Train wrecks and such…

Ever feel like a train wreck? Ever feel like you look like one to EVERYONE? I totally had one of those weeks.

Back story: I tend to overextend myself. I “go go go” and “schedule schedule schedule” myself to death. I think “I can handle it” until I can’t anymore. Eventually something breaks down and stops me in my tracks. Why do I do this? I don’t know. I like having stuff to do. I feel lazy if I’m just hanging out. Anyway, back to the train wreck…

So let’s recap events leading up to train wreck:

I traveled one weekend for a girl’s only retreat...and experienced way too much estrogen, not enough sleep and overloaded my brain with way too much girly creativity. I was truly craving a beer and some football by Sunday.

I followed up said weekend with intense week of work prior to a long awaited vacation to Napa.

Napa – how bad could that be? You are right, it was wonderful. All the excellent and copious amounts of wine, lovely scenery and the best food to nosh till your tummy is either content or in a coma…it’s all wonderful. The only problem was I traveled with morning people. I’m not a morning person in any sense of the phrase. They got up every morning at 6 am! God love ‘em, I tried to adapt but my clock just couldn’t adjust. Sadly, I’m not the heavy sleeper I once was, so I woke up with them. Combine that with tossing and turning during the night, and hitting the treadmill by 7 am each day, and you aren’t so rejuvenated anymore. Overall it was still wonderful, but what I needed when I got home was to be home to rest up. And that was going to have to wait.

Cut to Thanksgiving Eve.

I fly home the night before from San Fran, run by the grocery story to pick up all the items for the kick booty relish tray. Side story: I luck out since I’m not married yet and get assigned small dishes like the relish tray. But the overachiever in me decides it has to be the best freaking relish tray ever so I spend a good 30 min in Market Street picking out all kinds of fancy relishes and such. This is stupid because they probably won’t know what half of this stuff is. I know… I am weird. No comments necessary.

Anyway, time to head to family-ville for some National Lampoon’s style antics. The actual family holiday was surprisingly absent of conflict or super high emotions. That was a nice change…

Cut to that night…start feeling sickly, throat hurts, head hurts, hoping the flu is not around the corner for me. To be honest I felt this way the last night of the vacation, but I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening.

I think the way we handle sickness has a lot to do with how we were treated as kids. I remember if I had a fever I was cleared to stay home, but allergies? Heck no. Get up and get over it. Okay maybe not that harsh, but you get my point. I learned to wear it. Anyway, I down all the OTC stuff I can get my hands on to try and get better. I have another trip coming up.

At least I go home on Saturday to try and recoup, but I spend the majority of the time not resting so when my trip on Tuesday comes up, I’m so not prepared for what’s about to happen.

I fly in that a.m. and nearly miss my flight which is always a good way to start a trip. Heads up AA has cut their flight schedules so much even the platinum lines at security are super long…

Anyway, I make it on the flight and apparently pick up something that will completely sideline me.

I’m in my boss’s office working on presentation when I mention it looks like a blood vessel popped in my eye. She mentions pink eye. I cringe. I’ve never had that before. Surely this is not pink eye. I worry. I try not to think about it. I worry again. Repeat.

We are taking the customer to dinner. I have to go. I am worried I will infect them. This yucky puss like mess is accumulating in my eye and I’m trying to be discrete so I don’t offend or cause involuntary vomiting on the part of my colleagues at dinner. I succeed and make it back to my hotel room where I pull the contact lens out of my eye to discover my entire eye is red and the puss is coming out in record time now. So freaking gross!

Next a.m. – my right eye is swollen completely shut. I call our medical group. They can see me – thank goodness. My lovely boss convinces me to let her drive me around. Lesson learned: I need to stop being so damn independent and learn to accept help. I was prepared to drive myself around with one eye’s worth of vision while I felt like crap and didn’t know where I was going. Brilliant!

Cut to medical – severe case of sinusitis and the pink eye I thought I had might be more emergent than regular pink eye so I need to go see a specialist so I don’t go blind or something awful like that. TRAIN WRECK! Oh and the fluid that’s in my ears – we need to get that drained or your ear drums might pop on the flight home. Lovely!

The good news is I didn’t have that awful other thing, and my official diagnosis was allergic conjunctivitis but I’m pretty damned pissed that allergies are now doing this to me. First it was dermatitis that made me look like I was on the receiving end of a nice right and left hook, and now this! Enough is enough!

I also realized I’m a bit vain. I can’t wear any eye makeup or my contacts and I have to go out and see people. This is horrible. It’s horrible that this is that horrible to me. I really need to get over that issue.