Another Day...Another Doctor, plus an addendum!

This not sleeping past 4 or 5 am is getting to me. I try, I really try to go back to sleep, and sometimes I am successful...I play SCRABBLE  on my Kindle. Sometimes I fall asleep during the game, then when I wake up later, I have zero (14 points) recollection (72 points for using all my letters) of playing those words. Is this the equivalent of "drunk dialing"? I am also a fashion plate this morning. I have leopard pj bottoms on and a red polka-dot Lucille Ball pj top on. If someone snapped my picture, it would definitely go into the "What NOT to wear" file. So, back to the topic at hand. DH started getting sick a few days ago and by Wednesday was in full tilt head-blowing-off sinus/cold/allergy mode. He had chills, shakes, fever and was so miserable, I thought I would just make him an appointment at the clinic. D4 had just had a major sinus infection, so I was thinking he probably had the same thing. So as soon as the clock struck 730, I call the clinic and was able to get him in at 930 with a nurse practitioner. I had an early morning chiro appt, so the plan was to take son to school, go to chiro, zoom home, pick up DH, drop him off and go work out at the community center across the street for a half an hour or so. I am finding that exercise is my escape route. If I can work out 30-45 minutes several times a week, I feel better. Or at least I feel superior for having done it. After all these years of touting diet and exercise to lose weight! feel great! I had better be listening to my own advice. Plus, exercise at the gym is my own little escape hatch. Put in my Ipod, turn on my Kindle, and hide out. (What's on YOUR Ipod? I have an eclectic mix of Gospel, rousing rock n' roll, rap, country, celtic. On my Kindle besides Scrabble...which is hard to play when you are working out....is a book I am reading about the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping, an historical fiction novel re-imagined with a private detective in the lead role. The details are extraordinarily accurate and the back drop of mobsters and g-men and famous people in the 30's is quite interesting) As I said before I digressed, (Adult Onset Attention Deficit Order anyone?) the plan was to work out and then we would meet up 30 or so minutes later. I told DH this and he immediately starts arguing. Ok, I know he wasn't feeling well, I get that, but he rarely gets testy, so I was cutting him some extra slack. This is how the conversation went:
ME:"Honey, I will park at the clinic and walk to the community center and work out. I will have my phone and so you can call me when you are done and I will come back."
DH:"I will probably be out in 10 minutes anyway and besides, I am not that sick."
ME: "You are that sick and I will come back immediately when you call."
DH: " Why don't you park over there and I will walk across when I am done so at least I can sit and wait...." Translation: If you must leave me to my own devices and abandon me so you can go work out, I will whine. I really AM that sick and you are ignoring that fact.(My eyes are starting to bleed about now)
ME: "Honey, I will leave the second you call, whether it is 10 minutes or 30 minutes, I promise." Translation: I could have been half way through my work out if we weren't fussing over the work out.
So, he is off to the NP, I am off to the CC.
30 minutes later, no word. HA! Secretly, I feel I have won the battle and am thinking "told ya so!" I call my BFF who lives a few blocks from here as I had to pick something up at her house. She agreed to start walking and meet me after I explained what was what. Meanwhile I sent a "ETA?" text to DH. No response. So I went off to meet her and we had a nice little chat about men being sick. You might surmise the conversation went something like this: "Yeah, I'd like to see them in labor! Haha, they wouldn't get more than 2 seconds into it and would start demanding drugs! LOL hahah." Of course NEITHER of us would even think such a thing. let alone say it. So after a short conversation, I started walking back towards the clinic, when I get a text: "Had a chest x-ray, on my way to EKG." WHAT THE HECK???? I called my BFF and told her what was on the text and she said (knowingly) "Is there something he didn't tell you this morning?"  I raced to the clinic, feeling like absolute crap, because maybe he was a lot sicker than I thought. They let me into his room and I breathlessly interrogated him about his status: "Why the xray???? why the EKG???? what do they suspect????
Based on his history of pneumonia, the xray was a precaution. Based on the fact HE WAS HAVING CHEST PAIN AND DIDN'T TELL HIS WIFE, they were getting the EKG. I kinda flipped out when they said this. Bad news/good news: anomaly on the EKG, but exactly the same as in the hospital
post-stroke. At least I guess that is good news. So, no antibiotics, just sudafed and nasal spray and make sure it doesn't get worse. Now, let me take a moment to rant about Sudafed. In the rush to stem the tide of  home-based methamphetamine labs, our state no longer sells Sudafed, even OTC. You must get a prescription and because it is AGAINST THE LAW in our state (one of two states apparently) it is never covered by insurance,even though one can go to the doc, get a scrip, go to the pharmacy, and get it filled. Thank you legislators. You have just scored high on the ding-dong scale. I might add that I could get into my car, drive 20 minutes over the state line and buy the illicit drug. But weighing the cost of gas vs getting the scrip filled here, I opted for the second choice. While at the store, I noticed that they had marked down bouquets that I assume were left over from Mother's Day, so I bought some, for me and a couple of friends, share the wealth. Also bought ingredients for homemade chicken soup. which is funny, it is 70 degrees outside but I thought DH could use a dose of the nectar-of-the-gods-when-you-have-a-cold. Somehow the salt laden Campbell's didn't seem that appetizing. So back home, soup on, tucked in, DH was content to sack out in front of the boob tube to catch up on Netflix sci-fi. Poor sweetie. Yes, full disclosure: I felt badly that I let him go to the doc alone. Obviously, I failed again, but hopefully made up for it in the soup quotient. I was so happy to see this day come to an end.

 

Addendum to my blog this morning. I was just finishing it up when there was a terrible commotion out on the roof. I saw feathers flying and half a dozen screaming crows pummeling the roof. I went out to see and there was an injured starling on the roof overhang, within reach. It was still breathing. I took the extension grabber and gathered him? her? up to assess the injuries and it looked like a severely broken leg and wing. Whether from the attack or it's what made the birds attack, I do not know. Could it survive? Doubtful. I put it into a box and went online. I know I hate to see anything suffer. It seems so inhumane. Many people in the same situation said "euthanasia", but what does that involve? I am not up to snapping a little critter's neck. It was obviously in mortal pain.(can you say mortal in relation to a bird?) One suggestion online was thus:"My advice: if the bird looks like it's suffering, kill it quickly and then replenish your karma by doing something good for somebody else. Leaving it to suffer is probably the least-desirable option, and a bird that's supposed to fly but can't is in an untenable situation, unless you're willing to take care of it - and even then, you've got no way of knowing whether it's suffering despite your best care."

This made my decision a little easier. I couldn't let it suffer, nor leave it on the roof for the crazy crows (Heckle and Jeckle and then some) to fight over. I euthanized it in what I am hoping was a gentle way, no neck snapping involved. RIP little birdie. Sorry you had to suffer. I am reminded that my dad hated to see anything suffer. It absolutely drove him nuts when we would put bugs into a jar w/o letting them go. One day he was out driving and when he got home, he called us outside. In a jar was a dead bat that he had hit with the car and it had stuck on the radiator. He felt so bad! It just made him squeamish for anything to hurt, so I think of that. I know nature and the survival of the fittest blah blah blah, but it still pains me to a) see suffering and b) end that suffering even if it is the best course of action.  The better part of valor? I suppose. I liked the part about replenishing your karma. Even though I'm not a big believer in "karma" per se (poop happens), I did like the suggestion of doing something nice for someone else, to balance the universe maybe? So today, I will do something nice as an added bonus, in honor of the little bird's fighting spirit. I'll go run over a crow. Just kidding. I will keep you posted on what I did to make someone's day a little brighter.