Tao of Pauly

Sick

I've been sick on and off for two weeks. For the first 12 days, I felt the onset of a cold or flu. If total sickness was measured from 1 to 10, I hovered anywhere from 5 to 8 from the time I got back to NYC about two weeks ago. I felt crappy and sluggish, most with a stuffed up nosed, nasal drip, and a lingering cough.

My first day back in LA was 85+ degrees and I felt very good for the fist time in a long time. Day 2 in LA had me around 3 or 4 and I finally thought I was gonna kick my illness thanks to the California sunshine. Then on Sunday I started to feel like shit again. I figured it was a sinus attack because my nose was giving me issues. I played a poker tounament online and it took all my energy to focus. I ended up winning the tournament. And within an hour of the victory, I went to bed with any chance to celebrate. That was around 10:30.

On Monday afternoon, I developed a sore throat and started to get a little concerned. Nicky and I rented Pirates of the Caribbean 2 had I fell asleep about halfway through.

About 11 months ago, I had a terrible case of strep throat in Las Vegas which laid me up for almost two weeks and unable to speak for several days. I sucked it up Monday and Spaceman was in town so we went to dinner at the Farmer's Market. I wish I had more time to hang out, but I crashed at 8:30am praying that it was the lingering affects of the flu. For the next twelve hours I had a restless sleep. I'd fall out for twenty or thirty minutes and wake to piss (I had been drinking a ton of liquids) or to put vapor rub on my chest to help me breathe.

When I finally got up on Tuesday, I had a high fever, a worse sore throat, and an ear ache. I checked the intertubes for possible causes of my sore throat. Everything they listed... was something I had engaged in. Sore throats are a side effect of a cold or flu. Sore throats can happen when you are in an area with a lot of people, like all those thousands of travelers locked up at JFK airport after the blizzard debacle. Pets can be a cause of it, and since Showcase owns a dog sitting service, there are dogs occasionally in the apartment. Being around smoke is bad. Extra dry conditions can lead to sore throats, along with dust, mold, and fungi. And since I was all stuffed up the last two weeks, I breathed out of my mouth a large percentage of the time which didn't help. It could be anyone of those things.

I woke up Nicky and she was sweet enough to run to the drug store to pick up supplies like Motrin, cold/flu medications, and sre throat meds. I took everything at 9:30am and popped a Xanax. I was out cold for 8 hours until 5:30pm. Well, I woke up twice in that time frame and both tmes I had to change my clthes because I had sweat so much that I was lying in a pool of my sweaty germs. When I got up, my fever broke. I set outside on the couch for a few hours feeling better. but the sore throat lingered. Nicky made me soup and I watched Hereos and Studio 60 on TiVo. When that was over, I popped a half of Xanax, took the flu meds, four motrin, and the sore throat stuff.

For the first three hours, I tossed and turned. I eventually feel asleep to wake up at 4am in another pool of sweat. I cnahged my clothes and crawled back into bed. No more fever ot congestion, but the throat was worse.

But as it's Wednesday morning, I'm convinced I got strep again. Although all the other symptoms are gone... no more stuffy nose, no more headaches, no more ear aches, no more fever or coughing. Just a scratchy throat. The pain level was anywhere from a 3 to a 5, but now it's up to 6 and heading towards 7. When it got to 9 or 10 last year, was when I finally sucked it up and went to the hospital in Las Vegas. (ironically twenty yards in front of a casino). I had to wait three hours to get called and within thirty seconds the doctor told me I had strep. He gave me antibiotics and steroids. I was 90% better within 48 hours. I'm hoping for a similar situation.

I have to wait 15 minutes to call the free clinic in Beverly Hills to get an appointment. Let's see if they can take me today so I can get a throat culture to determine of I have strep or just the lingering affects of the flu.

I have a freelance gig starting on Friday and will be doing some radio commentary so I cannot afford to be sick anymore.

And yes, I do not have health insurance. Most artistic types don't.