ALLERGIC

Yet another bout with terrible allergies -- it all started on Monday, when I spent all day clearing my throat (my allergies don't appear as nasal congestion or sniffling or sneezing -- usually they create a ton of post-nasal drip, which makes me cough).

By Tuesday afternoon, I left work feeling like the walking dead -- constant coughing, and sinus pressure that felt like rattlesnakes chewing the backside of my eyeballs. I fitfully slept from 6pm Tuesday to 7am today, waking up every four hours to douse myself in NyQuil to try and abate the coughing, with no such luck.

I called in sick to work and went to my allergist this morning, who confirmed that it was indeed an allergy attack, and not viral -- there was no chest congestion, no evidence of any viral infection in my throat or chest or ears. Heck, even my nose wasn't stuffed up -- I could breathe through it just fine.

So the good news is, I'm not contageous. The bad news is, it’s some pretty severe sinus congestion (waaaaaaay up there, where my normal prescription spray doesn’t reach). Even though it's not the flu and technically I can breathe, I still feel awful -- body aches from coughing all the time, sinus pressure, and oh yeah, coughing ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

And tonight, I'm missing moroccomole's birthday bingo charity party thing, which is totally bumming me out. I wouldn't get anyone else sick if I did go, but I'd sit in the corner and just cough all night, which would make me (and everyone else) miserable.

The doc gave me some Allegra-D and said with any luck, I should be fine by tomorrow or Friday and can go back to work. But if the congestion and drip don't clear up in the next day or two, it mean’s it’s infected and I’ll have to get some antibiotics.

Isn’t phlegm wonderful?