Be forewarned, most of this post will be yet another medical melodrama in the life of moi.

For the past nearly two years, I’ve had a problem with my nose being nearly-constantly congested.  I wake up with my nasal passages coated in a light film of dried mucous which I have to remove (read: dig out by whatever means necessary – gross!) every morning first thing.  It’s annoying and, after so long of this going on, my nose is the worse for wear.  It’s sore and my sense of smell has been affected as well.  I’ve been to the walk-in clinic who referred me to both an allergist and an ENT.

As an aside, I now know, after reading Oxford’s web site that when you use an acronym whose first letter sounds like a vowel, you use AN instead of A – ie: an hour, an MBA, etc.  Good on me for finally looking that shit up.  Also, I was correct about the use of me versus I…when in doubt, remove the other subject in the sentence and see if it still makes sense – “My mom is going with Bobby and ME” not “My mom is going with Bobby and I” – say those without the “Bobby and” and you’ll see why ME is the right choice.  An English teacher of mine told me that a long time ago and I always remembered it, but someone (Frank?) told me I was incorrect.  Ha!  Vindication!  I always laugh when I hear someone on TV trying to sound all proper and saying “I” when it should be me and I think to myself that they said it wrong anyway! lol

So, back to Franklin Medical Hospital’s E.R…(which would be AN E.R. lol)

Basically, the allergist said it’s not allergies and the ENT didn’t find anything spectacularly wrong with my nose either.  When I went there, he put some drops of some type on some pieces of cotton and then used tweezers to shove them farther up my nose than I could have ever dreamed anything could be shoved up a nose.  Thank God he didn’t tell me he was going to do that before he did it, cuz I would have never been able to hold still for that!  When he plucked the cotton out a few minutes later, it was heaven.  I could breathe!  It was like I had forgotten how it felt to breathe so clearly, smell everything, etc.  God! 

Several of the doctors I’ve seen have suggested nasal spray – Nasonex being the spray of choice – and I’ve tried it off and on for a while without much success.  I went to the walk-in clinic last week again and he said the same thing – take the nasal spray twice a day for a month and see if it helps.  It has helped in some ways – the film is not in there when I wake up anymore, but now I just can’t breathe through my nose much at all for the most part.  The few times in recent memory I can recall being able to breathe for even a short time is coming out of a hot tub or steam room, but it doesn’t generally last long.

Dr. Tan – the doctor I’ve seen most often at the walk-in clinic near my house – mentioned before she thought maybe it was due to acid reflux.  And, if you think about it, it sort of makes sense.  Acid shoots up into your esophagus and since everyone knows that ears, nose and throat are all connected, the nose produces more mucous than normal to combat the reflux acid.   But, I just haven’t really felt like I was having reflux problems, because I guess I associate that with a stomach ache, but perhaps that’s not the case?  *sigh*

It just frustrates the shit out of me that, just at the time in my life where I start taking active steps to take better care of myself by exercising more (and consistently) and being a bit more careful about what I eat (though I have a LONG way to go in that area still), that’s when I have all this shit happening.  It pisses me off!  I feel like my efforts are being thwarted by this crap that keeps popping up.

I just popped two Zantac since I don’t have any Pantoloc, so we’ll see if that helps.  I dunno if it’s in my head, but my chest feels looser already, though the nose is stubbornly plugged, though mostly on the left side now.

I need to lose a few pounds per Dr. Bus’ suggestion to bring my cholesterol down to normal levels and a nutritionist I saw a while back said the extra weight I carry in my stomach is likely responsible for the reflux.  God, I just need to be able to stop eating sweets like a madwoman!  I mean, I don’t eat excessive amounts of sugary stuff when I eat it.  I’m not one of those sit and eat five chocolate bars at one time kind of people at all.  I might eat a candy bar at one point during the day and then have ice cream later.  I’ve been a sugar junkie my whole life, but I want to stop (or at least cut back considerably) so I can drop a few pounds, feel better and also not worry about becoming a diabetic.

I’m supposed to help Laina move tomorrow which doesn’t thrill me AT ALL.  I have to go with Tracey to take Jesse to the vet because she’s still not going to the bathroom like she should be, though she’s not throwing up or having diarrhea anymore, but there’s only so much you can put in without a nearly equal amount needing to make an exit!  Tracey is really scared and was crying earlier because she’s scared Jesse is going to die. God, I hope not. She will be inconsolable if that happens.  The vet is probably going to want to do an ultrasound at this point and probably blood work to find out what’s going on.  If they find something, they may have to operate which will cost Tracey a ton and also could be more than Jesse could handle, but she’s very well taken care of and is generally very healthy and active, so there’s no reason to assume that surgery would be fatal to her.   I told Tracey to just wait and see what the doctor says before she gets too worried, but damn it’s hard when you’re scared of losing something you love so much. 

Tracey did something really sweet and thoughtful earlier.  She was being all secretive and kept asking me how to download music onto her computer.  I told her I was too tired to give her a computer tutorial and she said “Well, I’m working on something and it’d really help me out if you could help me get a song”.  So, I helped her download a song she mentioned and then she sat about to doing whatever she was doing and every time I asked about it, she’d get this sheepish little grin on her face.  Then, a little while later, she pops a DVD into the player and it said “Carly – Good times, bad times, gimme some of that.  – Tracey” and then there was a slideshow of pictures of us on vacation in various places, pictures of Ferris, Jesse and Beauty and stuff like that with the song I helped her download playing over the slideshow.  It was totally cute and sweet.  At the end, it said “To the girl of my dreams, let’s have more good times.  Love Tracey.”  Then it said “TLC Productions”.  She had engraved TLC inside the silver band she made for me in her jewelry class a while back, so I thought it was cute she put that in there at the end.  I was laughing my ass off because it was a) so unexpected, b) so sweet and c) so funny the stuff she wrote on the menus of the DVD and the “credits”.  Too funny.  This is one of those times where I don’t want to get too sucked in by the good stuff because I’m worried about when the bad stuff will rear its ugly head again.  *sigh*

I’m so tired and I gotta get some sleep.  My chest feels better now and my nose is minimally better, so I’m going to try to get to bed.  Not looking forward to tomorrow AT ALL.