upper respiratory crud – Eileen Troemel

Give Me A Break

May 22, 2018January 4, 2019 by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It’s been a lovely six weeks. It started with laryngitis, moved on to a kidney stone, and then the flu. I hoped it was done but now I have upper respiratory crud which includes crud in my lungs. Breathing takes a lot of effort. The alternative – well not acceptable.

My frustration is I want to write! I have recently finished two manuscripts (they are in the editing pile with two others). I have several other stories all pushing at me. All I want to do is write but when I’m struggling to breath and coughing so much everything hurts, I struggle to put words together.

I’ve done the responsible thing – gone to the doctor and gotten antibiotic. Now I’m have to give myself time to heal and rest. I’ve got stories pushing at me – one I thought was going to be a light and easy story but it very quickly turned into a much more complex story than I expected. I’m not sure I like it. In fact, I considered deleting everything I’d written beyond the opening scene but I found myself hesitating.

I’m always telling people – I write the story the characters tell me. If that’s the case, I have to go with the story the characters are telling me. It’s another assertion of trusting myself. Ultimately, I have to go with what I’ve got and if I hate it when I’m done, I’ll rewrite it.

I’m going to get better. This upper respiratory crap will go away and I’ll feel better. In the meanwhile I’m going to let the characters whisper in my head and see what stories wind up on the pages. The worst that can happen? I have to do a rewrite. With any luck by the time I shift back to crochet mode, I’ll have finished several manuscripts and I can work on editing and publishing.

Progress!

January 14, 2017January 4, 2019 by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Seven crochet patterns have been published! I’m thrilled to have finally had time to get them out. These have been on my todo list for quite some time.

I was off work yesterday and was going to do it then but I’ve got upper respiratory crud on top of my gout flaring. I slept most of the day – not even crocheting until evening.

Last night I was trying to sleep and couldn’t breath. I tried different levels of reclining but realized none of them were going to work. I also tried having a cloth with eucalyptus, lavender, and rosemary on it to inhale but I couldn’t get any air through my nose. Eventually I got up and took a hot shower with the essential oils. It helped a lot until I sat down to sleep again. It was after 2 am before I got to sleep though.

Sadly, Ken has the same crud so we are both struggling to accomplish anything other than breathing, coughing, and surviving.

I’ve been working on an afghan for my youngest daughter. I’ve got it about half done but I need to have Ken hold it up so I can see it. I think the graph caused a flaw and I need someone to hold it while I look to see if I have to rip out some rows and adjust so it looks right. It is a corner to corner graphgan.

For those who don’t speak crochet, this means I’m working from one corner to the opposite – diagonally across the piece. It also means I’ve taken a picture and made it into a graph. This happens to be the Packer’s G symbol. The issue is the G is surrounded by a circle which is difficult to do on an afghan. When I looked at it last night, I thought the circle part wasn’t quite right but I double checked my row against my graph and they match.

The next step is to decide if I need to adjust the graph / pattern based on how it looks. I might but I need to see it held out and a little away from me. I can’t really do that – so Ken will hold it up for me.

The rest of today will be spent napping and crocheting until the daughter gets home. Once she’s home, we will see what happens. It depends on what she needs / wants. Unfortunately, she has the same crud we have.

For the crochet patterns I published today go to my web site to find links. The Amazon links aren’t up yet but should be by Monday or Tuesday. My todo list is still quite long but at least I made progress.

Health Care

April 21, 2012 by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Here is yet another reason why we should have a national health care program. We are already struggling to pay for prescriptions for Vicki as she has no insurance (thanks to Walker changing the rules on my insurance).

Friday she had a sore throat. Saturday and Sunday she ran a fever and progressively got worse feeling each day. Monday I called the doctor’s office to see what it would cost to get her in with no insurance and how much they needed. The answer – $97 but we didn’t have to pay before she saw the doctor.

She tried to say she was fine and didn’t need to go. I ignored her and insisted we go. She has strep, pneumonia, and ear infections in both ears. She got a prescription which cost us $55. Fortunately the doctor looked in her ears before he insisted on the swab of her throat because otherwise we would have had to pay for that test as well.

She doesn’t have $150 to cover these medical costs. She is unemployed. If I hadn’t insisted on her going to the doctor what would have happened? I’ll take the $150 over a hospital bill any day.

We asked about reducing the fees and were given the name and number of a person in the clinic to call. I talked to her today. They take the full household income. Never mind that Vicki is an individual. If I threw her butt out of my house she could get assistance. But because we love our daughter and don’t want her living on the street we now have to pay for these medical expenses.

She’s upset because she knows it will stress me out to juggle bills to pay for this. I’m upset because the system is broken and needs fixing but the moment someone takes the first steps they are bashed for it.

I don’t care what anyone else says a National Health Plan is essential. Call it socialism or welfare or whatever you want, there are people like my daughter who are trying to get jobs and trying to live on their own and support themselves but get beat up by the system when they are sick. Perhaps we should cut back on benefits for representatives (the few) and refine this plan so that everyone can go to a doctor when they need to rather than waiting until it is so bad they nearly die from it.

I hate to quote Star Trek but really the good of the many (in this case) outweighs the good of the few. Quality healthcare shouldn’t be for only the rich or working. It should be for everyone.