This Is Not A Post

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

So once the coughening was done, and with deadlines looming, my body did what? Well, it caught something else, apparently consisting of sore throat, aching head, fever and nausea.

Contrary to popular belief my immune system is not weak. My immune system is very strong, but it attacks only me, while extending the welcome mat to everything that tries to invade. (Um…. my immune system is Brandon. Great.)

Anyway, remember the hula-baloo about “long covid”? It’s not just covid — which I haven’t managed to catch since what I think was it early in January 20 — it’s every virus.

Viruses are little sh*t heads. Even the not very bad ones come in with inconvenient symptoms like “Stay awake all night coughing” (which on the heels of the medicine reaction my body was primed to do) and then leave you weak, so the next virus (or bacteria) catches you.

My theory is that after spending a month coughing in reaction to ******pril, I was primed to catch the “cough till you die” virus (which some fans two states over have been battling, so I didn’t make it up.) It was better than the medicine reaction, in that I could take cough medicine. But it went off every three hours, and I couldn’t take it for four and– Yeah.

Anyway, that finally left me three days ago, under an onslaught of lemon tea.

And I was okay for about twelve hours, and then the …. other thing.

I suspect this last one only catches people when they’re already weakened. It got better after a day, and today I’m almost-normal.

But you know, five years ago I went to the doctor because I was tired and dragging and she diagnosed it as post-viral syndrome.

And what I’d had then was like five weeks before, and NOTHING like the sh*tshow we’ve been living with since November.

So, you know what? Deadlines still pushing, and I’m going to try to finish the Barbarella script today and maybe a short tomorrow (I mean, I’ll try today, but I kind of doubt it. I feel a nap coming on already.)

And I’m going to take it kind of easy and sleep a lot for a week. Because I don’t want to fall prey to something that only attacks newborn babies, or people with terminal TB or something. And that’s about where I am right now.

I will — duh — be doing posts, but there might be some off days too for a week or so. Bear with me. It’s very annoying for me not to function at full speed too, but I have books to write, and I’d prefer not to die now.

So, go play. But not in the street. The last time y’all played in the street Fluffy ate a tourist, and the paperwork was very annoying. So, don’t do that.

See you tomorrow.

155 thoughts on “This Is Not A Post”

  1. Well, get better! I “think” we can manage but it will be interesting.

    Oh, I talked to Fluffy and Fluffy stated: “I be good now and not eat tourist. Fluffy only eat those that Sarah say OK for Fluffy to eat!” With that, we may be safe from most paperwork. I am working on a minor paper cut right now but that’s just me.

    1. The aardvark is lining up the BBQ meat even as we speak.

      Except the shrimp. The sea serpent in the minion pool insists that she provides the shrimp.

  2. Take care of yourself.

    Oh, if this is not a post, how can we reply to it? [Crazy Grin]

  3. But you know, five years ago I went to the doctor because I was tired and dragging and she diagnosed it as post-viral syndrome.

    Kind of like cytokine storms.

    Or vaccine side-effects that aren’t “mild soreness at the infection site.”

    They were a Known Thing before kung flu, but suddenly folks are paying attention.

    2. I recommend that you try taking Ivermectin..my experience is that it works against all these nuisance viruses, as well as covid….

  5. Ah, the delicate balance of life’s needs and the body. When you are young you make withdraws from your future, IE, that night you stayed up and partied until dawn. Now when you are further advanced in life the bills come due. Sure when you were seventeen you could lift five hundred pounds of gear, now your back and knees are paying the price. Get better. Today’s ear worm was brought to you by REO Speed Wagon, ‘Keep Pushing On’.

    1. ” that night you stayed up and partied until dawn.”

      … just one? “finishing a project the night before it’s due” counts as partying, right?

      I’m told that a college friend of my parents once postulated that every person has a finite number of all-nighters in their system, and once you run out of those you are never capable of staying up all night ever again.

      I expect that the number available differs from person to person.

