Couch 127: The Wayward Couch

"a brief spasm of the vocal cords that temporarily makes it difficult to speak or breathe. The onset of vocal cord spasms is usually sudden, and the breathing difficulty can be alarming. However, the problem is not life-threatening, and it's generally brief and self-correcting." best definition i've found.

i've had them for a long time so they don't scare me anymore, it's pretty much just a matter of relax and let it pass. a lesson for life too, i suppose.

Two hours done at work, so far the callers are not too bad. Hoping it stays that way!

Well the little has tested positive for type B flu. Tamiflu is $135 after my insurance paid less than $2. She's going to have to heal on her own. She's pretty much miserable and I'm still kicking myself for not getting our flu shots this year (the only year she didn't get one!) because they never work anyway.

SM, it has been my experience also that they never work for those in my family who take them. I get violently ill every time I have one. The doctor kept saying "that should not happen." But it did. Every fricking time.

I cannot tell you how much energy it takes me not to slug the mds who say that sort of thing to my person when faced with some side effect that is obviously from their treatment.

I never get flu shots. I think it is a great medical community scam.

I refuse flu shots. Supposedly for most people except those whose immune systems are already weakened they're virtually useless.

Heck, my mother the MD won't get one.

Sometimes i wonder why we are forced to have insurance when they barely pay anything. And i even work for a division of an insurance co, and our employee plans suck because the deductibles are so high we never meet them.

Thanks couchies! I can flog myself with guilt, but it won't make her feel better. Good news, though, the fever is suspiciously absent today, day 3. Maybe she'll feel better really soon even without the meds. Now we just have the never-ending nosebleed from blowing and wiping, and the cough that makes your ears cringe. Hopefully those will go quickly as well.

Does using a humidifier help her?
It helps me with the nose issues.

When I got the flu a few years ago, my MD said she could give me a Tamiflu prescription, but it has lots of side effects and really only cuts a day or two off the duration. So I decided it wasn't worth it. (And I had never gotten the flu shot before and hadn't gotten the flu, so I figured I didn't need one...now I get a flu shot every year since then...)

That's good if the fever is already gone. Hope she feels better soon and that no one else gets it!

Our pastor lost his completely healthy 17-year-old son a few years ago to the flu. He had not had a flu shot. Perfectly fine Christmas Day. Passed away three days later. Very tragic. Flu shots are something we do not miss in our house anymore.

Didn't have a flu shot =/= getting the flu.

Didn't say it did, but the family has spoken passionately ever since about never really knowing for sure if his life might have been saved. It has been a hard unknown for them to live with.

We spent a great day on a sight-seeing road trip with the family. We piled into my dad's van and drove up the coast to a small town that is just full of deer. I swear there were two-five deer in every other yard. We were able to stop at one location that has a wildlife walk and feed them by hand (thus the jillions of deer I'm sure). Then we drove down to the island for lunch and drive around the beach. It was good for my husband to get out for a bit. He's recovering from his surgery but the unit isn't working right; we meet with the company for programming when we get back into town.

I'm knocking off writing my book chapter for the day. Who does a girl see around here for a shot or two?

Since my asthma has gotten worse over the years I now get the flu shot because I am at risk for respiratory issues. My son was allergic to egg up until this summer and never had the flu shot because it has egg in it. He only got the flu once in the 6 years he wasn't vaccinated against it.

I didn't get my flu shot this year. Last year it gave me an itchy arm and welt. In addition, I'm not thrilled about having something injected in my body that contains eggs that could have been from mistreated chickens. I do not want to support factory farmed eggs. So this year I said no way.

yeah i'm on the 'no flu shot' train.

My family is passionate about getting our flu shots too - we lost my cousin (who was 5 years younger than me) 3 years ago due to complications from the flu, he also had not gotten a flu shot. He left behind a 5 year old son and it was very, very sad.

I have half a bottle of wine left from the other day I was just getting ready to break open...

I keep hearing things like that, about the flu shot being important and saving people. It is just my personal experience with four years running of fevers of 104-106 F and being violently ill makes me very adverse to getting the shot. One doctor said it must be an allergic reaction, because there is no way to catch the flu from the vaccine. However, I have never run a fever or vomited for three days to a week from an allergic reaction to anything else.

I got a high fever from my tetanus booster a few years ago. It could be a vaccine reaction, like your immune system just going crazy. Or...you aren't allergic to eggs by any chance, are you? I think the vaccine is normally grown in something involving eggs. But I totally get why you don't want to get the shot (I initially didn't want to get it because of my tetanus reaction--also had trouble raising that arm for like a week), but then I got the flu and decided I'd rather chance the shot. But for you, it sounds like the flu would be preferable to your reaction...

To be completely fair, my cousin's situation was a very rare complication. The flu turned into a brain infection of some type.

I am not allergic to eggs. I am also nearly invulnerable to salmonella. Lol. I grew up on a farm and ate plenty of food made with raw eggs. I have literally eaten the same food that caused others to have pretty severe food poisoning and just felt a little gassy.

And yeah, my last flu shot resulted in a trip to urgent care and I nearly needed to be hospitalized. The doctor finally admitted I should probably skip it in the future.