It’s been a rough, tiring week.  I haven’t had a ”cold” virus kick my as…but…bottom for a long time.  It was Wednesday night that I had such a bad time of it after I went to bed.  I could not breathe through either nose hole at all.  No air whatsoever was moving through my nose, and I’m used to being able to breathe through my nose.  And with a sore throat, I really didn’t want to mouth-breathe all night.  Not that I could go to sleep, anyway.  I felt like I was suffocating!  I tore the cabinets and drawers apart looking for a decongestant tablet.  I soon realized that all the decongestant tablets WERE IN WALES IN MY HUSBAND’S SHAVING KIT!!!  I found one old Allerest tablet that had to be 12 years old since we don’t usually buy Allerest anymore.  I took it.  (I don’t think it did much.)  I continued to dig around in the drawers and came up with a bottle of generic Afrin nasal spray in the back of my drawer which I first mistook for saline spray.  I squirted three sprays up one nostril before I read the front of the bottle and realized that it wasn’t saline spray; it was “Afrin” (with an expiration date of three years ago.)  Luckily, the dosage said two to three squirts up each nostril so I hadn’t overdosed on it.  I was glad to find that bottle, really glad!.  By the time I got back to bed, my nasal passages were clear as a bell and I slept well that night.  I repeated that process Thursday night, although by Friday night I decided that I should lay off the Afrin so as not to get into any potential rebound congestion with it.  I bought a box of antihistamine/decongestant at Snyder’s Drug when I went to the cafe across from it for supper in our little local shopping mall Friday evening.   (Club sandwich with the chips, please!)

I’m off to work this morning.  The first batch of approximately 250 specimens arrived from Moorhead, MN Friday afternoon for CDC’s Neisseria meningitidis project.  The second batch of about the same size is arriving at 1:00 today.  I’ve got to get in there to deal with those.  I volunteered.  (Someone should just shoot me before I volunteer again!)  I’ll be going into work tomorrow, too, which should be my President’s Day holiday.  All of this couldn’t have come at a worse time as far as my health is concerned!

Later, guys.