Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Bottled Goodness

After five days of feeling like absolute crap, I gave up on healing myself and went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. After ruling out strep and bronchitis my doctor decided I just had a really bad cold. A cold so bad that I haven't slept soundly since Thursday night because I'm either coughing or can't breathe very well or up to pee because all I do all day is drink tea.

"I'll give you something that will help with the cough," she said as she wrote the prescription, "and it'll help with the sleep as well."

She also said I needed to get Mucinex and a nasal flush kit. So I left the doctor's office and headed to Walgreens. I had a twenty minute wait for my prescription so I shuffled around looking for more cough drops, Puffs Plus, magazines and honey for my tea. They finally called my name and I hauled my sick, exhausted cookies up to the pharmacy. There was a line because evidently the whole free world had meds to pick up at 2:15pm on a Tuesday. I got to the front of the line and the pharmacist asked my name. I tried to answer but after all the coughing, my voice isn't great so I just squeaked out some sad noise. Clearly irritated by my inability to articulate anything at all, he asked again only this time he raised his voice and spoke very slowly. I wanted to cry. Let's review the scene, shall we? I felt and looked like death warmed over. I was standing there with a basket filled with Ricola, UsWeekly, Mucinex and a nasal flush kit, feeling about as low as a girl can feel. And now I had some condescending jackass talking loud and slow. So yeah, I wanted to cry. But I didn't. Instead I smiled, gave him my name and pointed to my ear.

"These work," I squeaked out.

"This doesn't work," I said as I pointed to my throat.

"Thus, my trip here for that," as I pointed to the prescription.

Sure, my voice broke at the end like Peter's in the puberty episode of The Brady Bunch but I think I got my point across. As I walked away some little old man gave me a wink and said, "Give 'em hell sweetheart."

The good news is that the cough medicine is awesome. It's bottled goodness, is what it is. I took some last night around 10pm and woke up at 8am. And I didn't wake up once during the night. I can't tell you the last time I slept for ten hours but I can tell you that I'm looking forward to doing it again tonight.

My plan is to go to work tomorrow which I'm pretty thrilled about because if I have to spend one more day at home I will lose my marbles. Missing work is no fun when I can't do anything. No taking Brown to the park, no cooking, no long runs, etc. I did put on jeans and a sweater today. Oh and I blow-dried my hair totally which takes forever but it looks so shiny and straight. That's about as much as I've accomplished in the last five days.

Also, I owe a huge thanks/apology to all the people who put up with my calls and emails and IM's over the last few days. So bored at home, I began begging people to entertain me (because I ain't too proud to beg). A few good sports were kind enough to make book and movie recommendations as well as send me funny stuff to watch on YouTube and good sites to read. And one kind and utterly charming individual sent me an iTunes gift certificate to help pass the time. I bought some music and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which, when on cold medicine that leaves you with the ability to feel your hair growing, is fantastic.

You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch.

6 comments:

Marissa said...

oh kendra!!! i hope you feel better asap! i know this feeling..it's the worst. and i am so proud of you for what you said to the pharmacist. i'll never get why people do that -- why they speak loud and slow. i mean, clearly you weren't hard of hearing!!! anyway..good girl!

Anonymous said...

Are you sure that cough medicine wasn't just bourbon? ;) Get well soon.
-Will

Cheryl said...

Ha! He totally deserved that. Good for you!

feel better. And cough syrup is some of the best bottled goodness out there...after vodka and wine, that is.

Miladysa said...

Take it easy :)

Anonymous said...

i'm with will...bourbon, honey, lemon and hot water is good for waht ails you!

hope you feel better. and if you need a few blogs to read, i have a suggestion or 20.

take care and enjoy snuggling with the brown dog.

Anonymous said...

hey doll, hope you're feeling better. I've always wondered why it takes pharmacists so damn long to fill a prescription. Just go over to your little shelf, get a bottle of cough syrup with codeine, and hand it over. NOW.