Summer Colds Are the Worst

I've spent much of the past week battling a cold.

That's the short story. But blogs aren't meant for the short story, now are they? So, where was I?

I've spent much of the past week battling a cold. A stupid cold that has gone through various stages and symptoms and just continues to keep me guessing about what fun it will throw my way next.

First up, last Sunday, hours after I arrived in Wisconsin, came the immediate and utter exhaustion while I was out at dinner. I suddenly felt so tired that I was thissss close to asking the waitress to box up my yet to arrive order so I could take it to go.

I managed to buck up and eat my dinner, then headed back to the hotel where I went to sleep pretty much immediately.

Well, actually, I attempted to go to sleep pretty much immediately. I ended up tossing and turning for nearly 90 minutes before I stopped checking the time and then must have fallen asleep. Prior to that I had a major case of the chills. Teeth chattering like crazy chills. But I fell asleep. For about an hour. Then I woke up, burning up and realized I had a fever. Great. I went back to sleep, for another hour, woke up and realized fever had broken. Great!

Then I was wide awake for about 2 1/2 hours. Not great.

I finally enjoyed some actual, more than one hour at a time sleep, and woke up Monday morning feeling pretty ok. A touch of a sore throat, but otherwise good to go. That continued until Tuesday evening. When my voice started to go.

But Wednesday morning, it was long gone. And according to my colleagues (who are both RNs by background) I had a fever again. I disagreed, but was told their medically trained opinion trumped mine. Oh, and the cough was starting to kick in.

This was the travel day. Coming Home - yay! Running through an airport, trying to make close connections after dealing with hours upon hours of delays - boo! My ears definitely popped more than usual on the flights, but in general the cold wasn't too terrible to deal with. Maybe because by that point it was leaving my head, and moving down to settle into my chest.

Yup, by Thursday the throat was on fire and the coughing, oh the coughing kicked in. While the voice was a touch improved, it was still bad enough that everyone back at the office who was just experiencing it for the first time had to comment on how bad I sounded.

Yesterday morning I woke up fully intending to go to work, but once I realized I couldn't go more than 30 seconds without a coughing fit it seemed like staying home might be in my best interests. So I did, and I slept. And slept and slept. Seriously. I went back to sleep around 9 and didn't get up until 12:40. Then, went back to sleep from 3ish til 5. And 6 until close to 7.

This morning, well, I'm doing ok. I woke up still coughing, but turning my bathroom into a steam room for a bit seemed to get the worst of it out of my system and I actually do have a voice. I really really hope I'm turning a corner on this stupid bug and the worst is behind me.

My next two weeks are jam packed with lots to do and little time for this nonsense. And besides that, I've already gone through two packs of cough drops and I really, really don't want to go buy a third!