      1. Been there, done that. Didn’t want to, mother equipped me with, “You’re lazy, you always put things off until the last minute, etc,” and the belief was stronger then. But professor in magazine layout made absolutely certain to not give us the last piece of the project until the day before.
        But I did make an ‘A’. (This was back when you actually had to physically lay out the magazine, edit, and so on and then carry the thin but bulky suckered to class).

      2. I saved my all-nighters until I started flying for a living. I can do daylight, or night. Not both, as I discovered. I’d rather do nights, but the world hasn’t bent to my wishes.

        Yet.
        Soon, my pets, soooooonnnn . . . evil kitty smile, rubs paws together

        1. In the beginning, all the morning people and extroverts decided how the world would be run and It’s been downhill ever since.

            1. Tch. No gratitude to the people who stay up all night guarding the cave against saber-tooth tigers… shakes head sadly

    2. Living that reality right now. A few months ago I got back into playing the bass after a 20 year hiatus. I kept my guitars and my smaller practice rig—the one that was easy to carry in and out of various places—so I dug it out of storage. Only it was very much not easy to carry around anymore. I’m still reasonably strong, but not in good cardiovascular shape anymore. And my knees are very unhappy with me. I make the old man noise every time I have to do a deep knee bend. Back in the day, I’d haul multiple pieces of gear weighing in the hundred pounds-plus range to gigs and practices without all that much effort. I could still wrangle that stuff now if I had to…but I really don’t want to.

    3. When I was seventeen I could eat over eight thousand calories and still get hungry (and lose weight, too, depending). When I was eighteen I could and did carry over half of my body weight for eight hours at a time (well, eight and then some depending). In my late twenties even, double shifts back to back were not a thing I liked, but didn’t affect my work or sleep schedule beyond an extra nap the day after. In my thirties I could do my (very) physical job, then work out for a couple of hours, then go running before taking care of the necessities and sleep without feeling exhausted the next morning.

      The body requires increasing amounts of maintenance as age and mileage accrue. For some of us, the former is just starting to catch up to the latter. And as we get older, there’s a certain amount of will that comes into play. When you start giving up, you start to die. I ain’t give up yet. Worse has happened to other folks and they’re still kickin’. Best we make do as best we can, with the bodies and brains we’ve got.

  6. You have all grace to sleep for weeks and only give a post when you’re in REM sleep if that’s what you need.
    This is your tribe. We’ll hold space till you get back to the circle.
    Take care and try not to be discouraged. Ill health can do that quick.

  7. Feel better soon! I know I’ve been dealing with a lot of fatigue, general drainedness, and depression even though I really shouldn’t be due to having a fair bit of time off work and needing to get things done for the pending move (and having no energy for even a lot of my usual screw around to avoid doing things activities). Hopefully neither of us will deal with this for much longer and we’ll both recover soon.

  10. Has something to do with ‘long winter’s nap’ and January doldrums, doesn’t it?

  11. Make sure you and the bear you are with are not sleeping in the woods since it’s January and way too cold for that nonsense and you should be fine.
    🐻
    Remember, “Take care of yourself. If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything “

  13. Take care of yourself. We can wait for posts. I’m home from work for the THIRD day in a row (unprecedented for me) with similar symptoms. I can’t even focus on ingesting copy edits right now let alone writing a blog! We’ll be here when you get back.

    1. I think I did that before :-). Google translate suggests
      ceci n’est pas un message
      whether un/le message is a good translation for a post I don’t know. I vaguely remember that whatever translate came up with last time was feminine i.e. une/la .
      In any case my French is so out of date (like 45 years out of date) that although computers (Pardon, l’ordinateur) did exist concepts such as e-mail and blog posts may not have existed and in any case were not something to be referenced in High School French. And given the Francophone distaste for loan words who knows what it would have been although at least for email they seem to have (unsurprisingly) surrendered and accepted l’e-mail.

      1. Ceci n’est pas un poteau, surely. It being a treacherous image in any case.

        Do feel better, I’ve had rolling crud since Thanksgiving and it just gets old.

      2. That’s because it takes so much longer to type… reaches into the mists of memory le courriel electronique. (No diacriticals for you! Probably no proper gender agreement either!)

