So I'm stuck in the basement with a stomach bug. Which is okay, because I suppose I'd rather be in the basement with a stomach bug than running around outside doing camp stuff in 95 degree temperatures.

So anyway, I found this game. Do you think it will improve my spatial perception issues? It has very soothing music, anyway.

Oh, man, Kate. I feel you on the move thing. But congrats on the house! You can do it!

So now I know to move my car onto the sidewalk in a storm like that (but not right in front of my house, because there was water flooding into my yard). I gotta say, it was freaky to see a visible CURRENT in the streets, all rushing away from the river. I saw a manhole cover popped out and flipped over. I was totally doing that thing you're not supposed to do, which is drive in moving water.

Silly me, thinking it only flooded here during hurricanes.

The rain is finally tapering off, so I'll head out and do those errands in a bit, including buying rain boots. If Fleurty Girl isn't all sold out, that is.

I am great at giving medical advice ("What, 2 benadryl? And a little codeine? With bourbon? SURRRE!"), but not great at deciding what to do about my own ill health.

It's been 7 days since I went to the doctor; she prescribed a Z-pak for my sinus infection. With the Z-pak you take pills for 5 days but the antibiotic stays in your system for 10-12 days (it's a weird half-life thing that disturbs me if I think about it too long). So I have 7 days' equivalent, at this point, of antibiotics in me.

I don't feel worse. I also can't say I feel better. I feel somewhat less bad. I am really tired all the time, and my head is still stuffy (mostly clear stuff, woo).

My ears seem much, much better; I have 3 more days of ear drops for them.

So, since the Z-pak is supposed to be the equivalent of 10 days of treatment, and I'm only on day 7, and I *do* feel less bad (just not what I would call "better"), I'm thinking I should wait until day 10 before I call the doctor back.

If I were worse, I'd have been on the phone this morning. I'm just...marginally less bad.

Also, several people have told me that when they've taken the Z-pak, it has wiped them out big time, in the extremely-tired-for-DAYS sense. So maybe that has something to do with me not feeling robustly healthy.

So, since I apparently cannot give myself health advice, anyone care to weigh in? Should I wait until day 10 and see how I feel before calling the doctor back? Like I said, I don't feel *worse,* and I do feel somewhat less-bad. Which I guess is technically improvement. Or, okay, actual improvement.

If I had 10 days' worth of actual pills, and all other things were the same (i.e., me not feeling worse but only somewhat less bad) I don't think I'd even consider calling the doctor until I was done taking them.

So I guess I have my answer -- but I really WOULD appreciate any advice/thoughts/voodoo curses.

Catching up on the Zoya conversation: the Infamous BlueJay came over last night and handed me a bottle of Zoya "Jem". Daaaamn, that is a pretty sparkly deep burgundy, and I need matching lipstick.

Tep, the last time I had to do a Z-Pak, it left me feeling exhausted for days. In your shoes, I would wait to call the doctor.

smonster, yikes, that sounds scary! I hope you can get your car dried out quickly.

Steph, I would probably wait too, if I were in your situation. If the antibiotics are still in your system, the doctor probably wouldn't put you on anything else until they ran their course anyway, right? That would be my assumption, at least.

That said, I'm sorry you're not feeling much better! It must be extremely frustrating to be charting these tiny improvements instead of being able to say, definitively, "Okay, I'm all better now!"

Are you a big enough fan of HP to want one of these dolls?

Ay yi yi! Nightmare fuel indeed. Although I admit that my repulsion to newborn baby dolls has a longer history. I don't get wanting a doll version of a newborn. It has all the uncanny awkwardness of the eek!fetal human! quality that newborns have, with none of the delicious humanity and hormone-driven YUM! Must snuggle!

Steph, I usually think of antibiotics as bringing fairly fast relief, and then by the end of the course the pills themselves start making me tired. So if you felt better before you started feeling tired, I'd say they've probably done their job.

Daaaamn, that is a pretty sparkly deep burgundy, and I need matching lipstick.

Hmm, well dang, now I need to think further. It seems like Yasmine with glitter. Is that about right?

It must be extremely frustrating to be charting these tiny improvements instead of being able to say, definitively, "Okay, I'm all better now!"

Plus, people keep asking me how I'm feeling, in the way that polite people do, and I feel like I'm admitting to failure when I tell them I'm not feeling all the well just yet. Like *I* am deliberately not getting well.

And then you have insistent people who are all "Well, you SHOULD be feeling better by now!" Uh, okay. Can you come over and wave your magic wand and make it so? Sheesh.

Tep, that's a wait to me. Unfortunately.

So if you felt better before you started feeling tired, I'd say they've probably done their job.

Well, I guess "less bad" probably clinically equals "better," actually, and right now the not-feeling-great is coming from the antibiotic-associated fatigue, not the lingering Black Death.

I hope. t hand to forehead, dramatic pose