Everyone is hurting in the house. Houdini is still teething and getting more and more antsy every night. Lemel has general fatigue pain and specific back pain. My mom's back is also up to its old tricks again and my dad--well, he's always got some thing going on with his stomach(!).
As for me, the elusive pain in my right ear has now become a very real pain inside my ear canal and in my throat and even in the back of my skull. It's one of those pains that just seems to take over everything in the near vicinity of the source, except that I am not sure if the source is my ear or my wisdom tooth or something else all together. I was able to ignore it for a few days, but I have constant pain now and am basically getting by with the help of constant ibuprofen and a couple of acetomenophin-codeine tablets (it is lovely having doctors as parents, especially those who practice in a country where you just get whatever you want OTC).
I did make a appointment with an ENT for Tuesday morning, but the nurse kept reiterating (she even used that word!) that I should probably go see my primary care physician or (when I told her I was trying to a find a new one and no, I actually didn't have one right now) the ER, especially if the pain gets worse and definitely if there is discharge. Ugh. I am hoping I can make it to Tuesday--I might take some antibiotics (again, courtesy of the parents) to tide me over.
My parents (and Lemel) are all up in arms about my laissez-faire attitude about going to the doctor and/or ER; what they (my parents, specifically) seem to forget is that they're the ones who are sort of responsible for this attitude. Growing up, we never went to see a doctor unless my parents couldn't figure it out; they self prescribed and, once in my teens, I self medicated freely. Our drug cabinet (actually, drug shelf in the linen closet) was never locked up or hands off to my sister or me. When I'd get my migraines in high school, I'd skip the aspirin and go for the good stuff, the aforementioned acetomenophin-codeine (which I think is what percocet is over here, but I am not sure). Nothing bad ever happened, well, except for the time I took tetracycline for my acne, without telling my mom first, and found out most unpleasantly that I was allergic to it.
Even after that incident, my attitude towards drugs has remained the same: I am very unleary of them (for myself) and if it takes away the pain, bring it on--none of this homeopath, natural stuff for me. Interestingly, my sister who grew up in the same household (obviously) has a much more conservative attitude towards taking prescriptions drugs (and even most OTCs); I don't know, maybe it's the result of having become a doctor over here.
Anyway, I am really hoping to hang in there until Tuesday because I do not want to make a ER visit (I'd have to go by myself and who wants to spend 4 hours waiting because of an earache?) and I have too much going with Houdini and trying to get him past the hump of teething and somehow getting enough sleep (him and the rest of us) and enough food (again, him and the rest of us). Lemel is full swing back at work again, putting in 10 hours a day again on average, the house is a disaster and every room has become a dumping ground, which is driving me batshit crazy, and so this will just have to wait.
