Warm Fuzzies

I got the nicest warm fuzzy from my boss yesterday...

On his way out of town for a conference, he left off a card for "Administrative Professionals Day" (yet another Hallmark Holiday^TM). It says: "To the truly amazing... from the truly amazed". It's really fabulous to have a job where you're appreciated to this degree.

I'm almost to the end of my six-month new employee probation, and I don't have any concern at all that I won't pass. My team leader gives me warm fuzzies, and my office supervisor has repeatedly pronounced herself to be very satisfied.

I haven't posted in a while because March was a very, very bad health month. I started by tripping over the edge of a sidewalk and face-planting full-length on the concrete. It took a week or so for the fallout to hit, but it ended up throwing my back out badly enough to kick me to pain level 9 (cannot sustain a train of thought, whimpering, can't sleep, etc.). This forced me to finally choose a medical provider, which has led to a lengthy series of tests and treatments for the various things that have been lurking untreated for the last six years. I'm sorry to say that they didn't do anything at all for the back pain (not even pain medication) for several days, and when they finally prescribed something, it was the mildest possible pain reliever and didn't do much to help. I may end up changing providers...

The pain was unbearable, so I got a recommendation for a chiropractor. Wow. It's my first experience with chiropractic, and it's somewhat expensive (I paid a year in advance), but my back/neck/etc. complex feels better than it ever has. Ever.

At the same time, I developed a vile cough, which rapidly turned into a nasty upper respiratory bug. Usually these things start in the head and move to my chest -- this one started in my chest as full-blown bronchitis. There's nothing quite to compare with a body-wracking cough when your back is already out... Four people in my office got the bug, and it went on for weeks. One of the other symptoms was bone-deep exhaustion, so I pretty much missed the entire month of March. The last weekend of March, I actually canceled a sold-out Call of Cthulhu game I was scheduled to run and skipped the home game that night. I've run with pneumonia in the past - to cancel a game for the club is an indicator of being really, really sick. I probably should have gone to the hospital, but six years without health insurance have conditioned me to just go to bed when I'm really sick and hope that I won't die.

Now I'm down to my spring allergy cough (and am seeing an allergist/taking new medications), and I not only think I will live, but I want to live! There were stretches of time during March where all I wanted was no more pain or coughing.

As I told them at the office, Perky Jae is back!