Rough Seas for the Good Ship Roku
After having disappeared for so long, I thought I’d raise my hand and wave a bit, and let my friends know that I’m still alive.
In the preceding four weeks, I was away from LJ mostly due to work responsibilities. While battling my usual case of bronchitis (characterized by an annoying honking cough), I was trying to fulfill family interactions (Labor Day barbecue, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) along with the work demands, so I was getting very little sleep, maybe 3 hours a night. My stress level ramped up considerably when I had to give an oral presentation at an international scientific meeting last Monday-I’m terrified of public speaking and yet feel compelled to act all calm and cool-and that stress was added to on Tuesday, when I started getting all these panicked email demands to ship out isolates to clients RIGHT NOW! The increased stress probably knocked down my immune system just enough for the bad bogo-magogo to take over. By Wednesday, I was down for the count with sinus infection and coughing, but by Thursday, I had a new, weird complication.
I was horribly short of breath. I couldn’t draw a deep breath, and I felt as if I weren’t getting enough oxygen, the way I feel on a steamy, humid day. I took another day off work (because, you know, couldn’t breathe enough to drive) and had Tasuki drive me to a nearby clinic, where, after a few tests and one breathing treatment with a nebulizer, they sent me on to the local hospital emergency room.
Okay, this is getting way too long and the whining is reaching too high a pitch, so I’ll try to condense. Clinic > Emergency Dept > diagnosis of pneumonia maybe, bronchial spasms certainly > steroids plus antibiotics > very physically wrung-out me. I’m feeling ridiculously wobbly and out of it, which resulted yesterday in a humorous incident in which I tried to make myself useful by doing a load of laundry (darks) and ended up washing a white Kleenex with all of the dark clothes, getting little shreds of tissue on every last piece of clothing and washed my car keys (with remote door opener attached) as well.
Tasuki: (aggravated) Don’t do any more chores, Roku! Just DON’T!
So the poor man is running around doing all of the weekend chores, while I count it as an accomplishment if I can walk out to the mailbox and pick up the Sunday paper. This is all very strange to me, since up until now, I’ve been spared the difficulties of any chronic illness.
My mind is probably the worst affected, since I wake up each morning expecting to be presto, CURED, and then the shit starts all over again. I think my psyche is rather offended at being ill for so long; I picture it all fluffed up in indignation, like a cat that’s been given a bath or something.
Okay, now that you’ve put up with the tl;dr, what does it mean? To my frustration, it means that I’m out of commission longer than I’d like. My writing is staggering along (especially since I just spotted a major error in the plot construction of HP 17), and more to the point, I’m probably going to miss more work (since my family has threatened me with dire consequences should I attempt to drag the carcass into work too soon), and worse, miss even more aikido. Sorry, Liz, I WILL be back, but right now, I can’t summon up the energy even to drive there, let alone do any of the moves. Plus I’m not sure when I’ll stop being contagious-and believe me, you don’t want any of this bad respiratory crap.
So sorry to everyone I’ve neglected or given the silent treatment to; I don’t mean to, but truth be told, I can’t make any promises at this point until I start feeling a bit more like myself again. Thanks for your patience.