....and, to top everything off, I got sick. Sore throat, fever the whole works. Blah. Then that started a huge asthma attack which resulted in me taking enough of all the different kinds of my medications to sink the Bismark. Now I'm wired and jittery and still have a sore throat. But at least I can breathe. So far.

I hate having a fever. It makes me confused - I mean, more than normal. I got lost on my way home from work. I went home early. I don't understand why, when you have a fever, it has to make your whole body hurt. Why can't it just concentrate on my throat? There's nothing wrong with my knees - at least nothing more so than usual - why should they be involved?

At the same time, The Hub pulled his back out on a job. Apparently, he has a bulging disk that acts up sometimes, and this was one of those times.

I know it really hurts because he was willing to go to the doctor, but no one could see him until 7:00 this evening. He expects that he'll just go to the doctor, get some prescription anti-inflammatory and maybe a muscle relaxer, and hop back up and go to work tomorrow or the next day. But one of these times it isn't going to be that simple. Of course, he didn't want to talk about that.

So, as you can imagine, our house was not a fun place to hang out. The poor dog was beside himself, with two people to "doctor". When The Hub lay on the floor for me to rub some ointment on his back I think Winston thought he was dying. Winston tried to nose his way under The Hubs head and was hunkered down as if he were going to try to assist The Hub in getting to his feet. "It's okay, buddy." The Hub, who never lays on the floor, assured him. Then he had to content himself with watching me put the ointment on to make sure I was doing it right.

I attempted to "sweat it out" wrapped up in bunch of blankets on the sofa, and The Hub headed for the bedroom. Winston went back and forth between us all night long, nosing my throat and chest and the middle of The Hub's back. You have to give him credit: I bet if you had timed him you'd have found he spend exactly half of the night with The Hub and half with me. I did break out in a fierce sweat in the middle of the night, and I didn't have a fever today, but my throat still hurts like the dickens and my lungs feel decidedly weird.

Then Dad came to visit for a few minutes and told me that his uncle went into the hospital after he fell out of bed. After a few days, the staff of the hospital said they wanted to do a CAT scan because he had stopped eating ( the poor gentleman has multiple medical problems and can't really communicate or speak for himself) So Dad's cousin went to see him to try to discern what was going on, and was unable to find his father's teeth. It turned out that this unfortunate man's dentures were lodged in his throat and no one in the hospital realized it!! Can you even imagine this?!?! Uncle's teeth were restored, he miraculously started eating again, the hospital didn't get to bill his insurance for a CAT scan.....and The Hub and I felt that our problems were put into perspective by comparison.

No wonder so many elderly people fear going into the hospital.

Well, since I've got the use of my legs and at least as much of my faculties as I usually do, I'm going to go down the street and get some soup for dinner. Chicken noodle - that's got to be as good as an anti-biotic. Well, probably better in my case, since I'm allergic to almost all the antibiotics on the market. Of course, with my luck I'll probably get the avian flu from a smuggled chicken in the soup or something.

What? Me worry?