(no subject)

[the_rck]

I haven't had a good night's sleep in a couple of days. Thursday/Friday I had trouble falling asleep and then woke up choking from GERD an hour and a half later. I have no idea what set that off because it's not a normal thing; it's a two or three times a year thing. Some vanilla ice cream and about an hour of sitting upright calmed things enough that I could lie down again, but I don't think I got more than another hour or two of sleep.

At that point, my sinuses started running. I went through a box of tissues in the next 24 hours. I'm still having some trouble that way, but it's slowly calming down. Past experience tells me that what I need to do is to dehydrate myself, so I'm going heavy on the salt and the caffeine. If I drink much of anything else, the episode will take longer to resolve.

I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night because, every time I moved much, my sinuses would drip again and my nose would need wiping. Scott got up very early to do the grocery shopping. I ended up showering while he was out. I lay down and sort of drowsed between about 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. It's hard because lying as still as I need to hurts.

I wish I knew what caused episodes like this. I just know that they happen a few times a year and have for more than 40 years. Sometimes, they're as frequent as once every two weeks, but they're usually farther apart.

Time of year doesn't matter, and as far as I can tell, there isn't any obvious trigger. Medications don't help. Using a neti pot doesn't help. Leaving the house doesn't help. Showering doesn't help. Nobody else in the household has ever come down with symptoms before or after I do, so I'm pretty sure these aren't short lived colds.

I just keep thinking that, if I find the right ritual combination of steps, the problem will vanish faster, that there must be a cause and a solution.

I hope to be past this tomorrow and to get some good sleep tonight. Right now, I really and desperately want a large glass of water. Preferably two or three. I just know that even one glass will prolong the misery.

My eyes are doing much better than they were, and I suspect that the fact that I've stopped eating rosemary and that we've stopped cooking with it may have some bearing on that. I still have patches of eczema in other places on my face, neck, and arms, however, and those don't seem to want to go away. For now, I'm just happy to be able to tolerate light again.

We had a campus tour scheduled for mid-June, and the university in question has already canceled it. Scott and Cordelia were going to combine that with seeing a play on campus. It's one that Cordelia really desperately wants to see, so we've been hoping that it will still be possible but kind of expecting not.

Comments

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I hope you feel better soon.

[the_rck]

Thanks!

I've decided that, when Scott and Cordelia go out driving this evening, I won't go along. I don't want to scare people, and the main point of me going is that I can go for a walk in a new-to-me place.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

[evalerie]

I have no idea if this is useful, but a strategy that sometimes works with me when my nose is runny at night is to use pillows under my head to angle my nose downward, so that liquid will drip out of it, and put a tissue underneath for it to drip onto. That way it doesn't drip into my throat and make me wake up choking. I have no idea if this works for anybody other than me. It doesn't always even work for me.

I'm glad (and also sorry) that banning rosemary helped.

[scribblemoose]

I have no idea why, but I get a runny nose when my GERD plays up, too. It's a very inconvenient and unpleasant mystery, but you're not alone!