Day Fourteen of the Sinus Headache From Hell. (Thanks to all for well wishes and advice.) I caved. I went to the doctor’s.
After Ian’s speech therapy, we drove over to my parents. They peered at him through a curtained window as he slept in the backseat of my car. I grabbed their car and headed over to the walk-in clinic. Someday I’ll have to get a regular doctor and not one of the Doc-In-The-Boxes.
During the hour wait, I watched MSNBC and read the Lelyveld essay in the Times Magazine.
TVs in waiting rooms are a clear sign that humanity is on a gentle upwards slope that spells progress. Shop Rite also has TVs which show episodes of the food network to distract shoppers stuck behind the coupon lady. Every new SUV has a DVD included. I would like to expand this movement of TV-relieved boredom. TVs should be erected in school auditoriums during children’s holiday pageants, at town parades or firework displays, and anywhere where they discuss Groundhog’s Day, fuel emissions, or bond rates.
MSNBC discussed the bloggers’ case to protect the right to protect their sources just as reporters do. They didn’t add much that hadn’t already been said. It was interesting to hear little Ron Reagan, the afternoon anchor, talk knowingly about “the blogosphere.”
The next item was the recent disclosure that terrorist suspects have been able to buy guns in the US, but no records are kept of those transactions. Read more here. The gun lobby is interfering with Homeland Security. How completely bizarre. I have to surf around the libertarian blogs to see how they justify that.
Some gun lobbyist got on to defend the fact that there are no written records of gun buyers in this country. He said that gun control doesn’t prevent crimes. He added that the 10th Amendment to the constitution says that where the constitution does not clearly allocate a role for the federal government, it is barred from making laws.
Actually, the tenth Amendment doesn’t say that. It says any power not expressly delegated to the federal government belongs the states and the people. But don’t forget the Supremacy clause which states that the federal government is allowed to make ANY law that it is necessary in order to carry out its proper responsibilities. The federal government has made a zillion laws that the founders couldn’t have envisioned from internet pornography to the No Child Left Behind Act.
I turned away from MSNBC and looked at the New Yorker. Hendrik Hertzberg had an interesting column on the filibuster and the composition of the Senate.
I finally got called in to the doctor who didn’t find an infection. Just fluid in my inner ear and a virus that had probably gotten all angry with the sanding and the oil-based paint on the kitchen floor. An 1-1/2 wait and all I got was angry fluid? That long of a wait in the doctor’s waiting room I think deserved something more virulent. If not brain rot, then at least infection requiring super strength antibiotics. Gypped.
Back to the parents where Ian was happily playing trains with mom. Dad read from Chapter 5 of his book on the Puritans which he’s writing for Yale University Press. Sounded good. Mom sent me home with anti-pasta and breaded chicken.
Apt. 11d 
Per sinus infections – my son has had chronic sinus infections for most of his life. We read an article a few years ago about an 80+ year old man who had also suffered from them in his youth but had not had one for decades, since he started spending 30 minutes a day standing on his head. Will tried it, and it works fairly well; his sunuses drain noticeably more (sorry – no delicate way to put that). He doesn’t actually stand on his head, but sort of lies on the seat of the couch with hes head hanging down and his feet up over the back. He said it is boring, so he reads or plays gameboy. Good luck.
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Ha. I will try this.
Also in the “Cured by standing on my head” dept…
Here is what some of our satisfied customers have to say about standing on your head!
“I used to get hiccups all the time that nothing remedied. Then I read about standing on one’s head and swallowing water, though coffee and any other drink works just as well. I have stood on my head for hiccups now for twenty years and it works every time for me on the first swallow. Though one doesn’t have to literally stand on one’s head. Just bending over and putting your upper body in a position as vertical to the ground as possible does the trick. Easy, convenient and ultimately portable!”
Anyway, ’tis true. Now I shall go hang myself upside down for my sinuses.
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I had the same cold/ear infection/sinus infection. 3 weeks on antibiotics only to go back (because they hadn’t worked) to hear it was the angry virus/fluid thing. Ugh. It eventually cleared up on its own. Sorry Laura, it sucks but is does get better.
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“TVs should be erected in school auditoriums during children’s holiday pageants”
Oh good lord yes!
I have cranky sinuses – my daily allergy med must, must, must have decongestant. And I react to the barometric pressure – we get some fantastically fast changing weather right off the lake, it’s truly hell in the spring and fall. (then I have to occasionally add in 800 mgs – yes 4 – ibuprofen tablets, since that’s the anti-inflamatory dose and it’s the inflamation of my sinus tissues contributing to my misery.)
Hope you feel better and stay feeling better – it’s lousy.
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