions or new prescription, I ended up making a last-minute appointment at my primary care doctor's office (thankfully it was within 30 minutes of my call), leaving everyone waiting at the house with the car all packed.
An hour later, I had a script for a different antibiotic (Augmentin) for 10 days and a week course of Prednisone (the steroid). My family doctor was really great about it and listened to my full story (I see different doctors there, and since I started seeing an ENT almost exclusively more than 3 years ago, none of them really follow my status). Everything that he questioned me about has already been explored, which confirmed to us that, as we believed we had, we have truly exhausted all of the typical avenues for this illness, to no avail. My perfectly healthy post-surgery sinuses must have been exposed to some irritant or trigger. The mystery is finding out just what that is, and this move is just one piece of that puzzle, a rule-out if you will. A big one, granted, but one that makes sense to make after we have already ruled out everything else that we could control for in our current environment.
So here we are, Day 1 of our 8 days-on-the-road moving adventure (or Day 3 of 10 if we count Monday with the emptying of our house, since we haven't slept there since Sunday night). The expected arrival of our belongings on the moving van is exactly one day today, possibly a day sooner. So, tomorrow we head out of here to the home of another wonderful family in North Carolina, where we will stay for a few days so the kids can catch up, we can relax, and to avoid the holiday traffic on key days this weekend. After that there will be one night with my mom in South Carolina, and then the long 8 hour haul across Florida, where we will be spending the Fourth of July this year in a hotel. We hope to see fireworks over the nearby Cape Coral bridge. What a way to begin our life in this new town!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Rest of the Story
It's been nine days since my surgery, and I am finally feeling like myself for the first time today. I can breathe fairly clearly, but it takes great effort to actually feel the air flow when I inhale, which means there is still considerable swelling in the nasal passages. This afternoon I have my follow-up with my doctor to see how things have healed. The "seeing" part involves a nasal endoscopy, a procedure I endure about 6-9 times per year which involves having a camera inserted through each nostril and up into the sinuses. The doctor moves it all around in order to see where there is swelling and disease, or possibly polyps. Usually it's not more than a little bit uncomfortable for a few minutes, but today I am supposed to take a Percocet because my sinuses are still healing and that little camera will be bumping all around in there. Since I just remembered yesterday about the Percocet instructions (he told me while I was being prepped for anesthesia last Monday), poor Jon is scrambling to figure out how to fit in taking an entire afternoon off to bring me to downtown Philadelphia. It will work out, but he's worn out from taking care of me for a week and half, and juggling a bigger workload since a coworker abruptly quit last Friday.
Plus, we are still putting together the details of our moving plan, which is all of a sudden much more stressful than it seemed a few weeks ago. We applied for a gorgeous pool home rental, and are waiting to hear back so we can exhale a little bit. With that "minor" detail almost resolved, the question of how exactly to transport our family & belongings is being revisited. It's one of those conundrums where there are many unappealing options to choose from, and we just can't seem to make up our mind. We have a representative from a large moving company coming tomorrow to give an estimate of our things. That information will help us get more accurate quotes from the "you pack, we drive" people, and from there we will decide whether it's worth it to have someone else drive our stuff, or to just use the Ryder we've already reserved and make the long journey ourselves.
I realize I need to get back to my story but I am stuck. I am not sure how to summarize the past two and a half years since my first surgery; I feel like I could write a book. But it would be the most boring book ever! Instead, I put together a timeline and posted it under "My Pages". It is not completely finished, since it was done all from memory and I might add more details. Jon is working on data collection. He has a spreadsheet entitled "Poked and Prodded" that is based on data provided by our health insurance company for each and every "medical encounter" per family member. As he says, "the data doesn't lie," and even though it counts each individual lab from getting blood work taken, each doctor's visit the same as a surgical procedure, it is quite staggering to see those numbers for me compared to him. It's something like 100:9
These numbers simply reflect what I have been dealing with since this all began. When you read about chronic sinusitis treatment, you will find that Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) is supposed to be the end of the story. According to Medline, this is only to be used when a patient fails to respond to all of the other medical interventions: topical and oral steroids, antihistamines, nasal irrigation, extensive antibiotics. According to one study, FESS has an 80% success rate. Another study estimates slightly lower. Either way, I have been in the minority, twice.
