January 8, 2016

I'm tired. Maybe this will be a quick one.

I don't think I felt worse this morning but I certainly didn't feel better. That was unfortunate.

At work today I did things. I nearly finished making the high contrast pictures for the art teacher. I would have finished but things kept interfering. I thought about finishing them up this weekend but then forgot to make a copy of the pictures so it will have to wait until next week.

I helped out the new long-term sub for one of the second grade teachers this morning with what turned out to be the same thing I helped the old long-term sub with a couple years ago. She came to me and said her laptop wouldn't turn on. I took the battery out just to make sure that wasn't the issue and then I thought about where it was probably plugged in. And that was right next to the desk. It is plugged into an outlet that also has a powerstrip attached which has at least a microwave and a refrigerator plugged into it. As a quick check I opened the refrigerator and it was warm, a promising sign. I messed with the little breaker thing on the outlet and when I got it to push in the powerstrip light came on and the numbers appeared on the microwave. After that I was able to plug the laptop in and it worked. Sucess.

While the second grade class was in the lab this afternoon I was struck with a scratch in my throat that actually brought me to tears at one point. I couldn't stop coughing and water didn't help. I ended up draining my water bottle, which was good for my hydration but that was a bit it. I even had a cough drop that ended up being pointless. I eventually survived but I'm pretty sure it could have gone either way.

After school I had my urologist appoint. Thanks to all the water I had I really had to go to the bathroom but I didn't so I would be able to at the urologist. Then it turned out they didn't need me to do that, so I used the regular restroom before going across to get an x-ray. It was near the end of the day for the x-ray place (the front desk lady actually left not too long after I got there) and they were backed up because I think only one technician was working. There were two people in front of me and while waiting on the first two to do whatever the technician came out and had me fill out some paperwork and then had me come back and change so I would be ready when the first two were done. That all ended up taking about forty-five minutes probably, to the point that someone from the urologist office actually walked over to see if I was still there.

As for the urologist, that took less than ten minutes. As I was walking to the room I passed the urologist, who was looking at my x-ray so he had me stop and look at it with him. He showed me that my left kidney looked totally clear, which is amazing, and there was a tiny shadow, possibly in my left kidney, which may or may not be something. I'm leaning toward it not being something because that would be nice. After nearly a decade and dealing with thirteen or however many kidney stones, not having any obvious ones show up in my x-ray is pretty good news. Because it was late we went into the room with the nurse so she could take my blood pressure and stuff while we talked. The surgery was obviously a success and the absence of kidney stones in my left kidney, and the abundance of pieces that came out after the surgery, makes me wonder if he maybe zapped more than just the one big stone that was stuck. I'm completely fine with that. He said my dietary changes seem to be working and I would have to agree. I've try to do a better job of balancing things out so I don't end up with too much of something or not enough of something else. I just hope this becomes the new normal. I've had more kidney stones than most people who have kidney stones (I'm assuming) and I think it's fair that I get a break from that, preferably indefinitely. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good, while simultaneously feeling crappy because of my cold.

Speaking of the cold, I am remembering why I don't get sick often. It sucks. And I'm not really that sick. I have moments of feeling awful but I know it could be worse. It's still annoying though. Also, I am pretty sure Sudafed does nothing for me. If anything I become more congested after taking it. I think tomorrow I'll go back to DayQuil or something.

Now I'm going to go to bed. And hopefully sleep for a long time. Not being able to breathe doesn't really help with that but maybe the Sudafed will kick in when I'm horizontal. Fingers crossed.