A Slow Start to the New Year

I had such high hopes about posting frequently in the new year, and perhaps even posting all of the stuff from December that I never got around to posting about. Unfortunately, work has been busy (the quarter just ended and everyone wants something), and I've had a bad cold since last week. It's not at all uncommon for me to get sick around the holidays...I pretty much always do, but this cold I have just won't go away, and it's not getting any better or worse. If it got worse I would go to the doctor, but I don't need to go to the doctor for just a cold.

So, I've been treating my cold with medicine I got when I was in Greece this spring for my honeymoon. The day before D and I left Crete to fly home, I had wicked sinus pain. There was no way I was going to spend 8+ hours on a plane with my head like that, so I spoke with the concierge at the hotel about seeing an English speaking doctor. He said they have a doctor that has office hours at the resort twice a week and I could get an appointment in a few days. I explained that I was flying home the next day. He asked what was wrong and I gestured to my sinuses and said I had a sinus infection.

After a quick conversation in Greek, the concierge said the doctor would be at the hotel in 1/2 hour. When she arrived, she was looking at me very strangely and said "you don't seem to have an infection of the face"--that's what the concierge told her I had! So she ended up doing a quick exam and agreed with me that I had a sinus infection. She wrote me 3 prescriptions--a 5-day antibiotic, a decongestant nasal spray, and some cough syrup. She had the pharmacy deliver them to my room. Oh boy, I thought, what's this going to cost?? It ended up being 80 Euros for the doctor, the prescriptions, and the taxi for the pharmacy delivery! I was ecstatic, but also felt guilty--the Greek government should really charge American tourists more for medical care--I mean, I don't pay Greek taxes.

So, this week I've been taking Ronal, the decongestant nasal spray, and Bisolvon, the cough syrup. I have a 250ml bottle of Bisolvon--that should last me a while!

In other news, it's cold!! Last night when I got home from work it was already below zero (this is Farenheit folks). It's supposed to warm up this weekend and next week. I hope we get more snow. We've had about 36" so far this season -- more snow then I've seen since I was in college. I am so glad that I have a garage! I'm so glad that I don't have to dig my car out of the snow on the side of the street and then pay a ticket for parking in a snow emergency zone. The snow this winter is a good introduction to the burbs for me. I remember when I first moved to Middlebury, the winter of 1994 was almost recordbreakingly cold and snowy. It was a good initiation for me. I learned to almost look forward to my nose hairs freezing the moment I stepped outside.

No nose hair freezing yet this year thankfully, but here's a picture of D and the snowblower in action!