As cliche as it may be -- I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!!

Let me start on a positive note. Today's typical 2-hour all staff meeting at the administrative offices was made a full-day all staff open space session at camp.

About 70 of us met to discuss "how we can better communicate with our membership" and it seems as though some good ideas have come about. I guess the real test is whether any of those ideas come to fruition, but the process, interacting with different staff and looking out over Galveston Bay for most of the day was great regardless.

There are definitely many more communication barriers than I could even begin to describe with such a diverse audience that includes girls ages 5-17 (we all know they definitely do not communicate the same way!), troop leaders, parents, juliettes, staff, volunteers, alumnae, donors, community partners, Board and Committee Members ... not to mention the ethnic diversity and need for translation. I think it's safe to say that you can't please everyone all the time, but hopefully we'll make some changes and make more people happy most of the time -- and maybe cut some costs at the same time. It'll be interesting to see where we go from here. And the real lesson I've taken away is ... never keep doing something simply because "it's always been done that way."

Now the not so good news.

I was home from work AGAIN yesterday with a fever of 101 and what is the closest to a migraine I've had since 2007.

I went to the dermatologist on Friday and he prescribed Bactrim, which is the antibiotic I was taking for that toe injury back in February. I was on this medicine then when my 104 fever, chills and rash broke out and I ended up in the ER at 4 am on a Wednesday morning. But the doctor there diagnosed it as strep, gave me some shots and oral meds and sent me on my way. Sunday night I took my first dose of the new Bactrim prescription and woke up around 2am with a fever, chills and the horrible headache. No rash this time.

I called my family doctor because I was concerned about having two high fevers in just a month, explained the situation .. they looked through my files, realized they never received my strep culture results from the ER and asked me to call and have them faxed over. This took entirely longer than necessary due to the ER trying to fax to the phone number instead of the fax number .. but long story short, the strep culture came back negative. Which isn't exactly what I was hoping to hear.

This means the high high fever and rash was caused by something else, and I'd like to know what. It means I may or may not have an allergy to Bactrim, although fevers aren't typically a sign according to my nurse. Or it means there's something else going on that we haven't discovered. My co-workers have suggested mono, which would explain the relapse after a weekend full of activity and my almost constant feeling of exhaustion. And walking pnemonia. I don't know much about that one, but it might explain the persistent cough?

I am going in tomorrow to talk with my family doctor in person, maybe to get some bloodwork done and to see where to go from here. All I know is that I'm ready to figure it out and feel normal for more than a week ... once and for all! I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!!


PS. I walked in a local 5K on Saturday, the Stride4Stroke, and finished in 45 minutes! It was a great day - beautiful weather, great cause, good exercise - and I'm more motivated than ever to train and run more events this spring, including one in Brenham on April 18. However, this requires all the sickness to go away. Keep your fingers crossed ... and if you know of any home remedies aside from zinc tablets, a multi-vitamin a day, drinking about 72 ounces of water a day, eating lots of fruits and veggies and multi-grains (all of which I already do), please send them my way. Oh, and I've been sleeping 8-12 hours a night ... and all day yesterday, so I suppose this is a home remedy already on the table as well...