Monday, April 09, 2007

A Foreign Body

Easter updates will follow as soon as I go through the pictures we have and crop myself out of all of them. Ha.

The familiar pregnant-woman phrase, "I want my body back," is beginning to take on a whole new meaning for me lately. Of course I want my body back in the sense of fitting into my old clothes, having my energy level boosted back up, and not being kick-boxed from the inside. But there's a lot more to it than that. I knew my old body really well. I knew how much sleep I needed to function the next day, what to eat (or not eat) to keep myself feeling OK, I knew what medicines worked on me and which ones didn't, and I knew how long I could walk around a mall before I got tired. We're usually pretty tight, my body and me.

Being pregnant is like jumping into someone else's body and having to re-learn everything. Not only that -- when you start to figure yourself out, it could easily change over the next month, week or even the next day.

Case in point: Every year around this time (pregnant or not), I get really, really bad alleriges. Under normal circumstances I start popping Claritins and voila -- allergies averted. I may need asthma medication depending on the severity of my allergies, but those things seem to keep me in check. Lately, nothing keeps me in check. Claritin doesn't work. I hesitated popping a lot of different medications trying to find the "magic one", but I did try some nasal decongestants. I thought they worked one night, so I took them again the next night, and I woke up around 3 unable to breathe through either of my nostrils and unable to get back to sleep. That's been the routine for the past week. So now I walk around in constant, zombie-like state of congestion and sleep deprivation.

How much time left? Oh yeah, a MONTH. I better stock up on tissues.

1 comment:

Deep in the Heart of Texas said...

I got a horrible cold in my ninth month w/ bentley. It sounds the same as you - waking up in the middle of the night not be able to breathe because I was so congested. And the saline spray they say works? It didn't for me. I finally resorted to those breathe right strips that stick on the bridge of your nose. Works wonders, I tell you. You really don't appreciate prescription drugs until you can't use them anymore. I don't envy you right now - it gets better! -Chels