*cough cough cough*

That's the noise that has been pervading my house for almost two months, now. About 7 or 8 weeks ago, Ethan got a really really bad cough. His fever never went over 100, and it was very short lived, but he was waking up in the middle of the night coughing so hard that he wouldn't be able to breath, and sometimes threw up. He gave himself a really bad nose bleed a few times, too. So I took him to the doctor and she gave him an inhaler, which I still say was bollocks. (I've been watching British TV again.) Needless to say, he really didn't get any better, but I figured it was allergies. About a week after, I started. I never threw up or got a nose bleed, but I did feel sick to my stomach and got really achy and had a really hard time getting air after I coughed. A few days later, Josh set in, then Mom and Dad. We all fell like dominoes.

Time passed, an we didn't get any better. Dad got so bad that his doctor thought he had pneumonia and did an x-ray. (I know that it's supposed to be A x-ray, but it doesn't sound right!) He did not have pneumonia, but the doctor gave him antibiotics and sent home samples for me. The antibiotics helped me to not feel like dying, but not by much. I still was coughing up a lung every time I moved, talked, laughed, or took a breath, except now I was in school doing it. I skipped nursery once when I was at the peak, but I couldn't miss school, so I sucked Fisherman's Friends cough drops, which have so much menthol that they might have stripped my nasal passages but were the only thing that helped. I also stayed dosed on rotating over the counter drugs which did little, but made it so I could stay awake for the most part. Assuming that all this was horrible, horrible allergies since it just wasn't going away, we all went on with our lives and tried to make the best of it.

So one day this week, mom was at one of her doctor's (she has so many I can't possibly be expected to keep track), and he said it sounds like she has Pertussis, better known as whooping cough. She went home and looked it up, and sure enough, it sounds like that's EXACTLY what we all have! Whooping cough! Who woulda thought?!? You see, whooping cough last 6+weeks, plus some time before the symptoms actually start which is when you are contagious. Sadly, that's the only time treatment works. Isn't that lame? You have to take a really strong antibiotic, like Z-Pac, before you even know you have it or you are completely screwed. Also, that's the only time they can do tests to prove it's whooping cough. After that, you just have to make an educated guess. So, after the few weeks of being contagious, and 6+ weeks of actively feeling like you might lose a lung at any moment, you have several more weeks of convalescence, where you aren't coughing quite so bad, but you still have something of a cough. That's where Ethan, Josh and I are right now. Dad might be too, and mom might have just barely finally broken the barrier. It seems the name doesn't come from the sound of the cough like I thought, but rather the voracious sucking sound you make after you cough cause it's hard to get air back into your lungs. Weird, huh?

So, Margie, whooping cough? Really? Isn't that wiped out like polio? Didn't you get vaccinated, they seemed to say. That's exactly what my reaction was! Here's the dealio, the Pertussis vaccine isn't one of those that you get and you're set for life like the Polio vaccine, it's one that you have to keep getting, like the tetanus vaccine. And they really only give it to babies cause they invariably die if they get whooping cough, which is generally considered a bad outcome. So. Who knew?!?

In other news, my life has pretty much returned to normal on the romance front. No more singing Lotharios, no more guys wanting to get to know me, and my lab teacher used the 'my girlfriend' phrase. :( Today in class when he was talking I was mentally going, "How YOU doing?" And then I realized it was because he was wearing a sweater. Any men that might read this in hopes of winning me, just put on a sweater. It works every time for some reason. I guess it's good that I don't live someplace cold, I'd probably be a major slut. My classmates are still friendly, though, so that's something. Today when I was talking to a guy in my technical writing class, I laughed so hard I snorted, and he was like, "did you just snort?" I said, "Yeah, I do that, it's embarrassing." He said, "I think it's cute!" He later also used the girlfriend word, so don't get excited or anything. Strangely, they only people that I don't seem to hit it off with are the people in my art classes. It might be because, in my experience, artist are assholes. And the ones in my intro to comm design class all seem so young and ego centric, I just find them terribly annoying. Hopefully that won't be a problem as time goes on.

Well, I have tons of homework, so I better blow this Popsicle stand. Laters!