Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

Drowning. I have two modes: work and sick. Or so it would seem. I will sometimes hold it together to finish a job and then keel over. Three weeks ago, we launched the new server at work. Two egg timers went off: the site swapped over to the new server; I got sick. I had a miserable fever ridden weekend. I got better but my cough persisted: a dry hack that made me love my Skype mic mute function. Last week, we started to get ready to overhaul the bathroom-- beginning with a round of sanding. My cough got worse. I couldn't sleep. That was good news: my daughter was home sick, so I took the opportunity to look in on her at 2AM and 4AM; and get her fresh water at 5AM. Friday, we were into the full on reno. I was feeling dizzy, hot, confused, jolty . Friday night, I went out to the van to bring in a tin of paint and a tin of contact cement. I came in wheezing and I couldn't get past that. That night, I had a runaway fever and a humdinger hallucination so severe that I couldn't r...

I have been mostly sick for 4 months. Four fricking months. It hasn't been one thing: it's been a string of things: strep throat, bronchitis, a stomach flu, a fever, a few ear infections. I spent Christmas Day doing a white-knuckle drug-induced haze of 12 hours of cooking and trying not to pass out. I am currently battling a chest cold and the left side of my rib case has been ripped up from coughing-- it leaves me with an average of three solid hours of sleep peppered with waking up to roll over; retch; or try to exhaust myself so that I can't help but sleep. One solution to this cycle: therapeutic exercise. The problem: I am too sick to walk 50 yards, so I can't exercise to break the cycle. I haven't had more than four days in between illnesses. My daughter has also spent much of this time being sick as well. These colds have resulted in trucking down to local clinics with some frequency. Why not use a family GP? Our regular doctor was replaced by a locum who shif...