Break out the big guns

So my long-awaited meeting with the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor went as well as one could hope, I suppose: he took one look at my nostrils and declared that mine was one of the worst cases of sinusitis that he'd seen! So now I'm on a 21-day course of Avelox (a powerful antibiotic that is a relative of Cipro, that drug everyone was stocking up on shortly after 9/11 when the anthrax scare was going on), after which I'm doing to have a CT scan done in order to make sure there's no long-term blockage problems. The cool thing is that when they do that they use a special mask that allows them to create a 3-D digital map of my sinuses, which the ENT would then use to navigate via GPS if he had to go in and do anything surgically.

The crappy thing is that the Avelox is totally kicking my ass. Twenty more days of feeling like something the cat dragged in doesn't sound like my idea of fun, but if it can exorcise the demonic slime eels which have taken up residence in my sinuses I'm all for it. I'm slightly annoyed with my primary care physician, however, as it seems that if he had prescribed either of the two courses of antibiotics I had taken before for longer than 10 days I wouldn't be in this mess right now. I suppose this should be a lesson for me to be a less passive patient when it comes to advocating for my own health - I probably should have pushed to see a specialist months ago instead of coming back for successive levels of treatment that didn't do a bit of good.

Sixth time's a charm

Well, kind of - it took me six visits to get a referral for an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist out of my primary care physician, but insofar as he's completely out of ideas (my favorite line is when he asked me: "So, what do you think it is?") I guess it was finally time.

This of course bears out my Star Trek Movie Theory of Doctor's Visits, whereby the odd visits suck and the evens are good. But I wonder if this applies to specialists as well?

It's hacktastic!

It was a difficult weekend at the Exile household, owing to the fact that the little one had been sick since Wednesday night. Although by yesterday evening Baby Exile was showing signs of clear improvement (fever down, appetite returning, etc.), bathtime was something of a struggle. Our daughter is never pleased with the hair-washing portion of the bath, but last night she was in no mood whatsoever to cooperate, and no sooner had my wife begun to rinse her hair than she started screaming in as uncooperative a fashion as possible as the sudsy water inadvertently ran down her face.

That's when it hit me: hadn't I just read about this situation on Parents Hacks?

Todd's secret for "no more tears" in the bath:

My daughter used to really hate getting her long hair washed and now she thinks it's somewhat fun. We used to use "tearless" shampoo but even that would sting her eyes if even a little bit of suds water got near them. What my wife and I came up with: we put a dry towel over our daughter's face and then dump a large plastic bowl full of shampoo and water on her head. We then rinse with fresh water in the same bowl until all of the suds are gone. No more fighting and it only takes a couple of minutes. Our daughter just turned 4 and for her it's fun feel a surprise of warm water hitting her head and body but not her face.

We do something similar (thanks to my mother in-law) -- my daughter holds a dry washcloth over her own eyes while we rinse her hair. Having a hand shower helps, too.

Without a moment to spare I ran to the linen closet while telling my wife to stop the rinse cycle. One dry hand towel over the eyes later and presto! No more tears. My wife and I almost couldn't believe how well it worked.

Parent Hacks - this stuff is gold, folks!

Odds and evens

You know how the odd-numbered Star Trek movies (I, III, and that godawful monstrocity called Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country, which featured a 58-year-old William Shatner free climbing El Cap) all suck and the evens are good (okay, IV and VI aren't great but they sure beat the snot out of III and V)? Well I'm discovering that doctor's visits tend to work along similar lines, as I've been to my physician four times about my lingering sinus infection and I'm starting to note an interesting pattern:

Visit #1 - Doctor says "here's an OTC remedy you can try, come back in a month if it doesn't clear up."

Visit #2 - Doctor prescribes a 10-day course of antibiotics

Visit #3 - Doctor says "here's a nasal spray you can try, come back in a month if it doesn't clear up."

Visit #4 - Doctor prescribes a 10-day course of a stronger antibiotic

So in other words, if the second round of antibiotics doesn't work, I have the rock-climbing Shatner appointment to get through before I can expect any additional useful treatment. I wonder if there's any way to skip straight to 6...

Getting well

I've been sick with a sinus infection for a little over three months now. After four visits to the doctor and several different prescriptions for meds, my damned sinuses are still boggy, I have perpetual post-nasal drip, and my poor lymph nodes situated on the back of my neck have settled into a constant nagging ache. My physician suspects that this thing is viral, and has heard reports of similar infections kicking around in other people for months as well (himself included, as it turns out), so unless there's anything an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist can do it may just come down to allowing the bug to run its course, however long and torturous a road that may be.

Needless to say, this sucks. Still, I've done what I can to cut down on my extracurricular activities and it seems to have improved both my energy levels and general well-being, so that's a positive sign. Maybe I've just run myself so ragged for so long that I've forgotten that a good 90% or more of feeling better has to do with giving yourself a little breathing room for a change. So I'm trying that. Instead of forcing myself to trudge to work early every morning I drive in with my wife and daughter, and instead of getting back late I do my best to head back with the family as well. Having more downtime at home has been a good thing, and I wonder at how I was able to push myself for so long with so many late nights due to library school, my teaching responsibilities, and all of the other things that kept me away from the rest and relaxation that I've obviously been in desperate need of for quite some time now.

Well, here's to getting well...