Viral infection rears its head again

Yesterday I had to catch public transport back home and as it was rather a windy day, it was not such a good day for me to be walking around, because high winds cause a lot of pollen, dust and other things to be in the air and it's not good for me when I inhale it through my nose or mouth.
My body cant handle dust, pollen and other small particles, as they get caught up in my sinuses and lungs and make my sinuses hurt (I get pain in my frontal sinuses), my ears start to hurt too because for some reason those little particles must get in my ears too and clog them up as well and my lungs hurt too, inhaling those particles irritate my lungs and cause me to cough more and all of this causes an allergic reaction.  In addition to this, the air pressure changes when there are high winds and that also affects my sinuses by making them more sore and more prevalent to infection.

When these little particles clog up my airways, the airways get irritated, inflamed and this allows any lurking viruses to invade, because my immune system is not functioning properly and so the pathogens (viruses) can easily enter, unhindered, where they can multiply and cause infection. Obviously because I haven't been feeling at all well lately, there are always viruses around, ready to invade and infect me more, so doesn't take much to get me sick.

By the time I got home, I was feeling very lethargic and ready to lie down and sleep.  My lungs were quite sore and I was coughing a lot - the bronchitis cough. My sinuses were also sore and I was getting sharp pain from my ears, especially my right ear.

Today, I feel really sick again, even though I slept for about 10 hours last night - obviously I needed it, after not sleeping enough yesterday.

Grandmother is sick and in hospital

My maternal grandmother had a mild heart attack on the weekend and she's in hospital now.  She lives about two hours drive from here, so my mother decided to visit her and decided to take her son, LayZ boy with her. Of course she knows I wont go, even if I was well, as I wouldn't spend that much time with that idiot because all he would do is say stupid obnoxious things to me the whole way there and back, but when we were in the company of our relatives there, he would be so quiet and shy, which would only infuriate me more! The idiot. My mother knew that, which is why she asked LayZ boy to come with her and only half-heartedly asked me if I wanted to come, knowing full well that I wouldn't. If it was just me and her, it would have been different.

Anyway, I wanted to write another post about my grandmother as the last one seemed to go too long about what happened today and I couldn't fit in the stuff about my grandmother there, so I created a new post for that reason.

My grandmother is an old woman, who is in her 80's. She lost her husband (her second husband, who is not my grandfather, her first husband was) about two years ago to renal failure. My grandmother lives in a small house by herself, but she lives right next door to her other daughter, my aunt, so she has company as my aunt lives with her husband, her husband's mother (who is 96 and still mobile) and their son (my first cousin). Their daughter is married and lives a few hours away with her husband and their kids.  While my grandmother is alone, she has people around her for company, not just her family, there are also neighbours in the street that she socialises with too.

When I came home from the shops I called my aunt's house and my uncle answered and told me that my grandmother was in "special care", not intensive care, so that was a good start, as it meant that she was not critical. He told me she had a mild heart attack and that they were taking care of her at the hospital. He had been there most of the night before (I think she must have been admitted yesterday some time) and today it was his wife, my aunt's turn to visit with her. He gave me the name of the hospital so that I could call her. I told him I didn't go because I have bronchitis and don't feel so well. He agreed that it was a good thing for me to stay away when I was sick as it wouldn't do to infect grandma with a virus while she's not well.

My grandmother has coronary artery disease and angina. The angina is due to the coronary artery disease, which means the arteries leading to her heart are clogged with cholesterol and plaque, which makes it difficult for the blood to be pumped to her heart properly. This is probably what lead to her heart attack - the heart was starved of blood and therefore oxygen. Lucky for her, the blockages are not too major, otherwise who knows what would have happened! Lucky she's on a whole range of medications for thinning her blood, reducing blood pressure, reducing fats in her blood and reducing cholesterol, so she didn't have a worse reaction.

I decided to call after I had dinner, as I didn't eat much during the day - I had had my tea and left the house. Dinner consisted of a large rissole, some avocado on rye/seed bread and grilled tomato. I need the meat for the iron.  After dinner I sat down to watch television and rest, as I still didn't feel well and didn't manage to call my grandmother. Neither did my mother call me. She must have been pissed off with me for telling her again that she was being inconsiderate. In fact, she got downright nasty, by telling me that she wasn't going to take my brother with me, that she was going to leave him here with me, just so he could antagonise me. Isn't she lovely? What a mother I have? A bitchy, nasty, vindictive mother who relishes in making me feel bad!

Anyway, not having either of them around has been brilliant. The only problem has been that I cant enjoy it as much, as I am sick and am also worried about my grandmother, which both suck as they are occurring at the same time. Oh well, at least LayZ boy is not here, which is the biggest boon of all.

I think I will have to get me to bed soon as I do not feel well at all.

I think I feel a little better

I think all the garlic and shallots (scallions) I have eaten today have definitely made a big improvement to my health. 

I had a spicy soup earlier in which I added two fresh garlic that I cut up finely after I served it.  I also added some of the white bits of the shallots, cut up finely.  I tell you what, it certainly made me feel really hot.  The heat from the spices, garlic, shallots and the warmth of the soup certainly made me feel like my fever got quite worse and I really did feel very lethargic and over-heated, quite feverish.

A few hours later, I had some vegetarian curry on quinoa, which I added some cut up shallot leaves (the green parts) and three cloves of finely cut up garlic on top to give it more heat and to help my immune system deal more effectively with this viral infection I seem to have.  I did feel quite hot and a bit lethargic after the curry, but nowhere near as hot as I felt earlier with the soup, so obviously something is working!

Several hours later (now) and I am not feeling lethargic (like last night or earlier today) and while I am a little bit warm, I am not feeling that hot.  So all of those cloves of garlic, the spices and shallots (maybe about 3-4 of them) in a short space of time, really must have taken effect in boosting my immune system to help it fight the virus, as it is no longer making me hot (feverish).  

Just now I went to my Facebook page, where I saw a lot of those cute "gifts" people send you, which definitely made me feel even better to know I had been sent such lovely energy from people.  And while I know those Facebook gifts are applications made by people to make money, it's really the thought that counts from the person who sent it to me and they were being really sweet.  It just made me feel less alone and less lonely.  It was really nice to see.

If I try to go to be earlier tonight, it may be useful for me as it will help my body heal itself.

I have the cat sleeping on my bed and he is just gorgeous.  He'll let me know when he needs to get up (which will be some very early hour of the morning I am sure).  He is such a sweet, loving cat.  At least he is the one positive, sweet, loving thing in this negative house!