  15. Please rest and recover at your own pace. Your Horde will keep watch. Should we add you to Ace’s prayer list?

      1. When I was in Scotland, I learned how to properly say “tourrrist.” You need just the right blend of irritation and almost disgust in the rolled r. When said by a Lowland Scot, it is a word of beauty, succinct and transparent. (I was assured that I was a visitor or traveler, not a tourrist.)

          1. This was describing someone who kept insisting that he did, indeed, have an ancestral tartan going back to the 1300s. His last name ended in -ovich. Or the person who ordered a Full Scots Breakfast (not for those on a low-cal, low fat diet) and complained about the lack of fiber and the excessive amount of meat. [You want fiber? Order the Full English. It comes with “baked beans” as well as whole-meal toast.]

            1. Note – person the first was in a woolens store. Modern clan tartans do NOT go back to the 1300s, and he kept saying that it was on his father’s side of the family. Unless he was thinking about a Scottish mercenary who went to Russia, um, well . . .

        1. Nod. You got to fleece them in such a manner that they want to come back to be fleeced again. [Crazy Grin]

  18. Suggestion: Stay rested and get well. If you simply have to post or feel you’re shirking or something, just post “Hi. Getting better. See ya.” or equivalent. We may feel deprived, but we’ll cope.

    Please TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FIRST!!!

  21. Dear Hostess please take care of yourself. We are deeply honored that you provide us with grist to harangue each other over. However, please do not make yourself ill for us (and perhaps avoid anything but fulfilling deadlines). In the meantime we’ll keep Fluffy from eating random passerbys. Well unless it’s say Adam Schiff, but we should probably stop Fluffy even then as that would make Fluffy ill and the vet bills for dragons are quite steep. Also the SPCD (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dragons) might come after us if we didn’t prevent him ingesting such inedible matter.

    2. Could be worse…

      …could be Nadler.

      Eewww!!

      I suspect Fluffy would take one look and apply concentrated flames to deal with that.

      And don’t stop until there’s nothing left.

      1. I think Fang-Fang is already off the menu. My understanding is (Drak will certainly correct me if I’m wrong 🙂 ) that traditionally Dragons prefer their female humans to be Maidens. The odds that Ms. Fang Fang fulfills the requirements for this position are somewhere between vanishingly slim and none.

          1. Snelson134 I fear the young lady had been playing the role of honeypot for a while so that particular issue you allude to likely doesn’t say she is dragon worthy fare. I wonder what she or her family did that ended her up serving her country in such a fashion. Given the CCP I suspect there is coercion in the form of someone at home being held.

  22. This has never been an Eastasia Post.

    Remember, Big Bother is watching you.

    The creep.

    1. And the thought of dueling virii makes me imagine a flu virus and a corona virus each holding VERY small rapiers with seconds of other virus types standing nearby. A shame that even stick figures are beyond my artistic skills.

        1. MMM perhaps firing Hydrogen nuclei via electrostatic forces? One COULD use lead ions thus making the bullet material more traditional.

  24. Get well soon. We need folks willing to fight—and smart enough not to go off half-cocked.

    Historical Example: Bill Halsey was down with Shingles and Ray Spruance led his Task Force 16 at Midway. Halsey, hot-blooded as he was, might have taken the fight too far and lost his carriers in a night action. Spruance had ice-water in his veins and pulled off an amazing victory in spite of Mitscher and Ring throwing away nearly half of his aircraft.

  26. Well, I went to the store today. I can remember B.F. (Before FICUS) eggs were usually less than $1.40 a dozen, and sometimes went on sale for 99¢. Today the same eggs are $5.00 a dozen, and going nowhere but higher. FJB!!

    1. Yep. I’m getting very tired of people saying “COVID did [thing].” No, the only thing COVID did was make people sick, and far fewer than we’ve been told, at that.

      Our government did ALL of these things to us, with COVID as the excuse. FJB. F the federal government, all of it. The governor of my state still hasn’t relinquished his “emergency” powers, nor has the legislature (Democrat dominated, of course) seen fit to call an end to the charade. F him, and them, with a telephone pole sideways.

      (No, none of this makes me angry. Why do you ask?)

