Okay in my wacky, crazy and somewhat simple addled mind, not to mention a very smart woman who knows a lot more than I do, suggested that it might be a great idea to head over to Express Care to figure out if I had Walking Pneumonia, Strep Throat or some other similar serious malady, beyond my typical spring allergies.

So after sleepless night number three, coughing, hacking, head pounding, nose gushing and all those other things that the body does when it is attempting to expel the invading horde of germs, bacteria, pollen and other nasties. I staggered around for Bennie’s first walk, decided that I felt completely like shite and informed the wife I was heading to Express Care.

A bit of sympathy was nice, along with the I told you so two days ago reminder. 😉

Yeah, I hate going to see medical professionals, unless there is no other recourse and the way my chest, nose, throat and head were feeling…well it was time.

I got there was processed quickly and efficiently and they had to update a bunch of stuff since I hadn’t been to their medical network since 2009. Then I waited, I wasn’t an emergency and I got to people watch. Lots of sick people came in through those doors for early on a Sunday morning. I wasn’t the only one who looked a lot like the River Styx was closer than it should be.

When I finally got called in to have my vitals taken by the ever-so-efficient and no-personality nurse, who quickly weighed me and she seemed quite surprised she said that the last time you were here you weighed 192 pounds and you are 160 (fully dressed with shoes on) today. Is anything wrong, is that on purpose? I told her that was 10 years ago since I had been here last, that I don’t do doctors unless I have to, that I run a lot now and eat differently than I did back then, so the weight loss was definitely intentional.

That seemed to take the brusqueness out of her sails and she suddenly showed some personality and chuckled. I won’t say too much, but she laughed and said I think that the 30 or so pounds you lost over those 10 years, I found. We both laughed. Things were a bit cheerier in the room after that.

Then I got to wait for a few more minutes, errr about a half hour for the nurse practitioner and once I got in the examining room we gabbed, took down the information she needed to diagnose my malady, she swabbed my throat, listened to me breathe in, looked in my ears, nose, throat and out and announced that I probably had a mild case of allergies going. Mmmmm Houston what’s going on? I have had allergies most of my life and never felt quite this bedraggled or absolutely trashed by them.

It turned out that I probably do not have Strep Throat, while there is a little noise in the lungs, she didn’t seem to think it was anything to worry about, the ears have some fluid build-up – just not anything serious. She recommended getting some Claritin and Flonase and within a few days, all would be right with the world of Harold.

She did advise me to take the day off from running and rest up versus going out and doing the long run that I had planned on this morning. I was pretty sure at that point I would probably follow her advice because I was really feeling like crap.

So I trundled off to Wal Mart got the drugs, texted wife to let her know I would survive, drove home took the drugs (something I hate doing), ate breakfast and kept reading the good eBook that I found on my iPhone while waiting.

I don’t know if the drugs have helped all that much yet, but at least I have a bit of brain back and about an hour ago, I decided that I had enough of the headache and took two aspirin, which seemed to help a lot with the two hammers that were wacking away on each side of my head.

Well, I can honestly say that I am upright, breathing fairly decently, not having snot run down the side of my face or explode violently out the nose when I sneeze and only having sneezing attacks about once an hour.

Loads of fun I tell you.

Now, I am not a whiney person all that often (unless it is about the weather), but this allergy season is kicking arse and taking names big time with the old body. I guess all that green film on the truck is a pretty good indicator of how bad the pollen has been over the past few days and that is even with rain showers to keep it somewhat reasonable.

Who knows maybe this is why my mileage dips down so much the last of May and the start of June. Naw, usually it is just me being stoopid, this is simply beyond my control and needs medication to help me through it. Luckily it is not anything serious and will clear up on its own in a week, even if I didn’t medicate.

Medicating just makes things a bit more bearable and me less of a grouchy bear.

Hmm I wonder if Whiskey and Honey with a touch of Ginger root would work just about as well. Give me several them and I guess I wouldn’t care either way hehehhee.