Archives March 2016

So once again yesterday my wellness level seemed to be on a flat line with only a few ticks in a more positive direction.  My symptoms include occasional violent flemish coughing, sinuses that despite not much  nasal drip feel packed and inflamed, almost like when you get water up your nose, and consistent body/muscle pain where areas of my body almost tingle while a persistent feeling of weakness remains.   It’s just a whole lot of suck.  I am crossing my fingers that this breaks by the weekend so I can step back into the realm of psuedo normalcy.

So yesterday was the legal conclusion of an ordeal that began on Christmas Eve when I received a call on my cell phone from a Yellowstone Park Ranger regarding my 5 minute drone flight in the park in September.  I had a 90 second video online of the flight and for some reason the ranger office was very bored deciding to surf YouTube to retroactively cite park visitors for violating the park drone restrictions, something I had no idea about.  Well this has been the lynch pin of much anger, frustration, and confusion since the initial call.  The culmination of it coming yesterday when I had to appear via phone in a Wyoming federal court.  The penalty was a total fine of just over $750 which was actually discounted from what was originally proposed, a result of my statement about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

I have a very long blog entry documenting the ordeal in the works that I have kept out of public view until my court appearance was in the books so there is no reason for me to go into great detail here.  Let’s just say I feel wronged.

So my day at work yesterday was not enjoyable.  Although I felt slightly better later in the day it was still one big slog.  I didn’t want to talk, I just wanted to be left alone.  Instead of a normal lunch hour visit to the gym I instead spent it in parking lot in the Tacoma, napping.  I did get an appointment with our employee clinic but it was not until late in the day.

After taking my vitals I had the very unpleasant flu swab test where they stick swabs far, far up your nostrils.  I winced and tears immediately started flowing from my eyes.  I figured the test would confirm it was the flu and I now just had to wait it out.  Well when the test came back negative I was very surprised.  My symptoms all seem like classic flu symptoms so I asked the NP what else could it be.  She said likely it is still a virus, just not the flu virus.  She had no quick fix advice other than high dosing of vitamin C.  She also wrote a script for amoxicillin that she said I could take if I don’t start seeing substantial improvement by the weekend, just in case it is a bacterial issue.  I’m not the type to casually take antibiotics so it is unlikely I will crack the bottle.

Last night I again had to fight through coughing fits until I finally fell asleep for good.  Luckily the office was ok with me sleeping in a bit and coming in mid-morning.  The extra couple hours in bed felt good.  The bad news is Cindy is starting to feel not so great.  It would suck that after being in the house with my germs for almost a week, now she starts coming down with it.  I am crossing my fingers it is a false alarm.

So this illness does not appear to be following the normal slow upward curve to recovery I am accustomed to.  After feeling like I was in a coma on Saturday I had some improvement through mid-day Monday.  However since then I feel like I have slipped backwards with hacking, body aches, and lethargy that have had me laying back in bed a lot.  I just have no energy.

Last night I was still running a temperature of just under 101 and had another poor night of sleep, accented by coughing fits.  I woke up this morning not feeling significantly better but decided I would drag myself into work anyway.  I made an appointment at our employee health clinic for later in the day although I really think there is very little they can do for me at this point.  I have a feeling I just have to ride it out to it’s miserable conclusion.

Yesterday Cindy had her first session as an assistant track and field coach for one of the local middle schools.  There were a surprising number of hoops that had to be jumped through just to qualify her to take the position.  She said she had a lot of fun working with the kids.  It’s good experience for Cindy and yet another thing to add to her expanding fitness professional resume.

Although yesterday was the best day of the last three health wise it was still far from any semblance of normal.  If I did anything that included me being on my feet for more than a few minutes I felt like I needed a prolonged recovery period.  The coughing and hacking has replaced the chills and sweats as the primary symptoms on display.  My body still had pain in pretty much every area, making it uncomfortable to do much anything at all.  On the plus side I did spend most of the day awake and in the seated position.

Last night Cindy and I watched our latest Netflix rental, Selfless.  The premise of the movie was intriguing, science develops a way to shuffle minds between bodies.  Ben Kingsley plays a very thinly veiled Donald Trump in the film, they even shot scenes inside Donald’s gold plated everything Manhattan apartment.  Ben is old and rich but dying of cancer.  He gets his mind moved over to Ryan Reynolds body and the adventure begins.   The movie was much more of an action flick than I expected.  I also thought it was odd that when Ben’s mind got shoved into Ryan’s body that none of Ben’s personality, speaking patterns or mannerisms seemed to follow.  The movie was entertaining and different enough to squeak out a B+ rating in my book, despite some of it’s oddities.

So last night I was praying I would finally get that solid night of sleep I needed so desperately. Once again the sleep didn’t start until the wee hours of this morning.  Repeatedly I would be right on the edge of drifting off and a coughing fit would ensue which I tried to combat with drinks of water or additional shots of cough syrup.  This was in addition to the Nyquil night time tablets I took.  When the coughing finally subsided I did finally get a solid block of sleep until I crawled out of bed a little after 9am.

As of now I feel pretty similar to as I did yesterday.  I am still waiting for the Nyquil haze to clear.  Regardless tomorrow I plan to be back at work, I can’t take one more day of lethargy.