My first surgery did almost nothing to relieve my symptoms, and certainly had no long-term benefits. I found a new ENT a few months later, quit yet another job to focus on getting my health back, and quickly agreed to have a revision surgery performed by my new doctor at Pennsylvania Hospital. That second surgery took place in May 2009, almost two years exactly prior to this current one. In the summer of 2009, I thought I had been cured. I even wrote a letter to my doctor thanking him, "for giving me my life back." Only, it didn't last. The fall of 2009 brought another round of infections, despite the diligent care I was taking to maintain my health. After the second surgery, I went on a restrictive "Anti-Inflammatory" diet, followed closely the instructions to irrigate my nose and sinuses twice a day, with topical steroids, took each and every medication I was prescribed, and continued my regular exercise and other stress-reduction strategies.
Doctors did not understand why I continued to get sick. One theory was that it was due to my constant exposure to germs via my young children. Another was reflux, for which I took Prevacid or Priolec for years every day (even though it's supposed to be a two-week course, this was my instruction). Yet another was regarding the cold air, especially once I developed asthma as a result of the chronic upper respiratory inflammation. To this day we don't completely understand why. But suffice it to say that I have been sick from September through May nearly 100% of the time for the past three years. Summers have provided a respite for the past two years, since my second surgery.
By this February we had ruled out: autoimmune disease, compromised immune system, reflux, allergies, and mold in the home. We had no variables left to control for, other than the environment. Months earlier Jon had asked the doctor if he thought a change in environment or climate would help me, and his response was, "I think any change in environment would probably help at this point." One night when I was lying sick on the couch, Jon looked at me suddenly and realized "we just can't do this anymore." The denial that we'd been living in about the unending and debilitating nature of my illness was beginning to lift. I realized I couldn't keep working. I was, as my social work ethics literature states, a "compromised worker" because of how frequently I would endure sessions while feeling completely miserable. And Jon realized that with his 100% remote job no longer requiring him to remain in the Northeast, he could easily move his base of operations to a climate that would possibly be better for me. I realized-- and Jon agreed, since he'd experienced a pretty bad ear and sinus infection this winter and now knew what I felt like 80% of my life-- that I could not go on like this any longer. I was not living my life to the fullest, and my family was suffering as well.
When we saw my doctor, we approached him with the idea. He was advocating more surgery, to "open things up more," and he was not shocked by our plan. In fact, he thought that having surgery, and then relocating, at least temporarily, to a year-round warm climate in an area with less industry and better air quality, was highly likely to be a successful combination for me. If surgery should have worked the first two times, but didn't, it made sense to give it another shot, but with a new environment. To do it again, and stay when history shows I break down every winter, seemed like sabotage. And so we began the earnest prayers that would lead to confirmation over and over again that we were to give it a shot. Research over the years had given us an idea of where might be a good place, but it was affordability combined with closer proximity to family and our life in the Northeast that led us to choose Southwest Florida as our new, long-term vacation home.
And so here we are, 9 days after surgery, totally crazed as we have our house half packed, not completely sure which home we are moving to or how we will get there. But we know it will work out. We have total confidence that the Lord has led us to this point, and He won't fail to provide for us now in the details that remain murky.
My prayer this week has been that of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4:10:
Plus, we are still putting together the details of our moving plan, which is all of a sudden much more stressful than it seemed a few weeks ago. We applied for a gorgeous pool home rental, and are waiting to hear back so we can exhale a little bit. With that "minor" detail almost resolved, the question of how exactly to transport our family & belongings is being revisited. It's one of those conundrums where there are many unappealing options to choose from, and we just can't seem to make up our mind. We have a representative from a large moving company coming tomorrow to give an estimate of our things. That information will help us get more accurate quotes from the "you pack, we drive" people, and from there we will decide whether it's worth it to have someone else drive our stuff, or to just use the Ryder we've already reserved and make the long journey ourselves.
I realize I need to get back to my story but I am stuck. I am not sure how to summarize the past two and a half years since my first surgery; I feel like I could write a book. But it would be the most boring book ever! Instead, I put together a timeline and posted it under "My Pages". It is not completely finished, since it was done all from memory and I might add more details. Jon is working on data collection. He has a spreadsheet entitled "Poked and Prodded" that is based on data provided by our health insurance company for each and every "medical encounter" per family member. As he says, "the data doesn't lie," and even though it counts each individual lab from getting blood work taken, each doctor's visit the same as a surgical procedure, it is quite staggering to see those numbers for me compared to him. It's something like 100:9
These numbers simply reflect what I have been dealing with since this all began. When you read about chronic sinusitis treatment, you will find that Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) is supposed to be the end of the story. According to Medline, this is only to be used when a patient fails to respond to all of the other medical interventions: topical and oral steroids, antihistamines, nasal irrigation, extensive antibiotics. According to one study, FESS has an 80% success rate. Another study estimates slightly lower. Either way, I have been in the minority, twice.
