2012 - just keeps getting better and better

**Warning: You are entering a toxic life zone, enter at your own risk. This post involves venting and even some things people would consider TMI! But this is my therapy! And it's long.**

My 2012 so far hasn’t been everything I’d been dreaming it to be. Yes, the year is young and I should just chalk all the negative things that happen up to it being winter and winter is never my “best” season. Last week was my first 40hr week of work in probably close to 6 months – not to say I haven’t worked hard all summer, many of those months were juggling multiple jobs, and jobs that involved manual labor, so working 40hr of that was not anything I ever planned to do. I digress, so the first week of work was a bit of a rocky start, but I problem-solved and ended feeling satisfied with what I’d accomplished in just one week. I planned some fun weekend activities to reward myself – an art show, visiting with friends, snowshoeing, walking in the forest. Well, plans changed.

I started out with a lovely visit with Dennis and Debbi on Friday night. But, on my way home I felt a little chilled and once I was getting ready to sleep, was in a full on chill. This turned into chills most of the night, followed by night sweats, congestion, and many other less desirable flu-like symptoms. I woke Saturday morning with a fever, everything persisted and I was bound to my bed all day and all of Sunday. I excruciatingly called my friends to update them on my condition and the sadness I felt to miss out on all the awesome plans.

The weekend was consumed by these items

And this is what I looked at all weekend

Instead, my most awesome date of the weekend was to visit the walk-in clinic Sunday morning. I was the first patient and they confirmed my suspicions, strep throat.

Day three now and I have antibiotics, feeling better – just tired, running nose, sore throat, ready for those drugs to get pumping. However, the doctor reminded me of one of the huge downsides of getting better with antibiotics, it wipes out the healthy bacteria females have – thus resulting often in yeast infections. Lovely. So my doctor said, “I’m writing you a prescription for penicillin and an anti-fungal pill,” with no explanation. Good thing I already went through this entire ordeal last spring, and yes, got the yeast infection, but the doctor, mind you the same doctor, hadn’t been so forward thinking then and instead I learned for the first time what a yeast infection felt like, and how common they are when taking antibiotics. TMI, I know!

The next ailment that 2012 has gifted me is strange small red spots. I don’t know when they started, but I only noticed them 4 days ago, and just a few. They aren’t itchy, and I thought it to be part of the sickness, but the doctor said, “hmmm…looks like some kind of bite to me…don’t want to call it scabies…but”  --- NOW I LOOKED UP SCABIES, AND IT’S NOT SCABIES, THAT I’M SURE OF, AND WHY OF ALL THINGS HE’D BRING UP AND SUGGEST THAT IS BEYOND ME. I know I was looking a little dirty that day but COME ON! He made no other suggestions and instead I left freaking out and running to WebMD (no, I didn’t remember from health class what scabies was). I’m still hoping the bumps are a heat rash from all the night sweats, or using the new electric blanket and it not having been washed, or an allergic reaction to something. But then mom voiced the word that had been looming in the back of my head, BED BUGS! NOOO, I can’t deal w/ bedbugs right now. I don’t have free time to wash and vacuum everything and go sterilization crazy or research where to get these bed covers. And I can’t get into the real doctor for another week and half! Strep throat doctor didn’t seem to be worried about the bumps, “just keep monitoring them,” was his advice. Thanks, thanks a lot for easing my mind and saying the word scabies.

But in a week and half, I finally, finally, finally go to Molly Parker, a recommended doctor who will be MY doctor and will take a vested interest in me, or at least that’s what I fully anticipate/expect. I’ve been making my list of things to address and man, it’s getting long – the initial visit is for my phantom tailbone injury. Many of you know I’ve been plagued by tailbone discomfort for months; it started around the time I was on my road trip in the fall and has persisted to the point where at night I lay in bed thinking, “what if it’s cancer?! How am I going to pay for cancer?! Maybe the marine science center will let me have a benefit for myself in the marine exhibit?” I guess I’m turning into a hypochondriac.  The latest thought is that I’ll at least have to get surgery. My friend’s sister just got surgery for symptoms that sounded similar to mine. Great. How will I juggle this with work? And, what will recovery be – butt surgery means laying on the stomach, and in my case, the bed bug invested bed face down letting them bite me at night to add to my agony. Well, at least I’ll soon know what the heck all these mysterious bumps and bruises, aches and pains are, and Molly Parker will be laying awake at night thinking of them too and how to help me.

Future objective after dealing with all of the above, U.S. healthcare system is F-ed; the fact that hard working, responsible, give-back to the community, young adults like ME, don’t have healthcare provided for them is DOWNRIGHT BLASPHEMY! I have to pay over $100/month, on my meager income, for catastrophic health insurance that covers little in the way of proactive, regular doctor’s visits. My appreciation for stable, full time jobs with benefits has definitely bumped up many notches, and I plan on returning to that lifestyle in the nearer future. Having my yearly check-ups, while it usually is fairly uneventful, eases my hypochondriac-mind and helps establish relationships with caregivers that I trust and can go to when I feel in crisis, instead of feeling completely ill-prepared and reactive. There are many things that I didn’t like about my life pre-Washington, but one of them I’m learning that was both valuable and preferable was the nature of my health style - stable, reliable and proactive. You live and you learn.