A new annual tradition

Living in Austin has given me a lot of things. A great job, wonderful friends, a nice house... and allergies. Ugh, the allergies. And apparently, as soon as the cold weather goes away (and it happened early this year), and the "cedar fever" starts up, I get bronchitis. Because, you know, it's not enough to just have the cedar allergy. I get the yucky green mucus (tmi? sorry!), the pain in my chest, the coughing, and the Barry White voice. Really pleasant. I could feel it coming on, so I made a pre-emptive appointment with the doc on Wednesday. He looked at his notes and commented that he had prescribed an antibiotic last February for bronchitis. This time, he prescribed a z-pack (more antibiotics) and cough syrup with codeine. wahooo! I haven't had cough syrup with codeine in probably twenty years.

Needless to say, Thursday was not a day for going to work. I slept. I took my antibiotics and some cough syrup, ate some oatmeal, and slept. And slept. Ate some soup. And slept some more. Wow, did that feel good. I decided I had to go in on Friday for a little while -- by then I was so stir crazy, I had to get out of the house! Unfortunately, sitting upright and trying to concentrate for an hour was plenty. I stopped and got a pizza on the way home (random craving, but this way I didn't have to go out again...) and went home and crashed again.

So, after four days of antibiotics and cough syrup, and lots of sleeping and watching random movies, I am pleased to report that the pain in my chest is gone, there's no more green gunk, and I sound a lot more like me, and a lot less like Kathleen Turner. (I suppose it might have been sexy, but the coughing kind of killed the mood.) ;)

Please remind me next year that I need to keep taking my allergy meds when it's still cold outside, so when it warms up, I won't get bronchitis!