Since Wednesday evening I have been battling a fever that bounces between 100° and 103.3°. It’s accompanied by a cough that is sometimes dry and raspy, and sometimes wet and semi-productive. A fever in this range is enough to make me tired, dizzy, lightheaded, out of it, and generally “feverish”, but it’s not high enough to be a life threatening emergency. Yet my husband, who at the moment has me convinced that he is the most uncompassionate human being I have ever met, seems to think that it’s either a life threatening situation that I should act upon by going to the hospital, or that I’m faking it. Obviously I’m not faking it, as he’s been around me all weekend, has felt just how hot to the touch I am, and Danielle and Matt have been around me as well, and have also seen just how miserable I am. He even knows I’m not faking it… so WTF he would say that to begin with is beyond me.

But I don’t think it’s life threatening. I would be more concerned about calling a doctor over the weekend or even going to the ER if it was 104, 105 or definitely if it was 106. But 100, 101, 102 and 103? Not so much. I haven’t called my physician’s office (they have an on-call doctor on the weekends), because I know what they’re going to say: plenty of rest, plenty of fluids, alternate between Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 4-6 hours. I’m doing all that, minus the medication alternating, because 1) I can’t take Ibuprofen (it’s an NSAID, and it can cause stomach irritation — a definite no-no for gastric bypass patients) and 2) even if I could, I don’t have any in liquid form. They’d also tell me to call them first thing Monday morning to get an appointment — now that I definitely DO plan on doing.

Sorry, but I’m not going to drag my sick ass out to the hospital, simply because I’m not sick enough to warrant wasting my time, the time of the hospital, and valuable medical resources. But just because I choose not to avail myself of a hospital does not mean I’m not horribly miserable and wanting to just curl up in an unconscious ball somewhere until I can get seen by someone in a lab coat. It simply means that I’m making the better choice — keeping my sick, cold, miserable self at home, where it’s warm, instead of dragging out in the cold to a hospital that would most likely not bother to admit me anyway. And besides, my car is still blocked in by snow from the back (I think, unless Dan or Matt shoveled it out), and I’d have to take Alyssa and Ryan with me to the hospital. Yeah, I can see that going over really well!

One thing that isn’t widely known about Dan and I is that we didn’t have a large, fancy wedding. While we certainly dreamed of a traditional wedding, not to be complete without the maid of honor, the best man, and a bridal shower complete with bridal shower games and bridal shower favors, circumstances made it so that a faster, cheaper wedding would be more ideal. Basically, during our engagement, I got pregnant. And in the interest of saving money for the baby (who is now five and a half year old Alyssa), we decided to do a quick justice of peace wedding, followed up with brunch at a local family-owned restaurant.

I don’t regret our quick marriage, because it was important to both of us to be officially married before Alyssa was born. And when it comes to how good a marriage is, the type of wedding — or lack thereof — doesn’t mean anything. To Daniel and I, our marriage is so much more than what the circumstances were when we signed the marriage license. ♥

But sometimes I still think it would be fun to plan out an exciting lavish, white wedding. But at the same time it would be pretty damn expensive, and I can think of so many things that those huge amounts of money could be spent on.

So we got hit with a huge ass snow storm this weekend. I’m not sure of the exact snowfall totals, but it’s somewhere in the range of 17 inches to two feet. Ugh. It’s at times like these that I am so glad that I have a husband, since it means that I don’t have to worry about shoveling! He’s more than willing to clear our steps, walkway, vehicles and driveway. He’s great about salting as well, so I don’t have to worry about walking outside and falling on my ass.

I’d head out and take pictures of the snow, since it is gorgeous, but I’m really sick. I came down with a slight cough and a mild fever on Thursday afternoon. The fever got worse on Thursday evening, and on Friday morning I woke up with a fever of nearly 102. Between Thursday evening and now I’ve been taking liquid Tylenol and liquid Dayquil every 4-6 hours, but the lowest I’ve been able to get my temp is 99.5. Right now, for example, it’s somewhere between 100 and 101. *sigh* Amazing how just a bit of a difference in degrees can have you go from feeling crappy to feeling like death warmed over. I’d love to see a doctors coat right now, since it would mean seeing a doctor and perhaps getting something stronger to reduce this fever, but seeing as how there’s probably two or more feet of drifted snow out there, that’s definitely not happening anytime soon!

Right now I’m watching Big Medicine with Danielle and Matt, who came to spend the weekend with us. It’s just unfortunate timing that I got so sick the night before they came down. And since my fever broke early Friday afternoon, I thought I would have been all right for the weekend. I was wrong, apparently. I feel bad because I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping this weekend, so I haven’t exactly been a great hostess. *sigh* I’ll have to make it up the next time around!

Who makes these for their husband? I know I do!

Random cuddles.

Flannel sheets and two blankets, since he knows I get cold easily now.

Surprise trips to Pittsburgh.

Surprise trips to Philadelphia.

Kitchen appliances.

Letting me sleep in, even though it’s my own fault that I’m so tired.

Being willing to carry two cell phones in his pocket, just so I don’t have to drag my purse along.

Indulging my love for Panera Bread work-time.

Delicious food.

Completing Honey-Do lists, even though it’s his day off.

Being my best friend. ♥

One of the side effects of gastric bypass surgery is hair loss. To summarize: the sudden drastic reduction of nutrients and protein forces your body to redirect the nutrients and protein you do consume to vital organs. Hair is nowhere near vital to your survival, so it’s one of the first things to get bumped off the list of priorities.

This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with some hair loss. About three months after I had Alyssa I started losing hair, but I don’t remember it being as bad as this. It happened again after I had Ryan, of course, since the loss of hair after pregnancy is completely hormone-related. But seriously, I don’t remember losing so much that I could feel a difference in my ponytail. This time around, I can. My hair is all over the house. I keep it up in buns and wads shoved inside large clips, so it doesn’t wind up in the food. It’s clogging our drain, it gets all over the inside of the bath tub and shower curtain, and I’m cleaning out my hair brush every 2 days or so. I swear, I have enough hair to keep two outdoor fireplaces going with!

Here’s to hoping I have hair left when this is all over with.

For real. Even before gastric bypass surgery, and before my serious commitment to lose weight in preparation for gastric bypass surgery (that commitment started last April, and I had surgery in November), I wasn’t too into sweets. I’d much rather pig out on mac & cheese, fried chicken, biscuits, French fries, jalapeno poppers, etc. And when I was into sweets, I’d go for things like chocolate chip cookies and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Cupcakes? Thanks, but no thanks. Maybe the random bite or small lick of icing, but that’d be about it.

So don’t be surprised that I baked a batch of cupcakes tonight — two dozen minis and one dozen regular — and didn’t eat a single one. I have no plans to eat any of them either, though the kids have already devoured three mini cupcakes each. I was more into making them look quite spiffy in time for Valentine’s Day:

I know, I know… a fat chick that isn’t into cupcakes? No way!