Tag: sick

Hmm

Well, I received my black belt. It literally has my name on it. It’s actually quite pretty, really. And, as for the performance we did, it went really well. Also, my mom got to participate in the whole ceremony, too, kind of like last week. Everyone else had a black belt carrying in their belt to the ceremony and presenting it for us. Most of them had a parent as that black belt. But I had a brown belt, my mom, carrying and presenting mine.

When we removed our black-belts-in-waiting belts, the brown with a black stripe through the center, our head instructor had originally just told me we would be handing it to a family member in the audience. Okay, no big deal. I’ll hand it to whomever, so long as he or she is in the front of my family section. Easy peasy. When we actually tied the belts, and she announced to go hand them off, she announced that we were presenting them to ‘the person who had been the most influential in our karate career’. Uuhhh… not what she’d said before… Well, of the options, obviously my mom had played that role. Fortunately, she also was sitting on the front row, making it easy to present the belt to her. I was sure to turn it facing her before presenting it – true Japanese style, of course – and thanking her.

Then we went off with no belts on, breaking rules of the uniform – you never wear the top without the belt and the pants, and without wearing them all fully and properly. Only the pants can be worn without the rest. Then, we changed into our new white uniforms to receive the black belts, again and still breaking the whole uniform rule for another few minutes.

But then the cute and dramatic procession happened, presenting all the belts in rank order, alongside our individual black belts we would receive (carried by our selected black belts and my selected mother who has a brown belt) to music. And we all went back out there one at a time while a photo slideshow played for each of us. After that, we finally were given our belts, and they were tied on for us by our head instructor, and we were officially black belts. So, yay!

It was a good time. So was dinner afterward with my family, and the occasionally chatting with others at dinner.

Separately, I’m still sick. Ugh. Almost no yellow remains in my nasal passages, but the coughing just won’t give up. After tomorrow, I will know if I need to go for more doctor stuff. Ugh.

Also, my apartment lease ends tomorrow. We scheduled a walk-through with the office at 4pm tomorrow. My flat-mate sent me a screenshot of an e-mail she received today – but that I did Not receive, even in spam – that says the office is closed tomorrow. No idea how that is going to go down, but I’m going to pray much about it tonight and tomorrow. This process with this complex has been a huge hassle from the start, and I’m genuinely concerned about what they might try to do to us. Please, say a prayer for our easy move-out tomorrow, if you’re able.

God, help us move forward easily from all of this. Heal my body. Heal my man’s body. Heal all those in need of healing, that we might all serve you better and share your love more effectively. Help us to have a smooth completion with this apartment complex. Please. Please, help me to release this guilt I feel around signing that contract in the second place. Help us, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Tomorrow, tomorrow

I receive my black belt tomorrow. I still have a ridiculous cough. It is extremely aggravated whenever I talk. We shall see if I can manage okay just not talking tomorrow. It would be a terrible time to cough the whole day, during the fancy awards and presentations of the day… yikes. Oh, God, heal me, please! I’m supposed to make an announcement with no microphone tomorrow, too(!). Help, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Seriously?

I’m still sick. I can talk a bit, but talking aggravates the cough. My nose is still dripping on the back, also aggravating the cough. My neck muscles are tired from coughing so much and from such intense coughing. My sides are tired, too, from the convulsions. I am weak and tired from not being able to eat enough, but eating anything causes immense coughing fits. So, I have to eat quickly and strategically – high protein, easy-to-chew, quick meals or snacks. Even then, I still cough up a storm.

Tonight, when doing the saline rinse in my nose, the right nostril suddenly closed up almost entirely – I suppose from something getting pushed over to it up top – leaving the solution to slide slowly but firmly down my throat instead of out my right nostril, as it had been doing quite decently. After too much of this, despite remaining calm and collected, my body revolted and vomited, right there in the sink. I let a little more water rinse through, just to make sure no vomit ended up in my nose, and I abandoned the rest of the saline rinse. I had hit my limit for the night. I had gotten most of the way through, anyway, and that was better than nothing. I had only thrown up a small amount, and didn’t want to consider what it might turn into if I kept at the saline rinse any longer. I’ll just do it in the morning, when my food is well and digested. Because I need that food right now.

Post-a-day 2023

Improvemeh…

Well, the coughing proved to be a big problem last night. After hours of being in bed, I had barely slept a wink – I just couldn’t stop coughing, even when on the brink of exhaustion. My man came through for me and delivered some specific single-ingredient medicine – typically the only kind I want going into my system – to help stop the coughing. Well, not to stop the coughing, but to lessen it significantly. And it did just that. It took a bit to kick in, but I finally fell asleep around 3:30 or 4:00 this morning. And I actually slept. Thank you, God, for some real sleep, at last.

I had hoped only to take that medicine at night, but my coughing grew so terrible by late afternoon, I couldn’t even function. I’m still taking it easy as a whole, but I don’t like having to be on medicines like this. My body can’t truly tell where it is in recovery and what it may most need. Tomorrow is the last day of the antibiotics, and I hope I will be able to back off the rest by tomorrow night or the morning after, too.

Oh, and I hope I have a voice to use again soon, too. That would be helpful… though, I have very much appreciated this opportunity not to speak. It has been frustrating at times, but very good as a whole… a great lesson in patience for me and for my family. Makes me really want to get us into some ASL classes asap, though. You never know when you might need or want to use another language.

Prayers for healing, if you are willing and able, please, for me and for all the world.

