I need some "oink"ment!

I have swine flu.

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling a little bit achy but it was just bad enough that it felt like I must have just slept in an awkward position, and after a few hours of being awake, the pain went away. During the day, I kept coughing -- just a dry cough. I still did not feel sick or that I was getting sick at all! That night I went to bed and woke up around 5:00 a.m. and was hurting EVERYWHERE! My muscles hurt, my joints hurt, even my toes and fingers hurt! Chris got me some Tylenol and I tried to go back to sleep.

I woke up Sunday morning and made the official decision that we would not be going to church because I was still in so much pain. During the day the pain kept on -- even being on Tylenol every 4 hours, the pain was excrutiating! Poor Christopher massaged me I bet a million and one times! The coughing kept up, but I still was coughing up anything -- it was just dry still and tasted metallic.. yuck! I tried my best not to cough! Around lunch, I got to FREEZING! I had on a t-shirt & pj pants, but had to add socks, 2 blankets and a sweatshirt, and poor Christopher had our air on 77 - I was sweating him out of the house, however, I was still so cold! I kept an eye on my temperature and about 2:30 p.m. it peaked at 102 degrees before it finally broke! Good grief! I was sweating then! After that everything pretty much felt better... The muscle and joint pain was better -- not gone -- just better, coughing had seemed to cease, etc.

So I spent the night on the day bed in my school room.

I woke up at 2:00 a.m. feeling so nauseous! I immediately called Chris to bring me a trashcan and barely made it! From then on, I threw up every hour on the hour. I would wake up, throw up 4 or 5 times, and go back to sleep until the exact same time - just an hour later - and do it all over again!

So this morning I had Christopher drive me to the doctor...where we found out they no longer take my insurance so we ended up having to pay it out of pocket. The doctor brought me back, checked me over, swabbed my nose, and came back with the results that I did in fact have the flu -- and that since it is not "flu season" they are 100% guaranteeing that it is swine flu. Lucky me!

So now, I'm on three different kinds of "oink"ment to try to get rid of this swine flu!

Wish me luck!

It just may be true...

It just may be true that a cat has 9 lives!

On Friday, July 24, 2009, Chris & I headed to Newnan for the weekend, and to hear my Preacher Pa preach his last sermon at Newnan FUMC. (Which, by the way, was amazing! I cried tears the whole way through!) We left Milledgeville around 6:30 Friday evening. Saturday morning, Christopher's mom came to feed Delilah around 11:30, didn't see her, but that wasn't a big deal - Delilah's always off wandering! However, when we came home around 7:00 Sunday evening, Delilah's food had not been touched! The food was still in it's perfect little pyramid form from when you pour it into the bowl. I thought this was strange, but Delilah is known for figuring out that since Chris & I are gone to vacation, she deserves a vacation too - and usually disappears until we come home. Monday night: still no sign of her. Tuesday night: she was still a no-show. By Wednesday night, I had counted her out and given up on her. I just cried like a baby! Chris and I had been all around the perimeter of our woods calling and looking for her. We were devastated! Delilah is our baby -- and I could not wrap my mind around the idea that something had killed her, because she is too tough!

It rained on Thursday. And on this day, Chris came home from work -- and like always, he honked his horn, and I went out on the porch to welcome him home from his hard day. Something caught my eye! I looked over, and there was Delilah sitting in her favorite chair on our porch! I really did not believe it, because all week long my ears had been playing tricks on me and I kept thinking I was hearing her meow or scratch at the door. This time, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, too! Chris & I went over there immediately to love on her. She was very lethargic and really muddy. We quickly started searching for wounds, scratches, etc. and found dried blood on her side. We knew she was not acting herself, and since finding dried blood, we wasted no time getting her to the vet! It was 5:50 p.m. and they closed at 6:00! So, we scooped her up and took her to the vet just down the road.

They saw her right away! She had a 104 degree temperature (101 is normal for a cat) and was pretty dehydrated. They decided that since she was so long haired and matted from the dried blood, they needed to see what they were dealing with, wound wise --- so they shaved her beautiful, long fur! About 5 minutes later, they called us back in there. They had shaved her, if you can imagine on yourself -- from your under arm to your hip, and from your belly-button to your spine. I was in shock! They then showed us the MASSIVE bruise she had that covered about 80% of the area they had shaved. On that bruise were 5 bite marks -- that appeared to have come from a tom-cat. They kept her overnight, gave her morphine, and injected antibiotics. The next morning, they took x-rays to check for bleeding around her heart, and found none -- thank goodness! However, they did discover fractured ribs and nerve damage to her back right leg. Poor thing!

She probably thinks she has died and gone to heaven as she is now a full-time indoor kitty, has canned food for every meal and has a memory foam therapeutic catbed to sleep in.

Ah, to be a cat... :)