Could It Be Swine Flu??

So I've been sick for about two weeks. Tammy was sick for about a week before I got sick, so I just figured I had whatever it was she had. Cordelia, the trooper, hadn't had any symptoms of any kind.

People at work were disgusted with me hacking and coughing and blowing my nose all day long. I got everything from "Go to the hospital!" to "Go home!" to a couple of ladies walking around with a can of Lysol spraying all the cubicals. So I took a couple of days off last week, expecting the rest and relaxation to put all to right.

Didn't help.

On Saturday Tammy had a family reunion that I was just too sick to go to. It had gone beyond just the coughs and sneezes, and had progressed to body aches, fever (slight), head-aches, nausea, and fits of sneezing that lasted 15-20 gut-wrenching blows (I generally sneeze 2, maybe 3 times if my allergies are really bad).

Sunday I felt considerably better, the nausea and body aches were gone, as was the fever. Monday, I was in the crapper again. All my symptoms were back. So I skipped another day of work, and went to the instacare.

Off Topic

Instacare... That name is an ironic joke, I'm pretty sure: 'insta-' suggests you get in instantly when in reality you sign in, wait 10 minutes for them to call you up to pay for your care, then wait another 30-90 minutes for them to call you back, take your blood-pressure, temperature, and ask questions like "What's wrong?", then they take you back to a room where you have the choice of sitting on the bed or a chair for another 20-30 minutes. The doctor then comes in, asks a bunch of questions while typing on the computer. Listens to your chest and back while you breathe, then he's done. If anything else needs to happen, it is handled by a nurse. He only takes up about 5 minutes of your time at the "instacare."

I signed in at 10:54, I got home at 1:10.

This is how I break it down:

10:54 - Sign In

11:05 - Pay

12:00 - Get taken back

12:25 - Doctor comes in

12:30 - Doctor leaves

12:33 - Nurse comes in to take a flu test (a whole other story)

12:35 - Nurse leaves

12:55 - Doctor comes back with the test results

1:00 - I leave

Back On Topic

Flu tests - if you've never had one, you should allow yourself the experience at least once in your life - and probably just the once. If you have, you know what I mean.

The doctor sounded pretty sure I had Swine Flu, or at least some form of flu. But the test came back negative. So the answer to the initial question: Yes, it could have been Swine Flu. But it wasn't.

So now he's got me on 3 different prescriptions to help control my symptoms. A cough suppressant, a pain-reliever, and a nasal spray. Of course, the pharmacy was all out of the nasal spray until today - except they called a few minutes ago to let me know they won't have it till tomorrow, so I am going to shop around and find it sooner.

In addition to that, he wants me to keep taking Mucinex and drinking lots of fluids. And he gave me today off work. We'll see if my boss thinks that was a "continued employment" decision the doctor had a right to make. Since the cough suppressant makes me all kinds of woozy, I think it's best that I get used to it before I operate a motor-vehicle again. Or at least give it a chance to do it's work before I skip a dose in order to drive to work.

Tammy started hacking yesterday, and this morning Cordelia has a slight cough. We'll probably try to get her in to her pediatrician sometime today, just to hopefully nip it in the bud.

Desert Gardening

On Saturday we went to a water conservation fair... thing.  Basically, we went in order to see lots of various possibilities for Xero-scaping our yard in order to keep our water-usage to a minimum.

It was interesting, but that isn't what this blog is about.  It's about Cordelia having fun.

I really don't think I realize just how much bigger I am than her until I see us together in a photo or a video.  I'm really quite frightening.  She had been watching other kids climbing the wall and she wanted in on the fun.  I wasn't sure she was big enough, but then I noticed a great big banner that said "Free for all ages."  So we went for it.

Waiting her turn was not something she did patiently, at first.  I wish I had gotten some video of her as we waited for the hosts to retrieve the special tiny harness she needed... she kept looking at me in frustration, I could almost hear her thinking "C'mon dad, I don't need that!"

Once she had it on, it took some convincing that she had to wait her turn (fortunately there were only a couple of kids ahead of her, and there were 3 cables).  She, oh-so-patiently, folded her arms and set her hips and her scowl to wait.  It was cute.

2 in 1 - What a Fantastic Concept!

This is me.

I’d show you a picture of my shoulders, but nobody wants to see the flakes.  That’s right: I have dandruff.  Big deal.  The problem isn’t that I get  a little flakey at times, I mean really it’s not an uncommon condition.  The problem is that the only shampoo that actually works for me is Denorex.  Smells funky, but it really does the trick.

And the only Denorex I can ever find in any of the grocery stores that I frequent on anywhere near a regular basis carry only these:

 

2 in 1.   Shampoo Plus Conditioner.  Does it look like I need conditioner?   Do the inventory clerks in charge of stocking shelves think that bald people don’t get dandruff, too?  If only that were the case!  I am not ashamed of my baldness, but even if I were, I  would welcome it gladly if it meant I would never have to worry about wearing dark shirts ever again!