My first surgery did almost nothing to relieve my symptoms, and certainly had no long-term benefits. I found a new ENT a few months later, quit yet another job to focus on getting my health back, and quickly agreed to have a revision surgery performed by my new doctor at Pennsylvania Hospital. That second surgery took place in May 2009, almost two years exactly prior to this current one. In the summer of 2009, I thought I had been cured. I even wrote a letter to my doctor thanking him, "for giving me my life back." Only, it didn't last. The fall of 2009 brought another round of infections, despite the diligent care I was taking to maintain my health. After the second surgery, I went on a restrictive "Anti-Inflammatory" diet, followed closely the instructions to irrigate my nose and sinuses twice a day, with topical steroids, took each and every medication I was prescribed, and continued my regular exercise and other stress-reduction strategies.
Doctors did not understand why I continued to get sick. One theory was that it was due to my constant exposure to germs via my young children. Another was reflux, for which I took Prevacid or Priolec for years every day (even though it's supposed to be a two-week course, this was my instruction). Yet another was regarding the cold air, especially once I developed asthma as a result of the chronic upper respiratory inflammation. To this day we don't completely understand why. But suffice it to say that I have been sick from September through May nearly 100% of the time for the past three years. Summers have provided a respite for the past two years, since my second surgery.
By this February we had ruled out: autoimmune disease, compromised immune system, reflux, allergies, and mold in the home. We had no variables left to control for, other than the environment. Months earlier Jon had asked the doctor if he thought a change in environment or climate would help me, and his response was, "I think any change in environment would probably help at this point." One night when I was lying sick on the couch, Jon looked at me suddenly and realized "we just can't do this anymore." The denial that we'd been living in about the unending and debilitating nature of my illness was beginning to lift. I realized I couldn't keep working. I was, as my social work ethics literature states, a "compromised worker" because of how frequently I would endure sessions while feeling completely miserable. And Jon realized that with his 100% remote job no longer requiring him to remain in the Northeast, he could easily move his base of operations to a climate that would possibly be better for me. I realized-- and Jon agreed, since he'd experienced a pretty bad ear and sinus infection this winter and now knew what I felt like 80% of my life-- that I could not go on like this any longer. I was not living my life to the fullest, and my family was suffering as well.
When we saw my doctor, we approached him with the idea. He was advocating more surgery, to "open things up more," and he was not shocked by our plan. In fact, he thought that having surgery, and then relocating, at least temporarily, to a year-round warm climate in an area with less industry and better air quality, was highly likely to be a successful combination for me. If surgery should have worked the first two times, but didn't, it made sense to give it another shot, but with a new environment. To do it again, and stay when history shows I break down every winter, seemed like sabotage. And so we began the earnest prayers that would lead to confirmation over and over again that we were to give it a shot. Research over the years had given us an idea of where might be a good place, but it was affordability combined with closer proximity to family and our life in the Northeast that led us to choose Southwest Florida as our new, long-term vacation home.
And so here we are, 9 days after surgery, totally crazed as we have our house half packed, not completely sure which home we are moving to or how we will get there. But we know it will work out. We have total confidence that the Lord has led us to this point, and He won't fail to provide for us now in the details that remain murky.
My prayer this week has been that of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4:10:
"Jabez cried out to the God of Israel,
'Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!
Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.'
And God granted his request."
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sharing My Story: Part I
Many people who know me know something about my struggles with sinus issues. It would be hard, at this point, to not know this about me, if in fact, you've known me at all over the past three and a half years. I have quit three jobs over it, so all of those former coworkers of mine are well aware, as well as the members of groups I've stepped out of leading or attending, and of course, all of my friends hear about it, all of the time. There hasn't been much else going on with me, other than, "How are you feeling?" And the answer has been depressingly the same: "Not great." But of course, always "hanging in there." What else can you say when you've had an illness that most people experience for a week or two out of their life, once or twice a year? Or, if you were like me, had only experienced it once before, in your entire lifetime, prior to the age of 30?