Dear God, heal us all, please. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Icky

Started the antibiotics this morning, after a miserable night of almost no sleep. I also took an ibuprofen piece with the antibiotics, and went back to bed. After a while, I finally fell into some only slightly disturbed sleep, which was a major improvement. We shall see how tonight goes. Though I relaxed most of the day, I am wiped. But the coughing doesn’t seem to want to go away – that tickling in the throat from drainage is being quite harsh on me, it seems. And my abdominals haven’t stopped aching, nor have they really had much of a break.

If you would, pray for my restoration of heath and beautiful and beneficial sleep tonight.

Dear God, thank you for this life. Please, heal me. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Still…

Sick. Yup. I barely slept last night, for all the coughing and the crazy stuffy nose that came on last night for the first time. I couldn’t get the neti pot – it is the off-brand this time – to run water through the right side of my nose before I went to bed, so I was a touch concerned at that. Sure enough, I was up around 2am, coughing up more loads of yellow gunk in varying shades. By the time my alarm sounded to get up for my volunteering, I knew there was no way I could make it out there today. I couldn’t even stop coughing long enough to drive safely. Don’t even mention how my abdominals and throat were in big pain, or how I couldn’t talk at all. No way could I be up and out the door in two and a half hours, and then last through 1pm, helping people with things outdoors all the while…

My man had offered around 3am for me to have an ibuprofen half, and I accepted, as I was in such tremendous pain that was keeping me from sleeping, making it all the worse. After that, I actually was able to sleep a bit, with only the small interruption of my alarm, seeing I wasn’t well enough, messaging the team, and going back to sleep.

Now, getting ready for bed tonight, I feel better than I did last night, but still not well. We considered and discussed today my taking antibiotics. How I wake up tomorrow will determine our route for that. I avoid antibiotics whenever my body can handle something itself. But, if it can’t handle the germs, I’ll accept what is needed. Since I’ve been over-busy that past several days, sleep and water and food haven’t been at their best. Hopefully, my body will have a better chance, now that I rested today at home and have tomorrow fully open for rest.

Now, off to shower and another run with the Neti Pot, and then off to bed. Wish me well!

Post-a-day 2023

Believe it or not…

I’m still sick. Still with the same nasal infection. I now can barely talk, even with a terrible rasp. And, when I do talk, I almost always break into a terrible coughing fit that not only sounds terrible, but feels dreadful in my throat and in my abdominal muscles. Add on top of that that we had to do photos in the near-freezing weather this morning for karate, barefoot and just in these thin uniforms, for an hour and a half, and you get an even worse situation than anticipated for today. Now, I have volunteering out in the cold all morning tomorrow, from six AM to one PM. I can’t talks I cough a lot, even without the talking attempts, and I feel miserable. Ugh…

God, heal me, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Ongoing

Well, I’m still sick today. I’m much improved, but still very much sick. Before getting into bed tonight, I actually used the Neti Pot – well, some brand’s knock-off, I think…, though it might have been the real thing, now that I’m truly considering it… I do have a real one and a not-real one – because I needed further help in healing faster. I have a whole volunteering thing I have to do all midday tomorrow, and then a major part of the karate stuff tomorrow night. And I have to make up what I missed tonight and last night for karate before the high-intensity cardio night starts tomorrow. So, basically, I will get up and get dressed, drive way down south to volunteer for a few hours, then drive way up north to start karate late afternoon, have a short break, and then do intense sparring against people whose goal is to test my abilities. Let’s not worry about mentioning how I haven’t sparred in maybe a year due to my ankle injury, with its whole popping the bone slightly out of place the last time I sparred in a tournament… that definitely sucked and still does…

Anyway, I need good sleep and rest tonight, so that I can make it through tomorrow. And I need great sleep and rest tonight so that I can thrive through tomorrow, and not merely stumble to the end. I’ve had very low energy since getting sick, to the point that I struggled to get the front door open earlier today, which is usually just a tiny extra push… and that was after I was getting strength back… So, I still have a ways to go before I’m truly ready and able to take on tomorrow night, especially after being out in the 11°C cold tomorrow midday. Fortunately, my appetite was mostly back by this evening, and I had a real meal, though it was a smaller one.

God, grant me wonderful and invigorating sleep tonight, please, and a healthy appetite tomorrow, as well as wonderful digestion. Help me tomorrow to do well, to show how I am capable, and to satisfy well all requirements for obtaining my black belt. Help me to do my best and to be at my best. Heal me, please. Heal all in need of your healing. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Ugh

Well, I’m sick. Nasal infection. Big time. My whole body aches, my throat feels like cramping fire, and I have major chills and shakes.

God, please, heal me of this illness swiftly. Help me to continue my testing and to pass on time. Help me to be well, that I may pursue and fulfill your will. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Monday

Okay, let’s try this whole ‘normal week’ thing again – last week was a bizarre bust, and I wasn’t back in time for the week before to be normal, yet that first week was way more normal than this past week has been! I have a karate physical fitness test this coming Saturday. Until then, though, I want to be back in the gym. I felt so, so good the several days I had gone before getting sick, I want to be back to those good feelings all around, especially the soreness. If needed, I’ll rest from the gym Friday, so I can be less sore for Saturday morning’s test. But I might just go Friday and take it super easy and with no weights, depending on the workout… hmm…

Anyway, I’ll cross that bridge when I reach it. For now, I’m going to sleep and then going to the gym at noon tomorrow. I can do this.

Then, perhaps afterward, I’ll go see about finding some wardrobe additions – working on the normal wardrobe now. Need a couple nicer dresses and tops, as well as a regular pair of jeans (100% cotton, of course, because all the rest feel terrible and cheapy and never fit quite right or feel sturdy enough).

Okay, goodnight. Thank you, God, for helping us both heal. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023