"Life's Just a Cocktail Party on the Street.."

Dear Diary,

Over the past week, I've gobbled down multiples of every pretty little pill/lozenge you see pictured above and... I am SO over it.

I caught a nasty cold flying to/from New Orleans for Carnival that developed into my first-ever case of bronchitis. I was wheezing so profoundly that it put my dogs on red alert. They thought some scary creature was in our bed whistling and whining each time I tried to breathe, and they were right! It was ME! And tried as I might to cough and clear my throat and make it go away, each night turned into a circus of wheezing and barking and general sleeplessness that was absolutely ridiculous!

As a result, I had to postpone my uterine fibroid embolization, which cut short the time I could take off recovering, screwed up the work call schedule, and caused me to stress about every little thing even more than I already was! Boo!

Now I've passed the wheeze baton to my husband who's sick as hell and is now in charge of keeping the dogs on their toes, and in the meantime, I had my delayed procedure and overnight hospital stay on Monday. All went well and the 'aftermath' was as expected, which has been NO fun at all.

Pain, pain and more pain, a little nausea, some constipation, a sprinkling of sleeplessness, a lingering cough. YeeHAW!

I am SO thrilled that today I woke up feeling like a new woman with a FUTURE beyond all these stupid little pills and their individual promises! I mean, don't get me wrong, you'll never see me turning down the right pill here and there for recreational purposes, but when you're having to take a pain pill because you're actually in pain? Well that's no fun!

Gonna take it super extremely easy throughout the rest of the weekend to cement things, but I'm suddenly sporting an optimism I haven't felt in weeks. WOO!

Ugh.

So yeah, I managed to get sick somehow. I haven't been sick in 2 or 3 years so I guess I'm due, especially with all the partyin' in New Orleans and the flying. Seems like I get sick pretty much every time I fly somewhere.

My embolization procedure's been pushed til Monday. Hopefully I'm well enough for it by then. I really REALLY want to get that whole thing over with. I slept like hell last night and feel much worse today than I did yesterday. Boooo! That's no fun.

Just staying home and taking it easy today; using every miracle cold-shortening product I can get my hands on. We'll see what happens.

Thankfully the sickness didn't cripple me until AFTER New Orleans or that would've been a real bummer. We had *such* a good time there. Between the beignets, po' boys, fried shrimp, muffulettas, jambalaya, and seafood pasta I must've gained ten pounds. Or more! :p As soon as I'm feeling a little better I'm cracking down and getting back to a healthier eating regimen. Until then though, comfort food FTW! I definitely see some chicken noodle soup in my immediate future.

Took a ton of pics in NOLA. General Bourbon Street/French Quarter stuff, the Krewe of Pontchartrain's balcony party at Johnny White's, the Krewe of Cork parade, the KoP parade last Saturday... etc. Also got some really fun shots of a lot of the dogs (and their owners) in the Krewe of Barkus parade. Fun times. :) Check 'em out!

Now it's back to bed with me. Sure would be helpful if I could breathe!