h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, as many of you may have noticed in a journal entry that I wrote when I was mad at the world, I had some kind of Black Death thing following me around all weekend, and most of the past week. It hit me on Friday first with sinus congestion and a nose that ran like a faucet, progressed into a nice headache, and finally graded into a sort of wet cough.

That wouldn't have been so bad if I had been able to curl up in bed for the next two days. Instead, I spent the weekend drugged out in the back of a van bouncing around Massachusetts when I was supposed to be drinking with my fellow new grad students/partners in crime. And it was only worse on Monday, as all things tend to be.

Anyway, I was sick of feeling sick, so I called the nurse at Penn State Health services. Now, Akron had health services too, but they compare to Penn State sort of like a tealight to a spotlight. Penn State actually has more than two doctors, stays open more than four hours a day, and always has a nurse on call for advice. She said there had been some strep throat going around, and you can be sure that's the last think I need with ANOTHER trip coming up, this time to the VA barrier islands which will be considerably damper. I made an appointment, and got my sniffly self down there to get looked at by a doctor.

They were really good about getting me in quickly- I didn't have to wait for five minutes before the nurse called me in and took my vitals, and only a few minutes more to see the doctor- actually, a nurse practicioner, but in these cases they're just as good and sometimes better.

Apparently, it's just an allergy. An extremely severe allergy, mind you, but nothing that I need an antibiotic for. Plus, I didn't have to email everyone on the trip and say that I gave them all strep throat.

At least we figured out what happens to me every fall- I get an allergic reaction to something, put off going to the doctor because I can't afford it, get my sinuses severely out of whack, end up with a sinus infection because some little bacteria likes the nice, damp, low oxygen environment of congested sinuses, and go to the doctor anyway for an antibiotic. This time around, I caught it early, because they offer the grad assistants a kick-arse health insurance program with prescription drug coverage. And thank goodness for that drug coverage! Do you know what the two medicines (both generic) I got would have come to if I hadn't had insurance? $116! I don't know how people can afford to stay healthy!

Anyway, breathing freely for the first time in a week, this is Scandrea, signing off!

*sniff*



*peeks under desk*

Oh. So that's what happened to that piece of pizza.

Glad you're feeling better and that your new uni, or whatever it is, is treating you well

Hi again,
Getting about a bit this morning, sympathy about the Black Death, I know how you feel as I am just doing a bit of knitting.
No not that sort, it is a bone in my leg that I broke seven weeks ago and it is doing OK, walking again, driving again, no problem, but not on the motor bike just yet, and I did not break it on the bike, just slipped on a bit of wet grass.(old age showing.)
However I really want to mention, sinus problems, bin there, dun that, got the T Shirt.
Surgeons over here, advise putting boiling water containing Friars Balsam, or menthol crystals, weak proportins in a bowl, then put a towel over your head and breathe deeply of the fumes.

Also a weak saline solution and sniff it generously up your nose and through the sinuses.

i'm glad your doing allright

I'm allergic to loads of things, so throughout the year I never get a rest from my antihistamine...

Though the autumn thing so I am told is an allergy to the spores from mushrooms and stuff, you know the perfect weather for them to breed. Y Grandma is allergic to them that is the only reason I know

Good job it wasn't anything serious Scan.

take care

Traveller in Time noticing the birch pollen
" That sounds a load of money to keep healthy "

Yeah- it's going to cost more soon, too- Rita's going to drive oil prices farther up, it's going to get more expensive to ship things, and the drug companies whose ethics are on a par with sludgeworms anyway are going to triple prices to keep making a profit. There will be people this winter who have to choose between their drugs and heating oil, and potentially food and clothes.

Glad you're feeling better, Scan. Trudging around the badlands of North America instead of being curled up drinking a hot chocolate sounds to many like an insane idea, but the more I learn about the landscapes in the US, the more I would love to take a year off and visit them!

Well, I wouldn't really call Massachusetts "the badlands" per se, but it did kind of suck in the rain with a cold!

Good name, eh? Mass - Achoo - setts...

Badum-tsh!

Wooo-sta...