I. Am. So. Sick.

Thursday the boys were lighting and blowing out Nick's Colonial Day candles he made. I'm seriously super susceptible to smoke (alliteration!). It makes my lungs hurt fast (and I don't even have asthma) and often makes me lose my voice (like that time at Buchart Gardens when all the Asians were smoking and I lost my voice. Or that time on Halloween when Lisa's brother-in-law came trick-or-treating with us and smoked his cigar the whole time. Lost my voice then too.) (I always tell those stories.)

Candles used to not affect me but then I was at Bennions and Tanya said they can't light candles because it affects Jeff's asthma. And seriously, ever since then, regular house candles affected me too. The power of suggestion is real.

So, out of the blue before bed I start to get a little cough. It was weird that it came on so fast. I slathered my special ointment...  I slathered my special, smelly ointment... I slathered my special, smelly ointment suggestively...sorry, no.

I slathered my special, smelly ointment on my neck and chest because that always makes me feel better. But when I woke up the next day, not only was my cough worse, my head felt thick and full and quite frankly, I felt miserable.

But I'd been to Spin class on Wednesday and I intended to go today to "break in my saddle" which is super hard the first week. And I was on a really good roll eating right and exercising. I thought sweating it out might even make me feel better. So powered on by wanting to be healthy, I went to Spin.  And it was hard. I was lacking energy (significantly!... I significantly slathered my special, smelly ointment...) and having a hard time keeping up. But I finished and I got the heck out of there.

(I just thought of something -- I did wipe down my bike. But did I wipe it down good enough? I hope I didn't spread my germs at the gym! But to my credit, I didn't think I had germs at the time.)

On the way home I realized I'd been poisoned by THE CANDLES! That was it! Out of breath, cough, Head cloudy and achy. Same feeling when there were forest fires in L.A.  Now that I knew what the problem was, I knew I just needed to sleep and it would go away.

Got an hour nap before picking up Chris at noon. Took him shopping for goggles and helmet (good deals!) and then got home to take another nap before picking up Nick's carpool.  By then I was freezing. The kids saw me putting on my 3/4 length parka and asked -- are you sick? Why yes, I think I am. I started to suspect that it wasn't the candles after all.  I put on the seat warmers and felt ok.

Had another nap before we took Marty and Thomas to our annual symphony night at dinner at Texas de Brazil. By then I was FREEZING. I couldn't eat a thing, but I didn't want to miss the evening we'd been looking forward too! It was actually fun, but I was relieved when I could climb into bed that night.

The next day I was out all day. They day after that too. All day Monday too. And then I went to Instacare Monday night and discovered it wasn't the flu after all (or the candles), but pneumonia.

And that's where I am today. Still sick.