To fall off the face of the earth (and get vaguely graphic upon return)

This quarter has been the quarter I've been sick. This quarter has been the quarter where I have struggled, where I have been that girl. The one who skips class, who doesn't turn in assignments, who sleeps through classes because getting out of bed is just too much effort. The girl with a million excuses.

I have been sick, though. I started the quarter with an inner ear viral infection. I was dizzy, so dizzy I had to cling to the walls to walk and stick my arms out like planks to stay balanced.

I never really recovered from that. I've been exhausted all quarter. I went back to the student health center last week and was diagnosed with... another virus.

That one was a real charmer. I couldn't stand to have my clothes on, or at least, I couldn't stand having them touch me. I was nauseous and I had a very nice, rich cough. Just in time for homecoming and a dear friend and Jon to come into town.

I rested when I could, and then went out and acted like I wasn't ill the rest of the time. Then my tonsils, which have given me issues for YEARS, swelled up. Those of you who aren't intimately familiar with your tonsils, you are very, very lucky. I know when mine are angry. I know when mine are filled with gross crap. I know when mine are doing all right, simply because they aren't causing me any problems for once.

So my left tonsil swells up. And up. And up. It hurts to talk, and it hurts to swallow, and it just plain hurts. I tried to just recover on Monday, because I didn't have time to go to the doctor's. I'd caved to the concept of going to the doctor when I finally noticed the hole/blister on my left tonsil. My angry red swollen tonsil. With a blistery hole on it.

Yeah, just envision that for a moment.

Sorry.

So, I go back to the doctor. This is my third visit of the quarter, my third trip with prescription drugs, my first go-round on antibiotics this quarter. The CNP informed me that I either have strep, tonsillitis, or an upper respiratory infection. She prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic (closely related to penicillin) and sent me on my merry way.

The antibiotic and the yogurt I ate disagreed. If you ever need to throw up in a public bathroom, attempt to have the presence of mind to cover up the motion sensor, or you'll get to experience what I experienced, which was a toilet flushing in my face while I puked into it. Even in the moment, I found it ridiculously funny. Partially because I never throw up.

Sorry, again.

It's the seventh week of the quarter and I'm just hoping that I finally start feeling healthy. Hoping that everything I've let fall by the side this quarter is something I can pick back up. Hoping that life gets a little bit better, because lately it has sucked (there is much more than just being ill going on in my life, which I'll write about eventually. Maybe. If life ever settles down enough for me to feel comfortable sharing.).

Swimming FAIL

The past several weeks have been chaotic, to say the least. My dad crashed the family car into a hill and left me without MY car for two weeks while Ed (the car) was getting a makeover - replacing the axle, the lights, rims, etc. It was rainy, he is fine, car is better now, life is back to normal, right?

Except it's not.

I'm taking Swimming I this quarter, because I needed an extra hour of classes to get all of my scholarships. Last Wednesday we tried diving out, something I think half the class was unprepared for. I am a terrible diver, absolutely atrocious. My first jump off the one meter board had my face smacking the water at a bad angle - my neck still feels iffy now and again. My second jump, though, is the thing that has messed up my past week. My legs flipped up toward my back, snapping back when they hit the water. I didn't keep my legs in any sort of correct position. I felt something... shift. Snap. Crackle. Pop. SOMETHING went wrong. The lifeguard called out, I think, to see if I was okay as I sloooooowly doggy-paddled to the side of the pool. 

I thought it was just a simple twist. I've had issues in my lower back this past year; it usually strikes on the weekends, when I can't go see anyone. So I took some iBuprofen at the start of my macroecon class and figured I would be fine. I ended up lying on the floor at my job not even two hours later, the meds doing jackshit to help me feel better. 

A few hours and a visit to the student health center later, I had THREE different medications to take and a bandage on each hip from the painkillers the doctor had determined I needed immediately. My lower back muscle was spasming so badly she could see it. She touched it to confirm, asked a few questions, and told me that the drugs she was prescribing would help. If they didn't, I would go back in and get a scan.

I thought I was doing better. It turns out I just hadn't been walking enough for my back to put up all of its 'on strike' placards. I went back yesterday and was told that my back is not doing as well as it should at this point in my 'recovery.' I was given more drugs (!) and given a referral to the physical therapy department. Next Friday, I will be getting an ultrasound of my back to determine what is wrong with my 'lumbar vertebrae' and what the course of action will be to make it so that maybe, just maybe, I will no longer find myself unable to move for an entire day. I am rapidly reaching a level of chronic pain and I'm hopeful that the PT will help me heal and no longer experience this pain on regular basis.

Accidentally scarce

My new year started with a bladder infection, one that I wasn't able to get diagnosed and treated until the Monday after New Years. The Monday after New Years was also the first day of classes of winter quarter.

I think I deserve a medal for not dying from the pain those first few days. I also deserve a medal for not snapping and running through the streets screaming after my eighty-seventh visit to the bathroom in an hour. My doctor prescribed Cipro, probably because, by the time I got to the doctor, I'd had the infection long enough that there was a chance the damn infection had spread. I ended up saying 'Hello, kidneys, please note that I thanked you for nineteen years of hard work by sending an infection your way!' You know, basically. 

Anyway, since then I have been busy working, going to class or studying. I've not had a lot of time to blog. I started the first week having to play catch-up and I'm just now getting to a point where I am not tearing my hair out trying to concentrate on the task at hand, because my brain is busy thinking about all the other things I need to do.

Hopefully there will be more posts over the next few weeks. 

Just like a brand new penny

Yesterday, the dorms here at ye olde university opened at noon, for all incoming freshman. Even though I already have 38 credits under my belt, I am still considered an incoming freshman, which is probably for the best. My parents and I, with the help of some volunteers on campus, moved in my boxes and boxes of stuff. Seriously, I am not kidding, I probably had over a dozen boxes. Granted, they were not large boxes, but still. 

Even more impressive?

In this relatively small room, I managed to get everything to fit. There is still a need for some re-organization, and I need to pick up some shelving and a TV stand, but it is actually a very nice little room. I remember my older sister's various singles always felt incredibly small, as if they had been designed by someone hoping to drive the resident mad. My single, by comparison, feels practically spacious. I have a practically walk-in closet, which I have many, many plans for.

You'd think I'd be feeling homesick at this point. I probably would at this point, except my family is a ten minute drive away. Also, I spent last night at home. Lets just say that my dinner decided that it didn't like that I had eaten it, and I felt way too awful to stay in an unfamiliar place, which still needed a lot of unpacking done for it to feel like home. I still don't feel a hundred percent today, but I feel far better than I did last night, when I was treading the fine line between not sleeping because I couldn't get my brain to shut down and being so exhausted that I could barely keep my eyes open. 

Everything feels possible right now - it's all brand new and simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar.