Heat Waves and Earaches

We are in the midst of a heat wave. The humidity (my youngest used to call this humility) is overpowering and I find it difficult to mow and tend gardens. We did get a brief shower last night and a respite from the heat. The night air was cool enough to actually open windows.

I watched the forecast last night while enjoying the cool breeze through the window. The clueless young man spoke in earnest and warned us that by midnight the temperature would climb to 80. Didn't happen and was still quite nice this morning at 7:30 when a barking dog woke me. HeWho had already left the building and was no doubt on a breakfast mission to McDonalds.

He always takes the doorbell out of the socket when he leaves, causing it to reprogram to Jingle Bells when I plug it back in. I don't know why he bothers, I am sure that Toni Louise decided it was time to wake me as soon as he closed the front door. But, he was trying to be considerate.

I would rather have been treated to that consideration last night when Oscar got me up 4 times before 1:30. I was in a considerable amount of pain and wanted desperately to find sleep to escape.

I took my aching head to the doctor's office Monday afternoon. I do not see the doctor, I prefer the nurse practitioner. They have two at  my clinic and I saw the one who is usually visited by HeWho has not a clue about his medications. Both of them are quite competent and very thorough. Although my headaches present as migraines with the warning aura before hand, the fact that they do not grow into a full blown migraine leaving me in a dark room, curled in a fetal ball in agony, made an investigation be necessary. We decided that I have a sinus infection and am now taking antibiotics, very strong ones with all the undesired side effects. She decided to check my ears at the end of the exam and that is when she discovered the real culprit. I have an ear infection. She was unable to see my ear drum, it being totally blocked with wax, but I admitted that it hurt, too. I just thought it was part of my headache misery.

So, ear drops were prescribed. I administered them myself the first night. It is hard to count when you can't see what you are doing. You can feel the drop hit, but what if the drop is just sliding down the canal. Thinking I may have been a little heavy handed with the application, I asked HeWho could see what he was doing to put them in last night.

The first drop felt like it must have fallen from the ceiling! It hurt! I felt each and every drop and my ear commenced to stab me with pain all evening. I had some outdoor chores that needed doing after the painful dropping of drops and went about the business of doing so, all the while hoping the pain would subside. It didn't. I watered and weeded and even mowed before the first drops of rain sent me in. I was in so much pain I was on a hunting mission for any painkillers I could lay my hands on. I found a Tramadol left from HeWho's motorcycle flipping event and took one, then treated myself to a nice shower. I waited for over an hour and the pain still lingered, so I followed up with some Tylenol.

When it had finally eased and sleep was about to overtake me ........ the dog whined. I truly love my old guy, Oscar, but there are times when I just want to scream at him. HeWho got up with him the first time, but was back with him way too fast. "Did you let him have his fill of water?" He answered in the affirmative, but I was back up with him in the next 20 minutes and 3 times after that. He was just restless and maybe the change in routine with HeWho confused his inner peace.

Bad enough that Oscar was unsettled, but Wall-E jumps out of the bed whenever I take Oscar out. He can jump down, but he is unable to jump up and has to be lifted. He is our heaviest dog at 22 lbs. and offers no help in the lifting up. It is like picking up a toddler gone limp in the floor. Doing that with my ear hurting was beyond bearable, so after the first lift, I simply gated him out of the bedroom. Wall-E is sensitive and if one of the other dogs offends him and won't let him lie where he wants he will play the martyr and slink off to the living room to spend the night in HeWho's recliner. The next morning he will stare at me, as if he expects me to console him. Depends on my mood whether this happens or not.

So, when I was rudely awakened at 7:30 and realized that it was somewhat cool outside, I decided to get on up and get some serious yard stuff done. I got quite a bit of clipping branches and mowing done before coming in at 12:30. The pool is not as busy with the fair in town. I am hoping for an office chair nap today.