First, I will warn you that this is a rant or sorts and I apologize in advance to any of my readers, stealth or otherwise, that smoke. You will get no lectures from me, as you are all keenly aware of what this does to your health and do not need me to nag at you in spite of yourselves.
All that out of the way, I shall begin! Months ago SF went to an allergist, as she was having issues that she could just not shake. She had been afflicted by sniffles and a runny nose for over two months and nothing was helping. She wasn't sleeping and that meant neither was I. Two grumpy females under one roof is not a good thing, trust me on this. Turns out, after all the tests, that she is HIGHLY allergic to two main things. Thing one is cigarette smoke. Thing two is cat dander.
Things two is a bit of an issue given the fact that I have two INDOOR cats. We discussed our options and both agreed that NO pets should sleep in the bedroom. We relocated the cats' beds to the front study and the dogs' bed to the living room. After I cleaned the house from top to bottom (dusted, vacuumed, steam mopped and cleaned the wood floors) and the new meds kicked in, she was all better within an additional two weeks. Things had been going just fine until this past Thursday.
SF had Thursday off (to much to explain regarding how her work schedule and holidays are taken) and while I was gone, she spent the better part of the day in the front room on both of the laptops (work and personal). Neither of us thought much about it until Friday morning when she woke up with the start of sniffles. After breakfast we realized that the cat room had not been cleaned as of yet, so she had spent the day with not only the cats' dander but all the dust and stuff deposited there for a week. She got on the meds pronto. By the end of the day she was sounding and feeling MUCH better. I thought we were in the clear. There will be a post about the LYS visit and Friday later today.
Wrong, try again. Saturday we got up early (6:15 AM CST) to eat and get ready for our first MVP motorcycle ride. There will be a post about that later today. We ate, showered, dressed and went outside to wipe down and polish up the Blue Flame before we rode off into the morning heat. Pearland/Houston was already almost in the 80's by the time we pulled out of the driveway at 8:15 AM CST. And we do not ride the bike unless we have on blue jeans, proper riding boots, tee-shirts (NO TANK TOPS) and helmets. Not really outfits that allow you to remain cool. SF was feeling and sounding great when we left, so I was comfortable in feeling that we had dodged a bullet.
The ride itself was wonderful. The group was a very diverse assortment of people and we were very well accepted into the "gang". We arrived at the destination (Biker Bar) after about a two hour ride. We had already checked out the location on the Internet, so we knew what we wanted to eat and ordered food and beers. No lectures about adult beverages and motorcycles. We always have one beer each and water the rest of the time. And we are usually at the establishment for two hours eating and chatting.
The one fact that we did not know ahead of time was that the bar allowed smoking indoors due to the lovely Texas laws about a bar being the sole reason the place exists. Serving food was a secondary feature, thus it was legal to smoke inside. Both of us had forgotten how you smell after being in a room filled with smokers. We reeked of it. It was in our hair and our clothes. When we got home, we showered again to get it off of our bodies and hair. It was not enough. Apparently she was still compromised from the cat hair on Thursday. By 6:00 PM CST Saturday evening she couldn't breath out of her nose and her throat was so sore. She sounded as if she had been cheering all day and had lost her voice. I felt awful about all of it.
I wish that there was a way that I could appeal to all the law makers in our state and urge them to stop smoking in all public establishments. I am not allergic to it myself; however, I resent the fact that I am held hostage by the few that still do smoke because the manufactures of these dreadful products pay off their PAC members and donate GENEROUSLY to campaigns. Thus making certain that they will be able to support the money machine on their platform. It just plain SUCKS! Not to mention the fact that I lost my grandfather (my mom's father) to emphysema and my father had two collapsed lungs (one from pipe tobacco and the second from Marlboro Reds). It is a cruel thing that these things do to a body and I will not be in a relationship with anyone that smokes. PERIOD! It is too painful to watch what happens.
This now relates as to why I could never be a nurse. I make an excellent mom, at least I like to think so myself, so I was able to convince her to rest and let me wait on her. She is a proud one and is very head-strong. I love and hate that at times. However, I knew she didn't feel good when she offered no resistance and allowed me to wait on her and make her comfortable. Even though that meant giving up on some of the activities that I had hoped we could do together over a four-day weekend. I knew I was not cut out to be a nurse when she asked me what the color of her snot meant and she showed me. EEEEEWWWWW. I hated that as a parent and I hate it even more as a wife. I did remember enough from the kids being small to know that it meant an infection was present.
We called the doctor's answering service to make certain that there were no special instructions. We got the call back and he had none. We got and kept her medicated, indoors but not under direct air currents (no ceiling fans) and hydrated. Thankfully there was enough on Direct TV to keep her occupied. I did manage to knit in between waiting on her and doing some light household chores.
Okay, enough of the rant. I have three other posts that will appear today as well. One will be about the ride and the Biker Bar. Another will be about the new LYS. And the last one will be Temptations.....
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