Cough cough sniffle sniffle...must be the end of October.

And time for my annual upper respiratory infection!  Like freakin' clockwork. 

Excuse me while I hack up a lung.  

Today is my first official sick day of the school year.  I'm kind of bummed too, because I put together a fantastic salad for lunch, and a great yogurt berry mix for breakfast.  Guess I'll have to eat them later today.  I wasn't planning on calling in today, but the lack of sleep due to non-stop coughing made me think twice.  The familiar chest pain helped me make my decision, so I managed to get in a sick visit with the physician's assistant this morning. 

Result:  a Zpack of antibiotics, nasal spray and cough syrup with coedine.  She said I didn't look that bad and there was no fever, but given my recent thyca battle and tired immune system, she said the Zpack would help.  Also agreed that I probably would not have been able to fight this off on my own either.  So I'm glad I went. Except, they made me put on a surgical mask when I got to the office, and I had to leave it on until she examined me.  Ugh--talk about feeling claustrophobic! 

On a happy note, my blood pressure was normal! 

I'm also happily sipping hot water with lemon creamed raw honey and apple cider vinegar--so good!!  I think it has helped things from getting worse.  The creamed honey came from the farmer's market at a rest stop on the MA Pike and is out of this world good.  Website is Honeybees-r-us.com and they are from Palmer.  The creamed honey with cinnamon is amazing and easy to spread on toast.

OMG what are my chances of finding a cartoon like this?  Take off the beard and it's me, right down to the color of the jacket.  Hee hee hee.  This comes from a site by Brian Germain, Angry Art Teacher.  Except I wouldn't call them pansies, they would be snowflakes.  And I wouldn't ever directly tell a kid to shut up.  That's where sarcasm comes in.  Or that I can swear in Spanish under my breath and they wouldn't understand me anyway.  

Strange thing is that I get sick like this every year.  Every year.  The kids usually start the trend first and come in coughing all over the place.  Once the first box of kleenex on the windowsill  is emptied and replaced, I know it's a matter of time. The school department policy used to be that the heat would not be turned on officially until October 15, meaning we'd have a couple of chilly days before it went on.  As of last Friday, the heat had been turned on once (I could smell it instead of feel it).  It was on for 15 mintues, and then went off again.  I've been bundled up in my bright magenta fleece every day for the last two weeks in an attempt to keep warm.  We've had a couple of nights with temps in the 30s too, and some cold days.  Public education at its best once again!  Do you really think that freezing us  to near death will improve anything?

Back to bed for now....