I"m Not Really A Silly Sheepie...

...I just sometimes play one on my blog. Actually, that isn't totally true. I do a rather disturbing number of stupid things on any given day. But they are usually of the "smallish" variety. I'm really a pretty responsible adult. Mostly.

Despite my optimistic attitude with regard to my recent low fevers and cough, I've actually been monitoring the situation pretty closely. It was just a short year ago that I was brought down by illness and I really don't want to go there again.

So when my fever took an upswing last night from what I'd call "low grade" to a rousing 101.5, I took note. This could mean something. Now, bear in mind that I was taking narcotic cough syrup at the time...my reactions were a bit on the slow side. But I figured out pretty quickly that something might have gone seriously amiss.

And when, upon waking this morning, I felt a rather familiar pain in my right side and back, I knew that the time had come to take action. I called Dr. Judy from work and requested an antibiotic. I checked in regularly with the school nurse to make sure that the temperature was staying within a reasonable range. As the hours passed, I began to feel like every square inch of my body was being pounded by tiny hammers. By day's end, the kind nurse took a little listen to the chest and questioned whether there might be some of the googlie mooglies living in there. She and the school secretary promptly banned me from school tomorrow. There is no arguing with a school secretary, for the record. They run the school and if you don't know that then just try to convince one of them that you are able to run your classroom while hunched over your desk and shivering. You will be overruled. Harshly.

Which worked out pretty well, since I have been directed by Dr. Judy to present myself for a chest x-ray at 10:00 tomorrow morning. I'm not arguing. I have a bad feeling about this one...

We may have traveled back to the land of the Monkey Pox. If you are new to my happy little corner of the blogosphere, you may not be aware of last year's "challenging" time with the infection from heck. It was but one year ago that I was laid low by a malady that I dubbed "The Monkey Pox" because it had a more friendly sound than most other illnesses. I know that there is a real Monkey Pox and that it is not a particularly friendly disease. But I was really sick and I decided that this would be a better inscription on my tombstone and no one really had the heart to argue with me at that point. I was sort of pathetic...

Monkey Pox actually turned out to be pneumonia and a rather bad case at that. It took me the better part of the summer to really recover fully and it was October before the nice doctor who was reading my chest x-rays would pronounce me cured. I'm hoping that I've caught things quickly enough this time to avoid another round.

So, The Sheep is currently on the couch, swaddled in an afghan that she crocheted many moons ago and sipping on Mountain Dew. There is a healthy amount of narcotic cough syrup flooding my system as I type and, even though my right ear has some sort of weird blockage in it, I can now hear myself blink. The fever has recently decided to take a turn for higher destinations so I think it is safe to say that I will be adding a little Ibuprofen to the medication cocktail within the hour.

Yeah...not one of my better days. But I have good insurance coverage and the cash on hand to lay in a supply of the comfort foods for the duration. I was also gifted with a nice bag of very lovely chocolates today. They should go nicely with tonight's milkshake and wee, little cake. We are making the most of a bad situation, here. Because I am nothing if not a "Lemons Out Of Lemonade" kind of Sheep.

Happy Birthday To Me!

SA