serinde

Growing headache this afternoon, but still no fever - I am pretty sure it's weather-related, as the day has been growing increasingly oppressive. I am indeed recovered enough to be cranky about lots of things, including and especially work stuff. Trying really hard to not do that, but there were a few items were firing off a quick one-line email would save several people (including Future Me) some grief, so did anyways.

It Turns Out[tm] that although I can (assuming all goes well) come out of isolation on Friday, one is still supposed to mask around others, including household members, for an additional five days. I was not mentally prepared for that and I would like to speak to the manager.

Still no fever. However, I slept poorly due to coughing and...generally just not being able to drop off; and woke up at 6am because I had all the windows open and thus, all the curtains. (Mem: blindfold?) And, woke up with more coughing and a sore throat; which is not sore in quite the usual way I get with colds, but feels more like it might be swollen? I do think there's still a deal of contributing post-nasal drip, anyways, as I can feel my nose running down the back there. So today we move from Mucinex-D to pseudoephedrine + diphenhydramine and see how that does. Might also help with sleeping.

Yesterday, the meds did let me feel enough better to let me do a little hand-sewing, but washing the cat's water fountain was exhausting (as was making tea this morning), so clearly springing into any degree of action is premature. I haven't yet taken tomorrow or Friday as sick days, because I'm feeling guilty about how little time I'll have to do things between Sick and Vacation (if Vacation actually happens), but perhaps I am being a dingus. Will see how I feel at the end of the day.

Still only slight and intermittent metallic mouth from the Paxlovid, usually about 30-60 minutes after I take it. I'm not complaining! but I am curious.

S is still testing negative so far, though I calculate we're only now getting into the time window where he's most likely to develop it, so there's that to worry about.

NO FEVER this morning! \o/ Still feel generally i-have-a-cold-ish and tired, though I slept pretty well last night (okay I woke up at 1:30 and 3:30 but that's not unusual). Also, my voice is funny. Yesterday I sounded like a mafioso, today I'm squawking around like a pubescent boy.

It's also much cooler and more pleasant so I've opened the windows again for airing-out.

ETA: the dread metallic taste is still only occasional and not too intrusive. But, I still have 3 more days of pills to go, so maybe it gets worse.

- Was feeling increasingly not great, so took Mucinex-D. Seems to be helping.
- Though also the room was up to 85 degrees with 71% humidity. I didn't feel uncomfortable in that way? but thought it was probably not great, so closed everything up and turned on the a/c.
- The room door is shaved off 'cause the old owners had carpet in here, and S. has been able to slip things under the door for me, including a grilled cheese sandwich \o/
- Somehow the cat snuck in here and has been lurking in the back of the closet the whole day. Not a peep out of him. Weirdo.

Fever is up to 100.1: "oh, that's why I feel hot". Turned off a/c, opened the windows in the sickroom (with some labor) and turned on ceiling fan to try airing out some of the cooties. Failed to get back to sleep so took 2 acetaminophen. I keep wavering between Very Hungry and Meh; I figure I'll have some cherries and yogurt in a bit and then take the next round of anti-virals.

please let coffee still taste good

Symptom check:
- Nose is running a bit
- sinuses are pressure-ful and hurty but thank heaven I can still breathe through my nose
- still feel rather bronchial but if I don't breathe deeply it doesn't trigger a cough, mostly
- Neck and shoulder a little stiff on the left side but I *think* that's just from being in weird positions, rather than the new meningitis-flavored BA.5 symptoms
- Throat isn't sore, as such, but feels swollen.
- and obviously headache / bleh feeling from fever.

So *far*, emphasis very strongly, it is not as bad as the mono I had my freshman summer in college, or the Really Bad Flu I had before going to Australia. But it is very early days yet.

ope just started a tearing cough, yay

Came home, dialed into the SCA Board of Directors meeting, thought that was why my brain was melting out my ears, *but* I took my temperature again and lo, I was up to 99.4. Took another LFT, and there was a very faint T line.

everybody panic

After conversation with S, I phoned my medical practice and they cast Summon Paxlovid, which he picked up (along with cinnamon red-hots against the Awful Metallic Garbage Taste it apparently gifts you with).

I shifted myself, bag & baggage, up to the spare room (where I paused to regret not getting round setting up the old TV and my XBone in there). It was exhausting to read, even comics :( and trying to play Switch was giving me further headache from the bleepy bloopy noises.

I do not feel like shoving this data down the maw of Facebook or Twitter, so I'll yammer about it here.

Obviously this is back-dated as day 0 is "the first day you have symptoms", and that was Saturday evening, and I'm writing this Monday morning; because it was just a tetchy throat and I thought I'd just gotten missionista's cold. Hollow laughter. It's never a cold.

So I'm getting to That Age; the second roller-coaster of female[1] life, the book-end at the far end of the shelf from the puberty one. I had for some time suspected it was approaching, as my cycle went from a solid 26 days to a more-or-less constant 24 to...all over the map, from 18 to 39 days or anywhere in between. However, this week I was initiated into a new level of hell.

I am going to be super explicit and detailed about my physical experiences here. Because why? Because no one is talking about this stuff. One of the great things about The Rise Of The Internet is that there are vast, accessible, good resources for so many aspects of women's health--beginning menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, maternity, you name it--but I have yet to see any gold-standard place where women can talk about the Downhill Side. My experience this week was (still is!), by turns or all at once, scary, painful, horrifying, disgusting, and frustrating; and there is nowhere to learn more about it--except via the whisper network. We need information, we need solidarity, we need understanding, and we need it all brought out into the open.

( If you thought you were terrified by Women's Mysteries, you ain't seen nothin' yet )

So I'm really feeling the wish to start a website, where my peeps and peeps-of-peeps can post their experiences, for the edification of those who are coming up on their own hormonal roller-coasters. I have this vision of each of us claiming one of the participants of the Dinner Party as our contributor identity (this also makes avatar icons super-easy).



[1] I am not aware of any universal male equivalent; don't talk to me about your shiny red sports-cars, you're doing it to yourselves, deal with it

[2] a Major Incident which the people who should have put on their big-person pants and dealt with were failing to do, and kept dragging me in to play grown-up; something that happens far too often

AKA, clean-out-the-fridge cooking.

( Turk-a-leekie Pie )

( Semi-Thai Duck Lettuce Wraps )

TWENTY DAYS?! SRSLY WHAT