If You're Looking for Coherent Thoughts...

you won't find them here. Not tonight. I've come down with some sort of illness-a cold I guess. I've had a sore throat since Saturday and now it's accompanied by a headache and all over stiffness. No fever...at least not yet.

My office is in a day care and there were two confirmed cases of strep today. I got my butt to my OB and made sure I didn't have it. I don't. Woo hoo!

Ted has confined me to the recliner for the evening and wants me to "relax". This is my fourth attempt at relaxing.

My first attempt was read a book. I just started reading Great With Child and am loving it. It's a collection of letters from a mom to her pregnant friend and it's just beautiful. A very light read, but with some real substance. Even though it's a light read, it was too much for my brain this evening. Next.

My second attempt was to take a nap on the couch. The baby deciding to start a new gymnastic routine and my back started hurting about 30 seconds into it. Fail.

My third attempt was to watch TV. Ha! I should have known. We don't have cable, so I had about 6 channels to choose from. The only thing that looked remotely interesting was The Doctors. Today's theme was common reasons for calling in sick to work. After discussing the color of your snot and location of your rash, they turned to PMS. They took a letter from a viewer that complained of calling in sick every single month on the first few days of her period. Her symptoms? Severe and debilitating cramps, vomiting, constant back ache, and nausea.

What wonderful advice did the OB/GYN give her? What magical cure did this stupid TV show reveal to keep her from having to call in sick you ask? Of all things-ibuprofen!!!! My goodness, I'm sure she was thinking, I never thought to take ibuprofen!! Or try a heating pad. A heating pad?? Genius!

Seriously?? This doctor (a female!) must have never actually had a period like the one the woman described. Or ever seen a woman in person with that type of pain. Those were my exact symptoms for the better part of 12 years. I could have swallowed the entire bottle of ibuprofen and scorched my back until my skin came off. I still would have felt like absolute shit. You know what did help?? Surgery!

I kept waiting for her to say it. "Such severe pain is not normal and is an indicator that something could be wrong. You should see your OB/GYN and ask about what could be causing this." But did she? Of course not. She suggested trying the beloved birth control pill to lighten your periods or getting a magical shot that would stop them all together. No mention of the fact that this woman could possibly be infested with endometriosis that is overtaking her entire reproductive system as she vomits in the toilet every 28-31 days. No mention of trying to get the root of the problem and get her the help she really needs. Nope-just put a little birth control band aid on it and go about your merry way.

It's "doctors" like her that forced me to see almost a dozen different "doctors" in my lifetime before I could get any real information about what was causing my pain. Ibuprofen?? No, never heard of it. So that's what I've been missing!!

Click. No more TV.

So this is my fourth attempt at relaxing. I'll blog myself to health and away from boredom. But those last couple paragraphs probably just made my blood pressure spike, so this doesn't seem to be working either.

Sigh.

Anybody got any other ideas?