My first and only sinus infection prior to the development of this current saga took place on July 4th, 1997. It was an eventful day. I was brand new to Boston, waiting on the Esplanade with my boyfriend and future husband for the famous Pops Goes the Fourth Concert. I also happened to be waiting to meet several girls from Boston College who were seeking a roommate. Figuring it best to get away from the crowds, we agreed to meet at the Copley Mall, and laughed when we finally converged in the Limited, realizing we'd walked a painful, hot couple of miles through crowds only to learn we'd all been sitting in the same spot at the concert. With millions in attendance, it was actually quite a coincidence that we were all in sight of a middle-aged woman who apparently thought it was OK to sunbathe in an old bra and jean shorts, right in the middle of the largest crowd Boston sees each year. Anyway, it was a big day, to say the least. Sometime after the return walk from the mall, munching warm PB&J's on our blanket, I realized I wasn't feeling well. Fever is hard to detect when it's 90 degrees outside, but my ears and head hurt, and I had that achy feeling that's a sure sign something is going wrong in the body. The next day I was at the Urgent Care Clinic for antibiotics, and was told it was a particularly bad sinus infection. I took the medicine, went on my way, and never thought about it again. Except for that fact that it was all a part of one strange day where I met my future roommates and great friends and saw a lady wearing her underwear in public.
But now I am sidetracked. My point is: most people experience a sinus infection like I did in college. It comes on strong, you feel horrible, you go to the doctor or clinic, get antibiotics, get better. End of story. In my case, I went on with my life and remained in every way a healthy young woman. Fit through regular running, careful of my diet, and reluctant to take even an Advil unless I truly needed it, I couldn't have told you the difference between Sudafed and Benadryl. I was never sick. I had two perfectly healthy pregnancies in my mid-twenties. In 2003, seventeen hours of natural labor led to the birth of my daughter Emma Isabel, and nearly two years later in 2005, her brother Luke. While they were babies, I nursed them and took care of myself, slept as much as any new mother could, and kept myself active in my running and a little part-time career. My health was not something I ever considered to be at risk. That is why it is so very strange to be starting a blog about someone who has now undergone three surgeries and taken thousands of pills to restore health to a part of my body I had barely realized existed.
My first and only sinus infection prior to the development of this current saga took place on July 4th, 1997. It was an eventful day. I was brand new to Boston, waiting on the Esplanade with my boyfriend and future husband for the famous Pops Goes the Fourth Concert. I also happened to be waiting to meet several girls from Boston College who were seeking a roommate. Figuring it best to get away from the crowds, we agreed to meet at the Copley Mall, and laughed when we finally converged in the Limited, realizing we'd walked a painful, hot couple of miles through crowds only to learn we'd all been sitting in the same spot at the concert. With millions in attendance, it was actually quite a coincidence that we were all in sight of a middle-aged woman who apparently thought it was OK to sunbathe in an old bra and jean shorts, right in the middle of the largest crowd Boston sees each year. Anyway, it was a big day, to say the least. Sometime after the return walk from the mall, munching warm PB&J's on our blanket, I realized I wasn't feeling well. Fever is hard to detect when it's 90 degrees outside, but my ears and head hurt, and I had that achy feeling that's a sure sign something is going wrong in the body. The next day I was at the Urgent Care Clinic for antibiotics, and was told it was a particularly bad sinus infection. I took the medicine, went on my way, and never thought about it again. Except for that fact that it was all a part of one strange day where I met my future roommates and great friends and saw a lady wearing her underwear in public.
But now I am sidetracked. My point is: most people experience a sinus infection like I did in college. It comes on strong, you feel horrible, you go to the doctor or clinic, get antibiotics, get better. End of story. In my case, I went on with my life and remained in every way a healthy young woman. Fit through regular running, careful of my diet, and reluctant to take even an Advil unless I truly needed it, I couldn't have told you the difference between Sudafed and Benadryl. I was never sick. I had two perfectly healthy pregnancies in my mid-twenties. In 2003, seventeen hours of natural labor led to the birth of my daughter Emma Isabel, and nearly two years later in 2005, her brother Luke. While they were babies, I nursed them and took care of myself, slept as much as any new mother could, and kept myself active in my running and a little part-time career. My health was not something I ever considered to be at risk. That is why it is so very strange to be starting a blog about someone who has now undergone three surgeries and taken thousands of pills to restore health to a part of my body I had barely realized existed.
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