      1. If any honest histories are ever written of this time, they will record how the virus killed thousands, the government’s overreactions killed hundreds of thousands, and the mandated inoculations killed millions.

        But that’s a big IF.

        F them all, with a telephone pole with multiple crosspieces.

        2. Small but extremely significant correction:

          “the virus that the governments, (US and China) created killed thousands,”

    1. Ahh Mr Simon had a cataract removed/replaced in the left eye. Back in 2018 I had that done (moderate cataract but high eye pressure the cateract surgery is easier than the glaucoma surgery, and I was going to need it anyhow). The surgery rates about an 8.5 on the weird-stuff-o-meter. If you’re getting a lens that corrects astigmatism (like Mr. Simon and I did) they need to mark the eyeball with the angle with what looks like a fine tip sharpie. The Surgery is done under local and some relaxing drug (very nice, would do again 🙂 ). The original lens is removed, In this state the world is a mass of blurred colors it felt vaguely like the psychodelic last 20 minutes of 2001. New lens is placed and lots of goopy med is applied to the eye. At this point vision is blurred. You wear an eye covering for two week sleeping. When I woke up the next morning it was verging on miraculous. My sight in the left eye wandered from 20/80 to 20/60 with 3+ diopters of astigmatism throughout my life. I woke up the next morning took off the eye cover and all of a sudden for the first time in my life I could see without glasses.
      I will give one caution. Make sure the ophthalmologist that does the surgery does this regularly. You likely want an ophthalmologist that deals in the issues of the elderly. The New Neo (https://www.thenewneo.com/) had a seven part tale of woe on a failed cataract surgery.

      1. Mom didn’t have to deal with the glaucoma diagnosis (nope, that joy is for some of us grandchildren. We inherited it through mom from grandpa.) She had cataract surgery, in both eyes. She went from “all but legally blind, until put on glasses” to legally able to drive without glasses, not quite 20/20. She doesn’t remember not wearing glasses; definitely had them as she entered school at age 7 (for all practical purposes, November birthday). She was 80 when she had the surgeries.

        I get to deal with the glaucoma and cataracts. Neither are bad enough to warrant surgery, yet. But my last visit the eye doctor mentioned the benefit of cataract surgery also addressing the glaucoma. We’ll see what the new eye doctor says this month (old one move to a location my insurance does not cover, and does not have the equipment for glaucoma monitoring). My eye sight isn’t anywhere near as bad as mom’s was. While I shouldn’t drive without glasses, I could where I know roads and in the daylight. Started wearing them 50 years ago, so I could drive. Didn’t start wearing them full time, at home, until recently only because I now need them for reading too.

        1. Indeed the Eye Pressure is a BIG win. Left Eye was topping out at 24-26 even with lots of meds. After cataract surgery it lives about 12-14. One warning most health insurances (and Medicare) will not pay for the lenses with astigmatism correction. They run about $1200 each. In my case due to the extreme (-3 to -3.5 diopters) correction it made sense. Also if you are young (i.e. under 65) when you do the initial surgery your immune system tries to encapsulate the lens over time(4-10 years). This reduces vision blurring things. Fix for that is an in office visit with a simple laser surgery. I am lucky my Doc is a fellow at Mass. Ear and Eye Institute specializing in Glaucoma, Cataracts and retinal detachment. My medical issues are one of the reasons I would be loathe to move out of Massachusetts.

          1. Over 65, so that is good. Mom’s doctor is local so … My glaucoma pressure runs 12 – 16, depending on when during the day taken, with just the night drops. It was the picture of the eye that diagnosed the problem not the “puff test”. Now pressure is taken via the direct device.

            Which will be so much fun for the doctor and our son. He did not do well when the specialist tried to use that device on the follow up on the surgery on his eye after the orbital floor meets hard ball incident.

            Hubby is just as bad. Only it is because of a torn iris from chain link fence when he was about 4 … Not corrected, that was 67 years ago …

  29. Mike stared at the line of holes in the ground that surrounded his garden, and shook his head.

    “Bad enough the damn gophers took all the vegetables. Now they took the fence posts too!”

