Anger

I've had anger - justifiably - over a lot of things for the past year or two. Cancer, death, politics, injustice, you name it. Just at the moment I have friends dealing with all sorts of crap from illness to injury to unemployment to poverty to... well, let's just say there's plenty to be angry about, both on friends' behalf and on the behalf of myself and my family.

But today? Today I'm mad at meth... is "cookers" the right word?

See, here's the thing. I have another sinus infection.

I haven't had them this often since before I had a few teeth removed almost six years ago.

So I went to the doctor today because fever and sinus pain/pressure/slight dizziness.

Yep, sinus infection, viral (good because I don't need antibiotics but bad because there's no real way to cure it; you just treat the symptoms). They also said my ears are inflamed but not infected, and I got the lovely experience (again) of having a giant Q-Tip shoved up my nose for a culture "just to make sure it is, in fact, viral."

Goody.

The problem is that sinus infections tend to go south into my lungs. I'm asthmatic, so if that happens, I usually get bronchitis or occasionally even pneumonia.

These are bad options.

So I go home, take a shot of NyQuil, have a cup of tea, and drink a gazillion fluids.

But why'd I get it in the first place?

"Oh, well," the doctor said, (and he knows; they have my chart), "it's a particularly bad year for allergies, and with the sort of stresses you've been under for the past two years, well, you're prone to infection."

Okay, but why is there enough gunk in there to get infected? I'm using the damn allergy meds.

The doctor smiled at me and said, "Thing is, the allergy meds tend to dry things out and clog them up. This is fine, if you're getting enough water, but most people aren't. So you end up getting an infection if you're a) prone to such things, and/or b) under major stress."

Oh.

Then I should blame meth cookers.

Because thanks to them, I can't get pseudo-ephedrine without signing away my first born, in triplicate, using the blood of a virgin hydra as ink, and a pen made from the feather of a baby gryphon.

So instead? I'm drinking enough fluids to float away.

Which still makes me better off than many of my friends.

But I don't have to like it.