Monday- tired but good + medical mystery

My Monday:

Yesterday was a rare day in that I didn’t have any scheduled meetings. That is THE BEST. My old job actually rarely had meetings (was very solo work oriented, back then), and I didn’t realize how much I took that for granted.

It was a peaceful day and I was able to catch up and get ahead of a few things. I’m anticipating a very busy season coming up and am getting a bit anxious about it. In between my trip in October and another trip in November falls a particularly hectic season at work- prepping for 2 big bi-annual meetings that I’m in charge of for 2 different organ programs. The actual meetings will straddle the November trip- one before, one right after.

I already find getting ready for travel to be time-consuming, no matter how I slice it, so I’m just anxious about getting ready travel AND being pressed with things at work AND still dealing with kids’ games/sports/house/life/Charlie/etc.

Oh well, I guess! I will do my best to be proactive, but certain parts of it can’t actually be done that far in advance. (Requires data up to a specific point and some things depend on other people’s contributions, too, before I can proceed.).

Yesterday was a nice, NOT stressful day though, so I tried to enjoy that while it lasted. 🙂

I felt soooooo tireddddd yesterday, though (both sleepy-tired and just… body-tired).

I am not entirely sure why! It was weird.

In part, I was awake for a while in the night. Charlie jumped down from the bed at 2 am, scratched at the door (he rarely does this unless he wants to go out, which is also very rare at night), so Ivan tried to let him out, but he didn’t want to go! It’s like he just thought he’d go out in the living room for a little while? But then Ivan brought him back to bed and within 2 minutes (both he and Charlie) were fast asleep again, so who knows. Meanwhile, I couldn’t fall back to sleep. 🙄

I also did some new cardio videos over the weekend and Monday morning. I have been trying out MadFit and Pamela Reif. Completely fed to me by the algorithm, but both seem to have SHORT videos that meet my needs for home cardio. One thing I like about these better than Emkfit is that they just jump right in and you figure out the moves as you go. With Em, she does quite a lot of explaining and demo-ing the moves first, which kind of “wastes time”/ slows things down too much sometimes.

Anyway, it seems odd that some 15 min cardio videos would wear me out, though! Ha.

I do think that I was feeling it a little from my 2+ hours painting the deck on Sunday afternoon, also. It didn’t make me “sore” exactly, but you know what I mean- I was in weird positions, all hunched over, it was hot… I felt exhausted when I was done (I think it was mostly the heat!), and I just noticed it a bit in my body + my back yesterday.

Finally, I think I felt a little emotionally tired. It was an excellent weekend, but very social with a lot of people-time and constant talking and socializing. I am more introverted by nature and recharge by being alone, so I think by Monday I just felt somewhat mentally tired/ overstimulated. The ongoing continuously dark and heavy news cycles, online conflicts, etc. also continue to weigh on me emotionally, too, despite trying to avoid it where I can.

Fortunately I had a pretty relaxed evening last night as a reprieve. Ivan was in charge of dinner, as I had a virtual high school swim team board meeting to attend (from the comfort of my sunroom, thankfully). He made chilaquiles and steak. I did run and pick up Asher from a lifeguard shift at 6, but Ivan also handled then shuttling A back and forth to the pool for his 7:20-8:50 p.m. swim practice.

Yes, that’s very late… and it’s like that every night all fall. (The girls high school team uses the pool until after 6, so the club teams can’t get in there until then, and of course they have to let the littles take the 6 pm slot, then…).

I went in the hot tub after my meeting (it was super hot all day but cooled down just enough after dark that I felt up for a soak) and crawled in bed early.

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Medical mystery: my dry cough

Also wanted to just mention here, because who knows- maybe someone else has experienced the same thing:

So, I’ve had this lingering dry cough since the end of July. I remember exactly when it started- was the Monday or Tuesday before we left for Florida on August 1st. At the time, I thought, Oh shoot, I must be getting a cold!

But then I never developed any other illness symptoms- no headache, no fever, no runny nose, no sore throat, no fatigue, nothing. No one else in our family was sick, or got sick, either.

This was also around the time that our air quality was horrendous due to the Canadian wildfire smoke, so I thought maybe it was irritation from that? Anyway, didn’t think much about it.

Went to Florida, and it continued that whole week. Not constant, but very much there, every single day. Just mostly an irritation. Sometimes worse in the evenings, but not necessarily. And very DRY- not productive at all, no phlegm- more like I feel a tickle in my throat and it makes me have to cough.

Anyway, this has persisted now continuously since then, so coming up on 2 months now. It’s so weird!

I can sometimes feel a little “something” in the back of my throat- like I often have to clear my throat- but no pain with breathing, no heartburn symptoms, no other allergy symptoms like itchy or watery eyes or sneezing, and the cough itself doesn’t produce anything. My throat occasionally feels just a touch sore or raw, but usually just after I’ve been coughing a lot, like it’s irritated.

I went to see the doctor last week and she said my lungs sounded clear and everything looked fine, though she noted some redness in my nose and throat, which she said could be some post-nasal drainage. So she wants me to try doing a Netipot (sinus saline rinse) + FloNase spray daily for a month and then check back in 30 days. (Even though I don’t feel any sinus or nasal congestion…who knows.)

I have now done both religiously, daily, for 5 days and have noticed zero difference in my cough yet. I guess time will tell. 🤷‍♀️

Dr. Google also says that GERD or silent reflux could potentially cause a dry cough, so I had asked about that. She said if this doesn’t help, we could explore that next, although I have no history of that. I have been taking Meloxicam for my back, though not super consistently, since the spring- which is an NSAID. NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can be known for causing stomach lining damage/ulcers, so it’s not impossible that it’s related? Though again, I have no other symptoms of acid reflux. (I do eat a diet that would probably NOT be at all acid friendly, were that the case- tons of spicy food, caffeine, and acidic foods like tomatoes, salsa, etc…..).

Then, it always could be a giant mass of lung cancer. 🙃Ha. Just kidding… sort of. (I mean, not impossible, but also, not super likely. I will still be relieved when we hopefully figure this out, though, and it’s not that. lol.)

Anyway, I am getting very annoyed with this now and would like to figure it out. Sometimes it feels like it’s maybe actually getting worse, or more persistent.

Will report back! Not that I’m asking the internet to diagnose me 🤣 but figured it can’t hurt to see if anyone has any great ideas. 😉

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the swim board meeting being virtual last night…..