Why does my immune system suck?

Ok, ok, ok here is an update just for you Anne. Ha ha, it seems that all my posts are a personal dedication to you. Well, it is a Friday morning and I am definitely not at work. I am basically useless and can’t do much of anything and I am getting sick of lying in bed so here I am at the computer. My life as of late has been a lot of poor health drama. A few weeks ago my dad and mom insisted I get my wisdom teeth pulled. I know I am way too old to still have my wisdom teeth. Basically ever time my mom would try to set it up back in the day I would somehow cancel the appointment. So my dad finally roped me in and Steve agreed I go do it because my parents offered to pay and that was one more expense we wouldn’t have to deal with. So during my spring break I headed to Phoenix to finally get it out of the way. I had a lot of feedback from various individuals with a wide range of stories regarding how the wisdom teeth experience would turn out. I got quite the spectrum of encounters starting with 1 day of downtime (that advice came from my sister Lauren) all the way to literally almost dying because air got into the bloodstream during the surgery and this person was down and out for 3 weeks (this story was told to me by a lady in my ward). The actual surgery was fine. They put the laughing gas over my nose and I actually started laughing at the nurse for no reason whatsoever. After surgery I stumbled out to the car with a lot of assistance from my dad and a nurse. Apparently I tried to talk the whole drive home to my parent’s house with huge wads of gaze shoved in my mouth. My dad just kept responding with things like, “yeah, oh really, oh, etc.” to try to appease me but in reality he could not make out one word I said. Day 1 of post-surgery went fairly well, granted I was on pain medication and didn’t move a muscle most of the day. I felt great and was thinking this was going to be a piece of cake. The best part of the whole day was having a surprise visit from Steve. He was in the middle of a busy day with law school stuff. But then again everyday is a busy day with law school. Anyway, I was completely shocked to see him walk in the room with flowers late that afternoon. He stayed for a few hours to entertain me and then headed back to Tucson that evening. He really didn’t have time do drive out to Phoenix, stay for a few hours and then drive back home. But, he did it anyway and that is totally to be expected of Steve because he is just like that, it is awesome. Day 2 and day 3 went pretty well. Then I headed back to Tucson to finish up the rest of my spring break. The second I walked in the door back home I suddenly started to feel awful. To sum it up I was pretty sick and miserable for the next week and a half, way longer than I expected! I was not a happy camper. I had to head back to work and it was torture. The second I would get home I would lie on the couch and not move an inch for the rest of the evening. Lets just say all of my responsibilities in life went out the door for a couple weeks. I was kind of a useless human being. I missed all of the Easter festivities with the Reed clan in Mesa which was a bummer. I guess the up side is I think I know every TV show that exists on cable.

So that was part 1 of my health adventures. Part 2 started a couple days ago. I am not sure if the sickness I caught was an after effect of my wisdom teeth sickness or what but I got hit with what started off as a pretty bad cold. Sure, colds are a pain in the butt but they are manageable I guess. So I struggled through the days totally congested and progressively getting worse. Then Wednesday evening the regular course of how my colds usually go drastically shifted. I started vomiting. Yuck! I hate that sensation. So up came my dinner, which I had only eaten a small amount of because I didn’t feel well. I figured that was the end of it. Nope, my stomach hurt like I could not believe. An hour later again I was hunched over the toilet. At this point there was nothing left in my stomach to regurgitate. Well, for the next 9 hours I would be clenching the toilet seat violently vomiting all through the night. It was really odd, exactly 40 minutes would pass and I would start having sharp, aching pains in my stomach then 20 minutes later I would start vomiting and then for the next 15 minutes I would have excruciating pain in my stomach. I was so dehydrated and weak because there was not an ounce of food or water in me that by the ninth round I passed out. At that point I decided to wake up Steve at 4 a.m. because I knew I needed to get some fluids in me and my body wasn’t capable of doing that on its own. We quickly discovered that urgent care facilities are not open 24 hours so the only option was the ER which of course was the more expensive option. It was that or wait 4 more hours and I decided I probably wouldn’t do so hot 4 more rounds. The next 5 hours were spent in the ER. I was pumped up with all kinds of good stuff. Steve was a trooper and sat in a mini-chair in the room with me totally tired, reading a law school book. The doctor recommended I get a CAT scan. I didn’t really want one. I felt like I knew what was wrong with my body and I would be fine once I was hydrated again and full of the medicine that would stop me from vomiting. Somehow I got talked into it. Anyway, that was the worst decision made. I had to drink 32 ounces of this awful contrast liquid before the scan. It was seriously dreadful and my little bladder could not keep down 32 ounces of that crap. The nurse insisted I had to drink the whole thing. My stomach was bulging and the liquid was creeping up my throat. I would think they would take into consideration that I am a young female who has a smaller body than say a full grown male so I probably wouldn’t be capable of drinking that much. After every gulp I would ask Steve to take the enormous cup and go dump some out in the sink for me. He refused because he is honest like that. I was being extremely dramatic about the whole ordeal. Finally, when I had about 8 ounces left my begging and pleading paid off. After asking one more time and hearing that he refused to do that, I attempted to get out of the bed myself and get the job done. Well, I was still too weak to venture out of bed and I was so frustrated and upset that he finally gave in after watching me struggle. Down the drain went several ounces and I called it quits. So off they wheeled me for the scan. As I expected the scan indicated absolutely nothing and the pains in my stomach were from the violent vomiting. What a surprise! Now, I felt way worse than before I had gotten to the hospital. They sent me home with way too many prescriptions because that is how they do it in the medical world. Overmedicate an individual seems to be the answer for everything in their opinion. I made it home and sent Steve on several ridiculous errands because he has basically turned into my servant which I feel bad about but I really needed some help. I slept the day away yesterday and still felt awful but not throwing up anymore. Now here I am today throwing in the towel for a little longer feeling a lot better than I have the last couple of days. I still haven’t eaten any real food because that sounds like the last thing on earth I would want. So sad because usually I love food more than I can put into words. Jamba Juice has kept me going though. Yes, I made Steve drive across town yesterday to get me a Jamba. As a result, he drove around for 1 ½ hours and missed one of his law classes. He acted like it was no big deal but I know in his head he was probably having a mini-melt down. The end of the semester is quite stressful for Steve so he has been a champ with all of my dramaticness. Seriously, I am not quite sure how I did life without Steve. He is great in every sense of the word.

So there you have it. My body has kind of sucked lately. Oh, that running goal I made a few posts back has totally gone out the window. Oh well, life goes on.