Sickness....yuck!

As yet another weekend is coming to an end, I am graciously chosing to spend the final 18 minutes writing to you! I have done very little homework at all in the last two and a half days, and I'm going to be so kind as to explain to you why that is so.

The highlight of my weekend was getting to spend last night with Lindsay and Raz (Emily), two of my best friends who graduated last year and are busy figuring out how to survive in the real world as teachers. They came up to Yankton to visit and watch the volleyball games on Saturday and we had some much needed catching up and memory sharing time.

The majority of my weekend however was spent at work. Before I explain further, let me throw in here that before the weekend, I had been supressing a bizarre chest congestion sickness symptom. I didn't understand because I felt fine otherwise and sinus pressure always starts in my head. Keeping that in mind, Saturday morning I woke up with a mildly sore throat but a busy, busy morning at the pharmacy put that in the back of my mind. With three of us working though, we handled the rush in style and sent people off with medications and well-wishes. I had restocked shelves and vials and cleaned and put in the OTC order by 4:00 and the final hour on the job was somewhat relaxing, but still - an unusually busy Saturday. Usually I have time to sit down and study by 1:00.

And then today rolls aroound. I knew it was going to be a long day before I had even crossed the street to open the clinic door. There was a mob of people lined up outside waiting to enter. At noon when the doors opened, no less than 40 people swamped the place. I had no time to even walk to the back of the pharmacy and grab my lab coat all day. We (two people - might I point out the newest employee and the slowest pharmacist who's past retirement age but still very competant, bless his soul) filled the same amount of prescriptions in five hours as an average eight hour day with five people working. I didn't leave work until 40 minutes past closing time. The poor little waiting area was forever packed with screaming babies, wild children, frustrated parents, and miserable people. There is a shortage of Tamiflu in the market so the liquid version is not available and had to be made up from the powder of broken capsules (a very time consuming thing I might add). I feel like I witnessed every sickness imaginable and breathed in toxic chemicals. If I wasn't sick before, I'm bound to come down with something now! Anyway, when I finally made it back up to my room and sat down to try and do some homework, the congestion that has now manifested itself in my head - the congestion I didn't have time to process all day finally hit me full force - and I ended up sitting in misery while my eyes watered from sneezes that wouldn't come and I tried and failed to breathe through my nose. I dug out my winter med kit and found some Tylenol mult-symptom cold wonder medication, which I took with a one of those baking tablespoon measurement devices (college innovation) and headed off to a refreshing W.O.W. meeting (women's spirituality group at MMC).

Now I must take another round of medication and catch some sleep. I'm hoping all of you are staying healthy!!!