Honestly, I could buy the 2 in 1 and use it, and it would work for me.  The problem is, I would be paying for 50% shampoo and 50% conditioner.  Half of my money would be wasted on a product I just don’t need and cannot benefit from in any way.  I’d like 100% of my purchase go towards a good cause (the same reason I don’t plan to donate to the United Way, despite my company’s campaign to get 100% participation this year… but that’s another rant and would belong on my political blog rather than this one).

Please, anybody who lives anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley (or even within reasonable distance outside of SLC), if you see Denorex, just plain old non-conditioner Denorex, let me know! (Please note, the color of the label indicates "Regular versus Extra Strength", not "Shampoo vs. 2 in 1")

How ridiculous would it be to have to order a non-prescription shampoo over the internet?  That's about where I am.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today commemorates the 7th anniversary of me coming to terms with the fact that I was going to lose my hair. Thus, in a preemptive strike, I shaved my head. I had only planned on seeing what I was going to look like when the baldness came, but even after letting my hair grow for 7-8 months afterwards, it was never quite the same. That is the only time I've let my hair grow for more than 2-3 months (usually 6 weeks) since that first cut.

So this morning, I celebrated this tradition and shaved it all back off.

Tammy's making candied yams for dinner today while I'm making pumpkin pies. I'll have pictures (and if you're good I may even share my recipe) later.

I just wanted to make sure I got the Happy Thanksgiving out there before the day got away from me.

Seriously, So Blessed

Ok, so I decided I didn't have enough blogs to read, and I have friends who have blogs that I didn't know about, so I started looking around.  Checking blogs that my friends read, and trying to find other people I know or, at the very least, interesting blogs to read.

From Steph's blog I found Christi's blog.  And from Christi's blog I found Seriously, so Blessed.

I don't know who she is (from what I have seen, NOBODY knows), and I'm ok with that. She's a local blogger who has taken it upon herself to satire the "mormon blogger mom."  And she's hilarious. 

Check her out at http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com

Tammy and I have been sitting here reading and laughing (often hysterically) when we should have been getting ready for church.  Tammy finally dragged herself into the shower commenting on how I needed to get the princess into a dress.

So I wrote this blog instead.  The shower just turned off, so I guess I had better get moving if I want to be less than 20 minutes late.

Family Update

Ok, so here's the latest on the Casper Family:

Tammy is working from home, doing some data entry. She has also been interviewed (and possibly hired, pending the results of a drug test) for a second from-home job doing customer service. The data entry work is paid pre-tax (so I get to figure that out, yay!), and doesn't have any insurance benefits. The CS job does have benes, but they don't start for 90 days.

This leaves me in a bind... Zion's offers some of the most ridiculous health care options I've ever heard of (only slightly cheaper than Cobra). For $200-300/month in premiums, we can have somewhere between 25% and 75% coverage on any medical expenses that exceed $5,000-$10,000 in the calendar year. This means we have to pay, minimum, $200 every month to the insurance company in order to guarantee partial coverage of expenses incurred in excess of, again minimum, $5,000. They offer no co-pays. It's all out of pocket until we reach the $5,000 mark. Then they cover a range between 1/4 and 3/4 of our expenses.

My question is this: In what way is this insurance? Other than being able to document "coverage" so that when we get real coverage we can prove that we don't have "pre-existing" conditions, this is hardly insurance at all. It's a scam. I even called Cigna and Aetna to double-check with them that I was reading the benefits chart correctly. The Customer Service people I spoke with were as shocked as I was. They verified I was reading it correctly, but they said they had never heard of such awful plans, and had no idea that their companies were involved in something so terrible.

If I go with Zion's I'm locked into it until next November unless I quit, which is at least a possibility, as I've applied with UTA to become a bus driver (better pay, better insurance, and I'd get to drive around all day). If I don't go with Zions then I really need to hurry up and find another provider till Tammy's benefits kick in at the new job.

On a lighter note:
We went out to dinner tonight at Chili's with my Wife's local family for her brother-in-law's birthday. Cordelia got a little plastic cup of water, pretty tightly sealed, and she brought it home with her. She accidentally dropped it on the livingroom floor as I was closing the door behind us. No big deal, I thought, the cup didn't come open, and only a couple of drops of water escaped (which I didn't even notice, frankly), so I picked up the cup and put it somewhere safe.

As Tammy went to the bathroom to floss some chicken out of her teeth and I was distracted by something else for a minute, Cordy went into the kitchen, retrieved the mop, and brought it to her little spilled droplets. She efficiently missed every one of them, as she pushed the towering mop-handle around without an ounce of dexterity, but with a barge-load of heart and enthusiasm...

I just love that kid.

On a completely unrelated note:
I just posted my first book review to my Once Upon a Time... blog ( http://bookoobooks.blogspot.com ). I don't plan on updating this blog every time I update that blog, but since it's new, I thought it couldn't hurt if I did once or twice.

My New Blog

Ok, this is just a quick heads-up for anybody who is interested. I just started a new blog for books I'm reading. I'll read 'em, I'll post about 'em, I'll probably go on and on about some of them.

The blog address is http://bookoobooks.blogspot.com

Everybody is welcome to comment, criticize, recommend, etc.

That is all.