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Written September 21, 2012
Have you ever seen a pregnant person trying to get up and out of a chair? This is basically what I look like right now. I’m terribly uncomfortable from this darn side pain. It hurts to breathe, sit up, lie down, move, drive…well, anything really. As I was trying to fall asleep last night I was truly wishing my mom was here. She’d know what to do. When the pain started moving down my back I decided that it was time to see a doc because in the meantime I wasn’t getting much accomplished.
I went to two walk in clinics, neither of which took my out-of-state health insurance, but I felt so awful that I decided to just pay whatever the general cost was. According to the doctor, I likely picked up an allergy while my immune system was weighed down from the two-day cold I had a few weeks ago. The allergy (though I’ve never knowingly had allergies before) caused me to cough like I have been, which is what led to the pulled intercostal muscle. Ouchies!
The visit was $100 and then thanks to a small, community supported pharmacy store my two Rx’s and allergy meds only cost $16. Total! While I was waiting for my Rx’s to get filled I noticed that this pharmacy also carried some vegan-labeled, preventative health care supplements. Neat!
Since I’d be on an antibiotic (as a precautionary med) I decided to stop by Whole Foods to pick up some Probiotics.
Since antibiotics kill the good bacteria along with the bad bacteria, taking probiotics along with antibiotics can help to keep the population of good bacteria in your gut from being totally destroyed. Sometimes antibiotics cause diarrhea or lead to infections of other bacteria due to the destruction of the healthy bacteria in the gut. Taking the right type of probiotics in these situations can help to minimize the risk of this happening. – Jessica Bruso, Live Strong
[NOTE: It’s highly advisable to take probiotics regularly but particularly if you’re ever on antibiotics. Just be sure wait at least two hours between taking the antibiotic and the probiotic or else they will cancel each other out.]
When I was at Whole Foods I asked one of the employees if there were any probiotics that didn’t need to stay refrigerated. He pointed me toward a plant-based brand after spotting my ‘vegan’ necklace (by Design Specimen). Nice! And despite his recommendation I did pick up some ice and keep the bottle of probiotic pills in the cooler, just to be sure they’d remain effective.
I took a probiotic and then decided to go back to Cafe Samana for lunch where this time I enjoyed the Tempeh Reuben sandwich with a side of Butternut Squash soup. It was delicious!
I wanted to get Gerty all cleaned up in preparation for my mom’s arrival. It’s kind of like, when your family comes to visit you at your college dorm or your new apartment/home and you want it to look all spiffy and as if you don’t just throw your crap all over the place when no one else is looking. Hehe. So I brought Gerty to a car wash/vacuum place, after lunch and got her all cleaned up! I was also trying to find something to do while letting the probiotic digest, before taking the rest of my medicine cocktail. So, it all worked out.
The cough syrup I was given has codeine in it which means no driving (or operating large equipment). Since most of my days involve doing exactly what I’m not supposed to do, for at least a few hours, I decided to see what movies were playing at the nearby theater. The only thing I hadn’t seen yet was Dredd. Eh, it’ll do. I drove to the theater, bought my ticket, went into the ladies bathroom to take the antibiotic, the cough syrup, and the anti-allergy stuff, and then sat hazily through a terribly unentertaining movie.
Once the movie let out I was already feeling the effects of the stuff I had taken and the pain was being successfully covered up – at least a bit. I figured it’d be okay to drive so I set out and as I was going along everything hit me a bit harder. I felt super drowsy and had to pull over. I decided to splurge on a hotel room tonight because a deep sleep in a nice bed sounded too irresistible to pass up. I chose a hotel on the cheaper side, which meant it was a little sketch, but all I really wanted was a space to relax and not worry about … all the things I worry about whenever I sleep in the van.
I totally passed out and woke up aroudnd 7:30PM. I took another probiotic and then went to pick up dinner from The Tropical. This time I ordered garlic rice and veggies with lettuce wraps (peanuts, glass noodles, onions, and veggies) to-go. Those lettuce wraps were pretty phenomenal. Yum!
After I ate I took the next dose of the rest of the meds (I am supposed to take them three times a day – sans the cough syrup if I’m going to drive), opened up NetFlix, watched some 30 Rock and now I’m writing to you!
I’m going to go back to sleep y’all but glad to be on the mend!! Write you tomorrow! xo 🙂