All I want for Christmas is to stop coughing up blood

Sunday I took advantage of the day and fell asleep late in the afternoon. I woke up with an ungodly sore throat, which quickly turned into a full fledged upper respiratory infection. I've spent a lot of time since then coughing and throwing up from coughing too much. At one point I picked up a bottle of cough syrup (which had fallen down behind my nightstand, which should totally have been a clue) and misread the label. Instead of being filled in 2008 it had expired last year. The eight was secretly a six. As a result I had a terrible reaction and actually thought I was going to die during the night. My breathing slowed way down and my lungs filled up with gurgles. I felt like no air was actually getting into my blood. I was too sick to reach the phone to call for help and the kids couldn't hear me gasping and calling them. I finally turned on my CPAP machine, thinking the pressure would help force air into my lungs. That kind of worked and I finally fell asleep around six in the morning, which is when I should be getting Cam up for school.

I managed to work the next day, yesterday but still didn't get much sleep last night. Too much coughing and throwing up.

When I woke up this morning I coughed up a lot of blood and my nose bled and bled so I called my hematologist to get the results of my PT/INR, which I had on the 16th. Whoever answered the phone told me he was away from the office and couldn't I wait until Monday? Let's see, that's five days and I'm coughing up blood - no, I don't think I can wait.

Sure enough my PT/INR is too high and I've got to cut back on my blood thinners. It's unfortunate nobody called me earlier. I don't think I should have to wait more than a week to hear my medication is at a dangerous level.

So anyway, in case you can't tell, I'm awfully grouchy and tired. I also have to go and pick Chris up in a little bit, then wrap presents (I've been too sick to bother) before I can even think about going to bed.

I did manage to get the cat to the vet on Monday and drop him off for his glucose tests. His blood is still in the 4oo range so we need to up his insulin to six units twice a day. I also got Cam to his allergy shot and picked up Cullen's RX drugs but it's at times like this that I really wish I had a nice little robot to run errands for me.

Which reminds me, the Wii Fit asked me what my most memorable moment of the year is and I thought and thought and decided it was our conversation with Connie Willis at Balticon this year. I can't even tell you how much she impressed me. She's fantastic.