    1. Mike those ain’t gophers grabbing the posts, they’re beavers. They tarry coating gives it a little je ne sais quois.

  30. Lisa Marie Presley
    Died Suddenly today
    Did she get the COVID shots?
    Nobody will say.

    Not to make light of a tragedy, but I’m beyond weary of the lack of answers, and refusal to allow the question. How long can they continue this coverup?

    How is it that everything the Democrats said was a lie has turned out to be true, and everything they said was true turns out to be lies? Why do the sheeple believe each new lie?

    1. @ Imaginos1892 > “How is it that everything the Democrats said was a lie has turned out to be true, and everything they said was true turns out to be lies?”

      Well, they started by re-electing to the Senate a guy who plagiarized his life story in a presidential campaign, then kept him around for nearly 40 more years of serial lying, and then finally elected him president (for certain values of “elect.”)

      https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2022/12/22/journalist-is-introduced-to-joe-biden-after-asking-if-theres-precedent-to-the-george-santos-situation-n677555

      “Has Congress ever had someone with so many remarkable biographical holes?”

      Well… yeah, Sam, there has been. You may have heard of him. His name? Joe Biden – happens to be president right now, you know?

      Grabien founder/viral video guru Tom Elliott had the answer at the ready, saving many of us a lot of trouble in the process by recounting many of the embellishments and lies told by Joe Biden about his story and that of his family over the course of his multiple decades of “service” in Washington, D.C.

      Here’s the list Elliott composed in a mini-Twitter thread:

      “— Survived a fire
      — Arrested in civil rights march
      — Star football player
      — Once a truck driver
      — Arrested meeting Mandela
      — Son killed in Iraq
      — Overheard mass shooting
      — Top of his class in college
      — Hit a 368’ homer in baseball game
      — Had job at timber co.

      — Drunk driver killed his wife & daughter
      — Pinned medal on a Navy captain who was just a kid
      — No knowledge of Hunter’s foreign business dealings
      — Turned down offer from the Naval Academy
      — His uncle won a Purple Heart
      — His helicopter in Afghanistan “forced down”

      — Met Parkland families as vice president
      — Was once a coal miner
      — Comes from a family of coal miners
      — Was shot at in Iraq
      — Called Milosevic a “war criminal” to his face
      — Criticized George W. Bush to his face
      — Participated in sit-ins during civil rights movement

      — Oil industry somehow gave him cancer
      — Won a fight against a drug dealer named Cornpop
      — Dead Amtrak worker awarded him for riding 1.8 million miles
      — Attended Temple services on a Sunday
      — Raised in Puerto Rican community
      — Worked as a college prof”

      I remember reading about most of those when they hit the airwaves, but it makes an extremely long list. And now he claims he doesn’t know anything about the classified documents in his office and garage.
      If your political party is willing to tolerate that degree of dishonesty for decades (and Biden is not the only example), then why wouldn’t you lie about anything and everything if it gets you some advantage?

      1. Let us not forget Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut who outright lied about military service. Democrats needless to say didn’t demand his resignation or the resignation of the multitude of Democrats who have lied about their backgrounds.

        If Santos was a Democrat they would be defending him and denouncing those calling for his resignation as bigots.

    2. Come on, everybody knows heart problems are caused by climate change. And gas stoves. And white supremacy.

    3. I did see a post somewhere (not here – there are no posts here) that Elvis’s side of the family had a history of dying young of heart problems.

      2. Elvis Certainly had issues. Of course he ate fried peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches and did uppers like nobody’s business…

    4. I saw an old tweet (found and reposted on Gab) that indicated that yep, she got the clot-shot. She was happy about it. Sigh.

  31. I had a cough so my doctor switched me from Lisinopril to Olmesartan. May have helped. My cough wasn’t all that bad. I’m taking too many drugs these days and none of them are any fun.

    2. Yeah, I have cough issues with lisinopril, too. Fortunately, they are very mild and only an inconvenience in snowflake masking groups. On the other hand, since it is an ACE2 inhibitor, I credit it more than the jabs for not catching COVID.

