I’m just a figment of your imagination.

cause I really don’t have time this week to do more than just tread water.

From being gone last weekend (got in on Sunday evening) to see Boy down in Texas, I’m way behind on my email and any blogs I follow.  Then between meeting the tax guy on Monday (had to finish getting everything together Sunday night) and trying to make sure Girl actually gets something accomplished before we have two very disrupted weeks (looking ahead), I’m not getting caught up any time soon.

But that said, I’ve very, very happy to turn the page on March.  It wasn’t an easy month.  I’m hoping April will be much, much better.

It started out great.  We had the play down in Bloomington and Girl and I got to do lunch with Fuzzy and her boys (I know she’s open about her name, but I think of her as Fuzzy because of her email address).  Then we left for Chicago and the conference and had a bunch of people from here go and got to meet Andrea in person.

And while we were there, Boy came home for Spring Break, so when we got back he was here….

But from there it started down hill.

First off, within a day or two of getting home, I was suffering from a bad cold (the doctor has since told me it was a cold and not the flu), but that was minor….

until the day before Boy was suppose to fly back to Texas, he comes to me complaining that his ear hurts – a lot!

So, I take 4 days and drive him down to Texas – while I’m suffering still from the cold (I take DAYS to get over colds, always have).  And that’s when the month took a nose dive.

To help feel better I drink a lot of hot tea – and I don’t like herbal teas, so what I mostly have around is green tea.

And as I’m driving, to keep myself going (the trip back was an exercise in total boredom) I drank a fair amount of Coke.

And I was coughing  – a lot.

While I was driving, I noticed that often right before I would cough, I’d feel something in my chest – I just assumed it was the congestion I was dealing with.

So, I got home – only to have a few days of trying to help Boy deal with some stuff at school that developed from him not realizing how much his being sick in February had affected his schoolwork.   So, just throw in a little tension and late night phone calls, ’cause you know those college kids forget that we are one hour earlier and might be trying to get to bed at a decent hour. (Not that I didn’t want him to call when there’s a problem.)

And so we got to the end of the week, and I’m almost over the coughing….but the funny chest feelings haven’t gone away.

And Saturday evening I’m sitting in the Community Theater watching their play (The Laramie Project – it was probably one of the BEST plays I’ve seen there) and the theater is hot and the funny feelings are nearly constant.

So I start feeling my pulse as I sit in the theater…and I’m missing beats.

Now let me give you some background:

I take meds for high blood pressure.  It’s hereditary.  My mother and her mother did too.  Both my sisters deal with it, and our brother’s massive stroke was caused by the combination of untreated high blood pressure and drug use.

Until I needed medication, my blood pressure was extremely low – 100 over 60 was not unusual.

Then one year, it jumped – I was expecting it.  And since then it has been very responsive to the meds and while I tend to watch my caffeine intake, I haven’t ever done more than generally be aware of how much I’m drinking. And when I figure that I’ve had enough, I switch to water, lemonade or orange soda.

So, back to my story.

With my health history we do have a home bp machine and when I came home, I dug it out.  159 over 87 – WAAAAY too high for me.

But we decided that it wasn’t run to the hospital high and that I’d call my doc on Monday and see him.

He couldn’t see me until Wednesday (partly because I would be car-less on Tuesday while my car had some work done), so the days tick by and while I’ve cut out the Coke and tea, I’m drinking a lot of orange soda…. and the missing beats don’t seem to be getting better.

In fact by Wednesday, I’m feeling like I go HOURS of funky beats before it settles back down.

I like my doctor.  And he’s had a couple of heart attacks, so he is really, really sensitive to heart issues.

He orders an EKG – and wow!  there’s a palpitation – surprise, surprise.

But he says that my heart sounds fine so he orders a bunch of blood work (all came back the next day as normal) and a 24 hour monitor (which they couldn’t do until this week).

oh, and he tells me to slow down and get more sleep!  He went a little glassy eyed when I was describing what my month had been like.

The next day I was suppose to leave for Texas to spend the weekend with Boy for Trinity’s Family Weekend.  That night I was scrambling trying to leave Girl with things to do while I was gone, get our records collected and organized for the Monday morning meeting, and still waiting to hear about the blood work.

And I was going through hours of funky beats. Going away for the weekend was NOT real high on my list.

But off I went and I’m happy I got to spend the weekend with Boy.  I enjoyed his classes and meeting his friends.

So, Friday night I’m heading back to my hotel room and I stopped to pick up some orange sodas and something for breakfast the next morning (the room had a frig and the hotel breakfast was a waste of time).  At this point I was drinking nearly no tea or Coke in order to avoid any caffeine.

And when I got to my room, I opened the soda and I’m idly reading the label while I wait for the Weather Channel to get to local info for Saturday.

Did you know that Sunkist Orange Soda is LOADED WITH CAFFEINE!!

SHIT!  no wonder avoiding the Coke and tea wasn’t helping.

And now I’m waiting for the results of the 24 hour monitoring, but I’m getting a whole lot less funky beats.

And April has GOT to be better than March.