Worse than I have been in a long time.
Here is what I have learned from this illness:
1. People who bleed easily through the nose should take it especially easy on aspirin (and other similar pain-reliever drugs, or medications that contain them). This picture illustrates how I spent many of my waking hours this last weekend, trying to stop my nose-bleeds from not one, but BOTH nostrils. The first time I administered the double barreled plugs, I was feeling pretty bad but couldn't help cracking a smile when I saw myself in the mirror. Then I thought that my fellow-sibling bleeders would somehow appreciate such a spectacle.
3. Looking back on my "bad" illnesses, I somehow remember them being a little more....not lame. I mean to say, feeling rotten didn't feel so rotten when your older brother (also sick) was laying on the other side of the couch pulling faces and generally being ridiculous. Laughing children are pretty unconvincing when trying a petition to stay home from school. Which brings me to my consolations:
Consolation two: no brain involvement (i.e.: I didn't go crazy and cut off all my hair, or wander around town in a moo-moo, both of which are legitimate fears I have)
In other news, the orange tree in my backyard is in bloom, and the smell is just lovely. My camera is pretty old, but here is a picture I managed to get in focus:
Spring can be a very good time.
8 comments:
I have to admit that I've done the double barrel too, and that I laughed hard when I saw the picture. You made my day. Also, that older brother wouldn't have been the red-haired one would it? It sounds like him.
It was the Martell. all of my siblings have that ability to make me laugh when I don't really feel like it, and for that I am grateful. I don't know if laughter is really the best medicine, but it surely has the least amount of adverse side-effects, and I'll take that any day.
Molly, so sorry to hear that you have been under the weather. Are you better now? Did you have to miss classes?
I am significantly better. I probably shouldn't have gone to class, but I had 2 tests that could not be rescheduled, so I just did them. probably didn't get the best scores as I could have, but that is life.
Molly! So sorry you have have had the icky-sickies!! You should have called me to get some TLC or chicken soup. We've had the vomiting kind of sickies here. I think we are about barfed out now. Hope you feel loads better soon! Life is so much better well you don't feel like garbage.
Aspirin is a very old drug. There are much better pain relievers on the market today. Aspirin is almost exclusively used for its platelet inhibiting effects ("blood thinning", prevent blood clots) in current medicine.
Ibuprofin (Motrin) and other NSAIDS have a much smaller component of platelet inhibition. Also, acetaminophen (tylenol) has negligible (if any) platelet inhibition.
Any of these would be good choices for pain relief without increased bleeding.
Molly: Sorry to hear that you were feeling crumby. Being a student and being sick are extremely incompatible. Also, I remember said couch-laughing incident. We were just getting over the chicken pox.
Tim: You are a huge nerd. Platelets schmatelets. Everyone knows that the answer to all of life's questions can be solved with geology. If the problem is nose bleeds, the answer isn't newer or fancier drugs. The answer is a rock hammer. If you hit everyone in the face with a rock hammer, their noses will be bleeding as well. If everyone's noses are bleeding, your bleeding nose and double-barreled nose plugs are no longer out the ordinary, and now you can go out in public again. Problem solved.
Tim: I was taking acetaminophen in a generic Alkaseltzer, so I am not sure what was causing the more-than-normal bleeding. Any of you medically minded people have any ideas? because I am stumped. I was also thinking caffeine had something to do with it, but I can't find any research to support it.
Mar: I think you've got something there....now where to find a rock-hammer?
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