Sick and tired, really

I haven't posted much this week, for a good reason. I've been sick, or behind in my work because I was sick.

This winter and spring has been ridiculously wet here in East Texas. We’ve had dozens of thunderstorms that have dropped four or five inches of rain at a time. As a result, the proliferation of allergens from all the extra growth has been tremendous.

Now, in the past I’ve had a few episodes of what I call an “allergy attack”. I’ll suddenly start sneezing violently may ten or twenty times, then get all congested with a powerful post-nasal drip which makes my throat so raw I have trouble speaking. These attacks are so severe it usually takes me at least a day or two to recover.

At work, this week was one of the busiest ever. With our local high school graduation set for Saturday, the paper was the largest of the year so far – 16 pages.

I came to the office Monday and just after 9 a.m., as I was speaking to a friend, I had one of these allergy attacks strike. She actually backed away because she thought I was going to drop dead. I almost passed out.

For the rest of the day I could hardly talk and I was woozy and light-headed from the blood pressure spike caused by the violent coughing and sneezing. I was still sick as a dog Tuesday. I couldn’t use the telephone because whenever I started to talk I’d start to cough.

I got the paper to bed at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Thankfully, by Wednesday I felt better and I’ve been pretty much normal the rest of the week.

I can’t believe I had this happen on one of my busiest deadlines, but I have a good staff and we pulled through.