So, I’ve been sick for the last few days. I managed to kick the flu sometime on Saturday, but by midday Friday, I’d gone from just a cough, to cough + asthmatic wheezing. Now, I don’t know if anyone else who reads this (save probably my cousin) has ever had a wheezing spell – basically, exhale ’till your lungs are nearly empty, and when you squeeze out that last breath, constrict everything you possibly can in your airway, until you emit a weird rattling sound, like you imagine a dying person might make.

Do that with every breath you take.

The cough, coupled with that, kept me from any reasonable amount of sleep, both Friday at Saturday nights, and by about 5am Saturday, I wondered if I’d ever sleep again. I checked out the Mayo clinic website, and they say that asthmatic wheezing is a side effect of the flu, and can last up to two weeks after the cold’s been kicked.

I thought, can I go two weeks without a good night’s sleep? We’re talking one, maybe two hours of undisturbed sleep, coupled with about five hours of tossing and turning each night, before I’d just get so frustrated I’d get out of bed. Both Sunday and Monday, I was basically the walking dead – every time I got up, I’d almost pass out.

I’m sure a lot of it is psychological – I should be able to sleep, even with the wheezing, but I couldn’t – the sound, the inability to just *breathe* properly – it drove me completely nuts.

Finally, Monday night, I was just going to take a couple Tylenol PM, which tend to do a pretty good job of putting me to sleep, when Ei-Nyung recommended that I check out what was in Benadryl, since it was probably something similar, without the painkiller. Indeed, it’s exactly the same thing, but it’s listed as an antihistamine when it’s in Benadryl, and a sleep aid, when it’s in Tylenol PM. So, two Benadryl tabs later, I finally got a solid four hours of sleep. It was like gold. I woke up, almost indescribably happy – I was rested, I knew that I *could* sleep, even with the cough, and the looming fear of a repeat of early last year, when I had to go to the emergency room *twice* just to get a good night’s sleep… yeah, not a happy thought.

Ended up with some really weird dreams – my grandparents on my father’s side (who have both passed away) bought a house in Albany, CA, and a white Audi TT. My cousin, my parents and I were all staying with them, and for some reason, I had to go to work, but ended up at a car dealership. It made no sense. 😛

Anyway. Yeah. Sleep. Good.