      1. Hey Yet another thing that helps with avoiding COVID!! I’ve been on lisinopril (later with HCTZ , Hydroclorothiazide a diuretic added) probably 10+ years without issue. The only issue I had was that initially
        it made me a little loopy, so I took it at bedtime, A couple years later jumped to the version with the HCTZ but was still taking it at bedtime. Ended up in the hospital briefly 5 years or so ago and the nurse that brought me my pills at night said, ” Why are you taking this at bedtime, a 50+ year old man you’ll be getting up every 90 minutes to use the bathroom!” DUH, sometimes I’m surprised I have lived this long, certainly helps my spouse and daughters keep an eye on me.

        My understanding is Lisinopril and Lisinopril/hctz are first line drugs for combating mild high blood pressure. Most people tolerate it well, it is generic and dirt cheap (< $10 for a 90 day supply). Sounds like many docs are not familiar with the side effects. Lots of them (especially GP) tend to very flow chart style solutions to things and aren’t real familiar with side effects or complications of meds (let alone interactions).

        1. Doctors mostly know what the pharmacy companies tell them what a medication can do. And the only skim the major side effects. If you want details and possible drug interactions; talk to a good pharmacist. They’re the real experts. (Although like far too many people and jobs nowadays, that assumes they didn’t fake their way through school.)

  32. We know how it is that every claim the Democrats make is a lie; they’re in the grip of evil, and the truth is not in them. Why so many people believe each new lie in turn…that’s a mystery to me. Not sure it’s solvable.

  33. @ Ing > “Why so many people believe each new lie in turn…that’s a mystery to me.”

    If your news always and only comes from the Democrat-Media complex, you can go a life-time and never learn that you are being lied to.

      1. However the Lies are on Page 1 above the fold. The retraction (when and if it comes) is on page 37c after the weddings, deaths and help wanted sections. It’s the help wanted section that keeps them from finding it, help wanted sections are to Brahmandarins and their minions like crosses and holy water are to vampires.

  34. This is not a reply. 🙂

    Somewhat late to the game, and this might or might not be helpful. but I just talked to a friend of mine out in Albuquerque and he swears by Mucinex (I just picked up some from SprawlMart and will try it as soon as I’m safely home).

    Bummer about all your health problems. Why does this crap happen to the nicest people?

    1. Costco sells a mucus product that has the key ingredient for expectoration. It’s not an extended release version (one tab every 4 hours), but it doesn’t have the extra crap that Mucinex seems to be bundled with.

      1. Mucinex does have a version that is straight Guafetussin (the expectorant) also extended release. This is the medication in Pertussin syrup of our youth. The pill is more palatable than the syrup if you swallow it quickly although it is LARGE and dissolves fast… Some also have Dextromethorophan(sp?) or dm to surpress cough. This does have interactions with BP and other things so may be best to ask first.

        1. The cough medicine interaction with BP with the glaucoma. A lot of products have glaucoma as one of the conditions that indicate “don’t take”. Trust me. I’m sick enough, I’ll risk it. But then I’m in the early stages with glaucoma. Otherwise I don’t have BP issues.

          1. Yeah I didn’t realize there was a glaucoma contraindication there. In my case though I tend to wander into Bronchitis and similar. My choices are often breathe or drive the eye pressure up a bit for a while. Breathing wins every time 🙂

            1. “My choices are often breathe or drive the eye pressure up a bit for a while. Breathing wins every time”
              …………

              100%

              No contest. I am very much in favor of breathing.

              1. #MeToo, which is why I never got into the cult of the face diaper. My trial run with a dust mask at the start of Covidiocy had me wondering just where I was going to collapse. OTOH, the face shield was acceptable most places.

                I just spent a couple of days in Medford. Lots of people, apparently healthy, still wearing one or two. It seems higher than in Flyover Falls, though I gather that the diaper is very much a California thing, and there’s a lot more Cali’s shopping in Medford than in the Falls.

                1. I tried to tough it out once.

                  That would be when my knees collapsed under me, on the way down the stairs, when I was carrying our three year old. For those keeping track. I got lucky and landed in a way that didn’t cause damage to anyone involved, although I still freak out a little when I’m coming down those stairs because I went from “stop it, Fox, you’re being ridiculous, you can do this, all these other people do” to “why did my legs just stop working?”

