She's Not Dead, As Previously Reported

so, i'm back from being gone what seems like a week, only longer in mental times. i really did want to write this past week, but i had no energy. i think we've all been there, but i'll take you through our journey to hell and back, since it's so interesting and i'm fairly narcissistic.

so sunday night i got really cold. like chilled to the bone. which never happens to me. i think i'm a furnace all by my little old self. for example, at work everyone is cold all the time. but me. who has her little desk fan going all day. it's a cute thing, it really is. anyway, it was freaky that i couldn't stop shivering and my teeth chattering.

i knew, of course, i was in trouble when i woke up monday and everything, even getting out of my pajamas, seemed to be like walking through mud and felt like a herculean effort. i couldn't muster the energy to eat breakfast, was alternately hot and frozen, and by lunch, knew that i would have to go home. the problem was, i was on deadline to get the first draft of a project done for review and one of the folks i needed to talk with, wasn't available until after 2:00 p.m. once that piece was emailed though, i packed it up and headed home.

i was horribly achy and feverish, and thankfully that was it--no stomach distress, no cold, no cough--just the overall icky feeling accompanied by the flu. so i took nyquil and crashed. when i woke up at 4:00 a.m. on tuesday, my fever was at 101, so i left phone messages for my supervisor, emailed my group that i would be out, adjusted my voicemail and outgoing email message, took some nyquil, and went back to bed.

the adorable one, being ever so adorable, showed up at lunch to provide some tlc, which was much appreciated. my fever had broken, i was a little bit hungry, and feeling like i was on the road to recovery. boy, were we wrong. i realized while we were watching tv that evening that i was starting to feel hot again, like i had a fever. yup, it was back. now, what the hell was that about? that's never happened to me.

the adorable one, though, is an expert in not only fevers, but triage (for future reference readers as he doesn't call me grace for nothing). and he explained that fevers can come back and really the only way to get rid of a fever, is to sweat it out. i should have listened to him as he was right in the end, but we'll get there, i promise.

on wednesday, i woke up with a fever, but as i had organized our holiday potluck luncheon, i wanted to be there. so i went to work. and while i didn't feel great, i think it was good for me to be there as kind of a "she's a trooper" kind of thing. maybe i'm mental, but it's hard to be away from work, other than vacation, and not think that people are thinking that you are lying, slacking, etc., because they can't see how sick you feel on the inside, they just can't. everyone always thinks you're just making it up.

but i made it through the day and driving home i realized that the fever had come back, so all i really wanted was to have a relaxing home, bundled up as i was experiencing chills again. which is why i thought it was weird when i walked in the house and it was quite chilly. i checked the thermostat and it seemed fine, but read 64 degrees, which is not what it's supposed to be at when i get home. try 72, which is what it bumps to (from 68) about 4:00 p.m., so i'm comfy when i get home from work.

so, of course, i call the adorable one in a complete and total panic, and beg him to come home and diagnosis our sick (old) furnace. which he does and realizes it's beyond his expertise. so we call a couple of companies--a big one that has a fleet of service guys, and the one that the adorable one likes, which is run by one guy. of course, the part that we needed, a valve, was going to cost $400 and no one had it that evening.

i was boo-hooing and whining and thankfully the adorable one was having none of it. i was ordered to take a long hot shower, to take some ibuprofen, and he would start a fire in the fireplace. he even heaped a super heavy comforter on our bed. which may have done the trick because i woke up the middle of the night, drenched, and i do mean drenched like i had taken a shower. the fever was broken and i went to work, feeling better than i had all week.

the adorable one, being the man of the house, handled the furnace situation, which turned into us replacing our 30-year-old unit, as well as some kind of copper coil thing that has to do with the air-conditioning unit. which is about 15 years old. essentially if it poops out, we'll just swap out the unit, which will be less than if it would have been if we had to replace the expensive coil thing we paid for.

the end result was that i when i came home on thursday, the heat was working and everyone told us it was a good decision, as it will be an excellent selling point when we go to eventually move. like in 2020, which is what it seems like, but that will be another posting. also back was my fever, which lasted for a few hours and then gave up the ghost.

i went to work on friday thinking it was going to be a long, draggy day, but thankfully i was w-r-o-n-g. i ended up having stuff to do so the day clipped along and the adorable one and i came up with a way to best eliminate the furnace expense (for example, no more eating lunch out). and so finally we had a relaxing quiet night at home, where we watched some tv, did a little reading, i took more nyquil and we crashed.

and that my friends was our week in a nutshell. we're alive thanks to the adorable one, who got me through the flu and a dead furnace. let's hope this coming week is a helluva lot less interesting, shall we?