[jdurg]

Holy cow do I feel like a train wreck today.  It's weird, because it started all innocently.  On Sunday evening I was sitting down watching the Pats/Colts game when I suddenly sneezed.  Ever since that sneeze, my throat had been bothering me.  I thought nothing of it and went to work yesterday.  (I had to be at work no matter what yesterday as the CEO was giving a speech about the future of the company and there was a possibility that my site may get shutdown.  Thankfully, that didn't happen and various other sites around the world were shutdown, but there's still a whole bunch of reorganization and redistribution of responsibilities that needs to take place.  It was really a creepy day as you didn't know if you would be laid off or not, then when you found out you wouldn't you really didn't know how your job would change and how to deal with those who were laid off).

Anyway, as the day went by I started feeling worse and worse.  I developed a headache, my throat really started to hurt, and my chest hurt when I took a deep breath.  My neck and shoulder muscles ached, but I had no fever so I thought nothing of it.  I woke up this morning, however, and felt like death.  I went into work anyway since I have to be nearly dead to not show up for work, but my boss and everyone I work with said "Go see a doctor NOW!"  I started getting a fever and was feeling woozy so I decided to listen to my boss and went to see a doctor.

At the doctor's office, they did the routine exam and decided to run some bloodwork.  When the bloodwork came back, it showed that I was fighting a massive infection and was losing the battle badly.  Based on the exam, the doctor said that I was in the early stages of bronchitis and managed to develop an inner ear infection and strep throat at the same time.  They were going to run some cultures and get back to me on what the actual organisms are, but for now they were going to give me some potent antibiotics that work on the type of bacteria responsible for the conditions I now have.  (In reality, what the bugs are don't matter as the same drug(s) is/are used on all of them).  They also gave me some cough suppressants and pain releivers/fever reducers and a detailed letter stating that I should, under no circumstances, return to work at any point this week.  I really don't need the letter, but with the number of infections I had the doctor said it would be a good idea to not spread this around.

Right now I feel like complete and utter crap.  I'm a bit nauseous from all the bacteria leeching out of lungs and down my esophagus, and I can't stand up straight thanks to the inner ear infection.  I just can't believe that I got three different illnesses at the same time.  Damn.  The ironic thing is, the medication I was prescribed is all medication made by my company so in a sense, my illness is helping us out.   

[constant thinker]

That bites. My cousin's cat had an inner ear infection, and it wound up falling down the stairs. My advice, avoid stairs and large drops that don't have anything to keep you from falling. 

I posted a news article that I found relating to Pfizer. I was hoping that your site wasn't going to be shutdown, but you said it isn't so lucky you on that part.

[pantone159]

Good luck getting better.  I'm glad to hear you escaped the job cuts - when I read the story in the newspaper I wondered if it was going to affect you (forgot where you worked exactly.)

[Bakegaku]

That bites. My cousin's cat had an inner ear infection, and it wound up falling down the stairs. My advice, avoid stairs and large drops that don't have anything to keep you from falling.  Wink

Was that from lack of balance?  It would suck for a cat, because I hear the ear is also where the organs that allow them to always land on their feet is.

I'm somewhat with you on that note, though, jdurg.  Yesterday I went into school with a runny nose, and some sneezing.  But after a while of sniffling, sneezing, and blowing my nose my head felt like it was going to implode upon itself and I was barely able to breathe.  I skipped my ordinary Wednesday afterschool activity and went home (the kids on the bus said I looked awful). 

I called my mom before even leaving school to tell her she should be home soon, but she decided not to have her phone with her and ended up leaving me outside in the cold for around 20 minutes    I wonder why I don't have my own set of keys...

In any case, I slept all that afternoon, only waking up for about a half-hour period where I found that I'd vomit anything I tried to consume.  When I woke up the next morning I had a minor headache, and only a minor runny nose, but my mom let me skip school.  I could've become sick again, especially since my first class is very stressful.  (There's also the fact that since I was asleep all day I didn't get to do any homework or shower)

In my case it was probably either a really nasty cold or a mild fit of Influenza, so it's not quite as interesting as jdurg's story, but I usually never get this sick 

[Borek]

A friend of mine had some atypical inner ear inflammation few yers ago. He was not aware what is going on (it was not aching) - but he realised something is wrong when he felt from stairs in some cafeteria because he lost his balance. People were sure he is drunk and nobody wanted to help him.

At the peak he was completely balanceless - he was not able to walk and felt nauseous all the time. Laryngologist told him nausea is just a side effect of the balance problem, as his body 'thinks' he is wobbling all the time. I don't recall details but it took several days before he recovered.

Same larygologist told such a thing - although rare - may happen to everyone. 'We will think what to do with you if it'll be back.' So far, so good

[jdurg]

Now that I've been on antibiotics for a few days, I'm feeling much better.  Still some general malaise which will take some time to get rid of, same as the nagging cough I still have.  But I was able to go back to work today and get some things done.  I just can't wait until I'm 100% again.  I was supposed to meet with my personal trainer today and get my baseline cardio and physical activity levels down, but with the bronchitis and other infections I had to postpone that until next week.