About Me

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North Carolina, United States
(Allie & Harris) Wife, teacher, patient, thinker, friend, worrier, planner, seeker. These are the hats I wear on a daily basis for the roles in my life. Harris and I've been married since 1999 and we have two fur babies of the feline sort. We have a pretty good life, all things considered. But, it's not complete. Seven years ago I received a diagnosis of PCOS, a condition which has taken a toll on both my body and soul. It will not beat me though and we will be parents.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I'm not a hypochondriac, but...


It's cold and flu season and I truly believe that children are the hybrid disease carriers of the world.  If there's anything communicable or too new for a cure, it lives in the children who attend public school.  Now, if you were hearing me say this, it would be much funnier - since you're not, you will have to hear my wit and sarcasm in your mind. 

Seriously though, ever since booking this trip to Delhi and planning this cycle, I am paranoid about getting sick or a fever - or that Harris will get sick and run a fever which will kill his sperm or at least swipe the tails off of them.  How many posts have I read now about IPs who spent 14+ hours on an airplane just to arrive sick from the canned air served up in-flight???  On top of that, I had a conference with a parent this afternoon who (and yes, I'm serious) said that when she and her husband were dating, they would sneeze on one another to be cute.  I'm sorry, but there's a serious problem if you think that hacking your nasty fleghm-y germs on me is "cute".  Vile, disgusting, unsanitary, revolting, yes.  Cute, no.  She said they had told their child (who sits right beside me) this story and ever since he'd been doing it.  Well, that answers the question of why this child refuses to cover his mouth.  I was furious but remained in control whilst I told her that our nurse would be happy to give him instruction on how to cover his mouth to prevent spreading germs and, in the meantime, I would be taking a cube each time he did it.  (In my world, that threat is a serious one with consequences.)  If thoughts could wither flowers, mine surely would have at that point - again, this would be much funnier in the retelling if it was done in person.

I am wondering if any of those thera-flu or airborne products would do any good for me to take leading up to the trip and on the plane.  It has also crossed my mind more than once to do like the Japanese did during that bird-flu thing a few years back and wear a mask on the plane and at the airport.  Currently, I'm set against that as we are already going to stick out like the proverbial sore thumb on the trip and I can't imagine that wearing a surgical mask would say anything other than "hey, look at us, we're not like you."  It's not exactly the first impression I want to give.

On a positive note, I did get a check from the insurance company to cover my roof and some other damages today.  It seems like they left off a few things and I am working with my contractor to see how "off" they are.  Suddenly life has become a race to get everything done before our leaving in December.  I want to have the roof on, the ceilings replaced, the windows swapped out, and everything painted so that when we leave, we have peace of mind that it's not raining in the house or anything.  So, the goal is to have the work completed before (America's) Thanksgiving at the end of November.  Otherwise, we'll have to wait until January to get this work done and I don't want to come home to that.  After the trip and the holidays, we'll need a time to relax for sure.

One other highlight, we met up with Bernadette and Duane over the weekend while we were in the DC area.  We loved brunch in Georgetown, and it was such a comfort to get that face to face reassurance about the details still left to plan.  It was also nice to be able to congratulate them in person on the bubbles!!!  Hopefully, we can get together in a year and do brunch again with babies!!!  Here's to needing kid menus!

5 comments:

  1. Hope you get everything in order...I hear you on that (frantically trying to get our lives together before baby pick up in April/May!) and also on the dreadful parents one meets while working in education. I started buying Kleenex and hand sanitizer for my library in a probably futile attempt to hide from the germy kids (teenagers = not much better at covering ye olde mouths.) Glad you got to hang out with Duane and Bernadette and enjoy DC...it's a neat place to visit (we haven't been for a little while--got a $130 PARKING ticket!!)Have you asked Dr. Shivani about herbs that are safe to take to avoid sickness? I got some natural antibiotic herbs from my acupuncturist in Baltimore that were great our first trip to India. This last time, we both had Delhi Belly, felt run-down, and were both sick with fevers before the cycle, but we'll be at 12 weeks this Tuesday. If it's meant to be... :) Praying for all the best for you!
    Jill

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  2. Hi Allie, I have also not heard back from Sandeep about receiving the wire transfer but I am not concerned because I have the address to the apartment in Delhi. I understand they have several apartments in different locations so I am not sure if we will be in the same location but I am sure close enough to see each other. Write him again and ask him for the exact address and we can swap that in email if you like. For now, good luck with the Sneezer, and stay well.

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  3. Hiya Allie

    Thanks for sorting your settings - so pleased I'm now able to post. So much planning involved - good luck and all the best.

    Avey

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  4. Hi Allie,
    A word to hopefully put your mind at ease. Chad and I have done the US-Delhi flight at least 10 times, and I don't think we've ever gotten sick. We usually take some extra vitamin C before hand, but mostly, we just let our overdeveloped teacher immune systems take care of any potential problem.

    Don't sweat it!

    DB

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  5. Yep, don't worry -- I made three visits to the dreaded "collection room" -- two when we first arrived, and one after a two week jaunt around Rajasthan, including three days with a nasty cold. My sperm count and quality were the same -- good -- all three times.

    Jason

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