Out of The PIT

So my last living grand parent is now in palliative care. She had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and things just went downhill from there. We (including EYS) said our good byes already so it is a waiting game for us. Some of the rest of the family are having a bit harder time, but when someone is not eating, or drinking, or connected to a tube, it is only a matter of time..

So I got sick this past weekend. In fact, I am still sick. Mild flu like symptoms: hacking cough, runny nose, chills, exhaustion, and some muscle aches. It was not so bad as to force me to stay in bed except for New Year's Eve when I just wanted to sleep the whole day through, but the rest of the weekend was manageable. Now, considering that I had a reunion I organized on Friday night, a gym day I organized on Saturday, New Year's Eve celebrations on Sunday, I probably should have stayed at home for all of these instead of going out to share my cloud of germs with others. EYS is also sick, I can tell from her lack of appetite and huge gobs of snot she keeps rubbing out of her nostrils. (When I say huge, these are adult sized gobs coming out of a nose less than half the size of mine, so when she complains about her nose, she is not kidding.) I was hoping to avoid getting sick again this time of the year and thought we were doing good up to Christmas, but I guess "'t...

So during our annual Christmas dinner with the clan, my dad fainted and fell on the floor. He was out for less than a minute and came too, but we figured that calling the ambulance was a good idea, considering that his face went ashen and he started to pass out again after we sat him down. Lifting his legs helped and he came to. The paramedics arrived and found that he was pretty normal, but he went to the hospital with MJNL anyway just to make sure that there was nothing more serious going on, considering that he had a fainting spell a couple of months back as well. After spending all night at the hospital, he came back with nothing indicating any issue, which is a relief. Everyone at the party was pretty frazzled, but it all ended well enough!

So I've been sick and have had a terrible cough since Thanksgiving but things cleared up last week and I felt so much better. I also noticed a side effect: exercise does not trigger a coughing fit anymore. In fact, neither does cold, dry air. Now, asthma occurs when your airways get inflamed and constrict your air passages. I've been getting asthma like attacks for years now and they had been gradually getting worse over time, coming to a head this past month. But the fact that I suddenly feel a lot better (coughing wise) then I have in years after my month long coughing fit makes me wonder if my asthma attacks were caused by a chronic infection triggered by certain environmental events that got worse as the infection continued to spread. The last cold/flu/HFM/whatever virus that hit me two months ago probably triggered my immune system to ramp up anti infection procedures and I started to cough out everything, and I mean everything out of my lungs. Even deeply rooted biofi...

We had our company Christmas party this afternoon and during the raffle, I ended up winning one of the small prices as well as the grand prize! Both were gift certificates for food, which I will take advantage of in the coming months..

So MJNL and I went out tonight to watch Brain Candy Live!  I had a good time. It was an entertaining show even though I didn't really learn any new science. However, a lot of these experiments (and jokes) that they performed would have definitely wowed a younger and naiver me. If it had not been for the discount from the daycare that we used I would not have known that they were coming to town and I would not have gone. A pretty serendipitous event indeed. Too bad I was too late to get VIP tickets. It would've been good to meet both of them in person.

After the Ride for Heart, I left my bike locked up in my parking spot in the garage. Later in the summer, MJNL needed to use the bike lock to lock up the stroller when she went with EYS to Wonderland, so I took it off my bike for her to use. For months my bike was left in that state without being disturbed, but last Monday, when I went down to my car I noticed that the bike was missing.. The bike was there around 0100 the day before, so the time-frame for its disappearance was pretty small. I did not bother informing the concierge or following up. The bike was old, clunky, and - although not as bad as my last bike - was still a really cheap bike. I used the bike once a year at most and it was taking up space that I could use for other stuff. It was not a great loss. Still, I really should take better care of my bikes..