Posts for category ‘body’

My doctor emailed to let me know that the CDC is no longer processing flu samples to prove swine flu unless the patient is hospitalized. Currently it is assumed that flu A is swine flu. Awesome! I feel pretty good. Back to routine, though I tire out fast and am still sleeping like a log at night, for ten hours or so. /health update

Meeaaaanwhile, some randomness:

The Sweethearts discussion continues at the Readergirlz blog. The current question has to do with parents making mistakes. Check it out, add your response.

If you are in SLC and flu-free, come out to Shannon Hale’s event on Saturday for The Actor and the Housewife. Don an apron, win a prize!

I’ve been listening repeatedly to The Eels’ new album, Hombre Lobo. Good stuff, Maynard. (By the way, does anyone know what I’m talking about when I say ‘good stuff, Maynard’? Please say yes. I feel old enough as it is.) What have you been listening to?

I am slowly, slowly working my way through Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, a novel in stories, and I don’t want it to end so I’m only allowing myself one story every couple of weeks. In between, I’m reading other stuff. How about you?

Indeed I tested positive for Flu A, the umbrella organization under which N1H1 resides. My sample was rushed off to the Centers for Disease Control, and I won’t know the results for about a week. But, I want to assure a nervous nation that if my experience is typical, though this flu definitely sucks, it’s nothing to fear more than fear itself. It started on the flight home with a runny nose, and soon after I had a fever (around 101) and some aches. Since I’d had a headache 3 out of 4 BEA days anyway, and because I always ache after 2 hours of bowling followed by 5 hours on a plane, it was hard to pick all the symptoms apart.

Anyway, as soon as the fever entered the picture, I made a doctor’s appointment. When you have diabetes*, infections can be harder to shake, so you want to get on treatment ASAP. Started Tamiflu yesterday and already I feel 100 times better. The timeline once again: Sunday night runny nose, Monday morning more cold/flu-like symptoms and fever (treated symptoms with OTC stuff), Tuesday really felt like crap and was diagnosed. Started Tamiflu. Wednesday, fever broke and I have enough energy to unpack, do some laundry, and sit upright for whole hours at a time. I’m still a little congested and have a cough, but all in all recovering quickly.

Judging by Twitter and Facebook, a lot of BEAers came home with something…colds, sinus infections, and symptoms like mine. I would like to know how to be in a giant convention center for three days and not get sick. Is it possible? Do any of you swear by vitamin C and eccinachea dosing? Any Airborne believers? Apparently OCD hand-washing and Purelling is not sufficient for me, because I came home with a horrible cold after TLA, too. My doctor said that the adrenaline and cortisol that come with the kind of “being on” that I have to do on these trips also compromise immunity.

*Most of the people who have died from N1H1 have underlying conditions, including diabetes. But, that is uncontrolled diabetes. When you’re in good control and otherwise healthy, as I am, it shouldn’t be an issue (though like I said, you don’t want to wait around before getting treatment). All the more reason to take good care of yourself.

Since yesterday afternoon my home phone/land line has been broken, which, you know, who cares? But that also meant my DSL was out, so ACK! The plan was that this morning, I would post about my guest blog over at My Favorite Author as part of Body Image Week. Thwarted by technology! But it’s working now, so here we go…

There’s been something fairly major (to me) that’s been going on in my life the last month and I decided I wasn’t ready to blog about it, and I wasn’t sure I ever would. Then, SpeedReader at MFA invited me to contribute to Body Image Week and it seemed like time to talk about it. Not too long after my big post about the Photoshopping debacle, I was diagnosed with diabetes (type 2), and my world and my relationship with my body totally got rocked, and is still rocking. Here’s the post about it.

And, I want to say, I’m doing really well. The diabetes challenges me in the same old places that have always been issues: perfectionism, life balance, discipline, understanding the concept of “enough,” self-acceptance, anger, disappointment. Etc! I’m writing about it, too, just not on my blog. It’s not that I’m trying to hide anything, I just generally think hearing about people’s medical issues is boring unless you happen to have those same issues. 

Okay, that is all! I hope you are all doing the Body Week challenge. It’s not too late to start!