"Braining" with a sinus infection...

Perhaps I should have posted a few days ago - I am sure whatever wound up on the page would have been hilariously incoherent. I must admit, this week has been a crazy haze. With Shane up in Raleigh for the week, I was flying solo with the three kiddos, dog, cat, gerbil....and a nasty sinus infection.

For all you seasoned sinus infection survivors, you know what I mean - foggy head, imploding/exploding skull, ear pressure, face hurts, headaches, and, until the antibiotics work their magic, a general sensation of being hit by a bus. Before 2006, I frequented the pharmacy for meds, one sinus infection after another. After seeing an ENT, an ordered MRI disclosed the answer. After the doctor placed the film onto the glowing display board, he pointed to an area of black - "Do you see this mass here?" If you are a doctor and reading this, PLEASE never open with a question about a mass!! With cranial radiation, brain tumors are higher risk for me, so you can guess where my mind jumped with the word"mass!" It wasn't anything - as he went on, he explained it was a void - he thought it odd because clearly I had sinus passages but... "It is like they stop here and pick up there," he said pointing to what appeared to be a glowing bridge with a chunk fallen off the middle. "Very odd." I asked him if a misaligned radiation beam could do that, being mine was, hence to loss of hearing. "Yep, that would definitely do it!"

That lovely conversation led to extensive sinus surgery, the kind that I had to sign the wavers stating that I understood the risks and that even the slightest stray could result in brain injury or death. Wow! It ended up being more complicated than the doctor imagined, cutting and creating new passageways, widening others. Yes, it was painful; but not as bad as all the irrigating follow-ups. (Yes, irrigating, not irritating, although, that is true, as well!) When the doctor tells you to take two Vicodin before coming, you know it is going to be fun! Numbing gel applied, wait ten minutes, string wirey tubes up the nostrils, through the passageways, clearing any debris, etc. Seriously - put this stuff on your bucket list, folks!

Anyway - since then, I have only had one, maybe two, sinus infections per year - a very, VERY significant improvement from two per month! However, I believe I have become more of a sinus infection wimp. What used to be daily pain is now a couple days per year. In between the months, I forget the upper teeth pain, falling asleep mid sentence, overall bla that makes adulting difficult!

I am thankful that my parents were in town this week, as they helped tremendously with school runs, a dinner, and even taking a kiddo home for an overnight - the bliss of hearing the crickets! We made it, even getting 95% of school done....yet, it wouldn't be a "Shane's away" week without some minor upsets, like choking on a bug or chasing down a massive wasp in the house....or the dog and cat, in tandem, corning an anole and knocking over the table holding all the painting supplies, Anie screaming so loud that I was sure police would be knocking on our door! Positive - no animal got sick, no one broke anything significant (my favorite coffee mug and a small cut on the unnamed child who broke it aside), AND it is over!

No hurricanes our way (so far), but Florence did dump a lot of water in our lake and my parents' pool!
Happy Weekend to you all!

How could I possibly be a fly risk?!...

In my previous blog, I promised to share the story behind the flying risk...

It all began back around 2001, when I was taking a US Foreign Policy and Terrorism class at NC State. On the first day of class, we were warned: "If you have anything to hide from the government, this is not the class for you." Hmmm, that was an interesting way to begin a 400 level (aka, Sr.) class. Luckily, it was further explained. The on-line research that we would be conducting for the class would cause the federal agencies to "red flag" us for suspicion. In addition to that, our emails/on-line use may be monitored. I was fine with that - nothing to hide!

What she failed to mention was that being red flagged also meant that airlines had to take a special precaution, as well. Then again, this was almost nine months before the 9/11 attacks, so perhaps it wasn't a noted issue during that term. On my first flight, later that year, I was pulled aside by the airport's TSA.  Nothing about my appearance or demeanor suggested terrorist, so I was a bit surprised by the harsh nature and overly thorough patting down that I received, as well as the combing of every item in my backpack and the trashing of my contact eye drops! (Yep, they were tossed into the trash bin!) 

I thought it was a fluke, until the flight home....repeated scenario, minus the eye drops, which I opted not to pack. The following year, both in September and in December, the same thing. (Albeit, the gal in the two-gate, North Dakota, airport was exceptionally nice.) Coming home from Sweden, my underwear and other unmentionables were splayed out by the over-eager attendant rummaging through my suitcases. Sigh.

