Ths s s frstratng!

Or so I would have posted earlier this week. My keyboard has been broken, and I just replaced it with a really loud industrial keyboard that is sure to drive my husband crazy. I have gone through two sleek blue tooth Apple keyboards, and I'm done with them - they keep dying. The keys go out row by row, starting at the top right.
I actually wrote my last post from my phone, with the help of Siri taking my dictation. Siri and I get along very well. I text for work a lot - I have a technician on the hospital floor, and the most reliable and discreet way to communicate is to text (I don't want her on her phone in patient rooms, and if she's busy she can get the text when she has time). Since I am typing prescriptions most of the day, I can dictate to Siri while I type something else. That is how rote my job has become - I can type directions for one drug while talking about another drug to Siri. Boring. But good old Siri has mastered the names and spellings of countless drugs and insurance companies, and I almost never have to correct her.
Nevertheless, it's great to have a loud, clicking keyboard back!

Thanks for the well-wishes as I get well. I feel like I'm actually on the mend from my whooping cough. I looked up the CDC's pertussis stats, and there were close to 19,000 cases in 2011, so I am definitely not alone (although it's pretty lonely on the adult side of the graph). The pertussis component of the Tdap vaccine I received in 2007 generally offers 80% protection, with a decrease in severity for those who do contract the disease despite being vaccinated. Sorry, it still felt pretty crappy! But since I was also recovering from surgery, no doubt my immune system was a little weak. I was also eating nothing but junk (thanks, Carnival season) and that probably played a part in my inability to combat the bacteria.

And of course, the antibiotic I took early in the course was not fully active against B. pertussis, which is why I felt a little better, then got sick again.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my hips...? I don't know. I haven't thought about my hips at all. I've been too busy thinking about how I'm supposed to get any oxygen when I can't stop coughing. I suppose they are fine, almost better, but I have been terribly negligent about my PT and any exercise at all. I've basically done nothing for the past four weeks, with a sporadic trip to the gym or set of squats when I was feeling a little more well. Today I went back to the gym and used the elliptical, with great success; thanks to a little cough suppressant I didn't have a single coughing fit. Oh, and of course I'm no longer contagious, or I'd keep my gross self at home (I already went through the embarrassing process of contacting anyone I exposed to the disease before I had a diagnosis, and basically they all have small, unvaccinated children. Luckily no one has a cough!). But it's just a touch over two and a half weeks until I am allowed to run again, so I expect to have more updates soon! And my first "race" back is only six weeks away. I'm just hoping my ribs are healed by then.