                  Apparently, when my body is informing me that I’m not getting enough air, I am… actually not getting enough air.

                2. The mask requirements annoyed me so much that I seriously considered trying to find a surplus NBC suit to wear. I am so done with all the covidiots.

                    2. Look for NECHARI Steampunk Plague Mask on Amazon. Mine was about $15.00.

                      You’ll want to cut a couple of small air holes in the bottom. There are vents in the top of the ‘beak’ but they close up when you inhale. Make the air holes far enough out that your chin doesn’t block them.

        2. The Mucinex variant that I give a hard NOPE to is the one with a decongestant. I’ve been on BP meds for 15 years now and I don’t need anything that raises my blood pressure. (Before L-pril, I was on Enalapril, but it got dropped from my pharmacy’s buying program and the out of pocket cost went through the roof. (I don’t have prescription insurance, which usually works for me, but when it doesn’t…)

          FWIW, some people (raises hand) are “steroid sensitive”. In my case, I had post-op steroid eye drops, and my IOC went way too high. Had to spend the big bucks for a glaucoma med until I could drop the steroid.

          Before it went off patent, I was taking Humabid LA, an extended release version of Guaifenisin. Stuff was cheaper than Mucinex, but I had Rx insurance back then. Arggh.

          1. Doesn’t help you because if I remember correctly your nearest Costco is either Bend or on I-5. But Costco has a program that is for members, and their pets, who do not have, or have lousy prescription insurance. We were in the latter, until medicare took over. Now just my Rosea medication (and pet medications) is under it (not covered). Until Lipator went off patent, it was expensive. Not going through the insurance we could get it less for a 90 day supply than through the co-pay every 30 days with the insurance. The limit of which maxed out after 5 months, given his other medications. So we didn’t bother.

            1. I used to be on the Bi-Mart plan, but that went toes up long before Bi-Mart got forced out of the pharmacy business. One of my three meds is stable in price, but the other two (a statin and Lipator) have gone up a lot. Not sure how much of the increase has been due changes in subsidies; I know that one outfit bailed, and they handled the replacement for the Bi-Mart program.

              OTOH, the January refills didn’t go up from October’s. Crosses fingers.
              On the gripping hand, I found that my blood sugar test strips are about 50% cheaper on line after Costco dropped them. Seems the manufacturer has an Amazon store…

              2. [rechecks numbers] Online is 70% of Costco’s July price, for Lifescan OneTouch Verio strips. I’ve been on Lifescan since 2016 and Verio since it got rolled out a few years back. Recommended.

                (I don’t go for a prescription, though I think that it’s covered under Medicare Part B. I don’t want the extra supervision an Rx would entail.)

  35. Re: rolling crud, I did that one year, and I had had a preview for three months back when I was in college.

    The only way to go is to keep building your body back up. Vitamin A is really important for this, as are a ton of the other vitamins and minerals. But mostly Vitamin A and C, because they are the big immune system vitamins, and A gets drawn down every time you get sick.

    (And then your wounds stop healing and your hair starts falling out… yeah, top up your Vitamin A before that.)

    OTOH, don’t eat a whole gallon of purple ube ice cream made from real ube, even though it will top up your immune system with A, and feel good on your throat. Because your stomach will hate you.

    Yup, guaifenesin/Mucinex is great for clearing out lungs, if you react well to it.

  40. I am not a doctor so this isn’t medical advice. (Disposing of the legal nonsense.)

    “It was better than the medicine reaction, in that I could take cough medicine. But it went off every three hours, and I couldn’t take it for four and– Yeah.”

    Cut the dosage in half and take it twice as often. Effectiveness is dependent on the absorption and elimination time constants and on the therapeutic threshold but it’s a very good bet it will work for you (or most people) and the technique is safe.

  42. I’m mildly surprised we’ve not had more people out sick at Day Job. The second week after an extended break-with-travel usually means a slew of folks signed out because of newly-arrived viri. taps wood

  44. The classified documents in the garage were perfectly secure because they were guarded by my corvette named Christine.

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