On my first flight with my eldest, who was just shy of a year old, I thought MAYBE the crazy would cease. On my flight out of Raleigh, I was accompanied by a family friend who was allowed past the checkpoint to help me with departure. No problems. On the way back, from Phili, however - a completely different story. As I broke down the stroller, two more personnel than the four already present (and no one in this particular line), began to watch me. I was told that I couldn't leave the baby in the carseat; so, took her out and added it to the conveyer belt. When I began to walk through the scanner holding my baby, a sextet of voices shouted, "No! You can't do that, you have to go through alone!" What? Ok - carseat is scanned, baby back into seat, and I walk through alone. When I want to go back and get her, again, "No! You can't do that!" What?!? So - exactly how is my baby, in her car seat, supposed to get through the scanner? Pixie dust in your pockets? So, there I was - me on one side, baby on the other. A TSA was sent over to see what the problem was. LUCKILY, he was struck with the absurdity of the airport personnel's logic and told them to let me get my baby! They protested, said I could have something in her diaper. He asked me. I told him that other than some urine, and possible a bowel movement with all the fuss, no. He was more than welcome to check and change her, if necessary, though. He declined.

After ten years and three children, I was finally dropped from that "red flag list," at least as far as airports were concerned. Overly familiar with the scanning and pat-downs, pulling aside bags to be examined, and the scrutiny of untrusting eyes, I opted to be amused by it instead of annoyed. I thought of packing a brownie, labeled: "For the dear sir or madam who is checking this bag," but opted not to - offering a sweet might land me in the glassed side room with a drug dog!

My last flight, with my fourteen year old daughter, should have caught their eye - red hair, momma of three, armed with a teenager? Now, THAT is scary!

Being this is about airplane travel - what better picture to attach than a sunset with a boat? (Read: she can't find the picture from the airplane window, so added this instead!)

Delayed travel plans...

If you wondered why I have not blogged in over a week, this is why...

This past Wednesday, I was mostly packed and ready for my Friday morning departure - TPA to Cleveland. My grandmother and her best friend were set to pick me up from the airport and I was eager for the weekend plans: Saturday's fish fry at a cousin's, getting to chat and catch up with family that I haven't seen in at least a decade...Sunday breakfast with my aunt, grandma, and cousin, then time visiting the rest of the McLaughlin crew. Monday and Tuesday were set aside to do something I haven't in a long while - rest... Rest with no children needing anything, no fights to break up, no whining or complaining, a blissful rest, that is.

Wednesday evening, I was feeling a bit "off." I assumed I was tired from my jam-packed week and getting ready for the trip. (Let's face it, moms - we don't just pack for ourselves and go...there are the lists of reminders for the hubby, the pre-prep work of having clothes and meals ready, and a myriad of other contingency planning for "when Mom is away.") However, Thursday told me I was wrong, severely wrong. Around 11am, I put aside my stubbornness and did the unthinkable; I called the Dr. (For everyone who doesn't know me in the health capacity, I tend to wait until I am sick at least 4 days to a week, sometimes two, before making that call...NEVER on day one, unless I have a very high fever and suspect a relapse of pneumonia or the likes, but that has never happened.)

Sinus infection. Although she said that she wouldn't "tell me what to do," the Doctor didn't recommend the flight and pressure changes on my already swollen sinuses and ear drums. I have only flown once with a sinus infection (that, before lift off, I didn't realize I had, assuming just a cold...) and that isn't exactly the kind of pain that I would want to purposely replicate. (Before 2006, when the ENT cut new sinus passageways through my face and forehead, reuniting the once-severed tunnels that allowed proper drainage, I would get an average of 15-20 sinus infections, whether new or not completely cleared before vamping back up, per year. Now, maybe one or two, if that, per year.)

Although I can't complain about the frequency change, the timing of this one was SO horrible! After a phone call to my grandmother and text to my aunt, I crashed for hours. Friday morning, I decided to officially cancel the flight and let people know. It was the right call - Friday was worse than Thursday and Saturday made it seem like a tickle. Something I despise about sinus infections is that they don't immediately change course with antibiotics, like strep throat or ear infections, where symptoms dissipating in days. No, they take their blessed time, requiring at least three to start turning around in the correct direction. At a snail's pace, if it were, with no eagerness to vacate and leave the host alone. At least this one is, indeed, a bacterial one. (Virals don't respond to antibiotics, duh, and take at least a week and a half to change course.)

So, if home and sick, why not blog? That is another subtle difference between a sinus infection and others - cogency. My husband thinks I am hilarious when I have them because apparently I appear drunk and make little sense in conversational flow, then fall asleep mid-sentence! I can only imagine how one of my blogs might read.... "I'm sick, its...No flying to OH, did I tell you when I was on the flying risk list in college, all 5'4" of me and I had surgery for sinuses. Sinuses is a funny word. Why can't my daughter put her shirts on rightsizing out...where is the Tylenol? posi'peo'''''kkkkkkkk" (That last part is me falling asleep on the keyboard, hehe.)

Maybe I will elaborate how a tiny, green-eyed, blonde hair (at the time), pale white me ending up being a flight risk in my next blog! ;)

Luna always knows when I am sick and sticks close (often too close) by my side.