Friday, December 23, 2011

Trichotillomania: The Secret to Web Traffic

Apparently there are a lot of people out there who are interested in trichotillomania. A while back I wrote a post about how I think I have trichotillomania because I pull out my hair and eyebrows when I get stressed... or bored... or while watching TV or reading... or when I stop reminding myself not to do it.

Nothing groundbreaking, just kind of a quirky little habit of mine. But apparently trichotillomania is a highly searched term on Google. Ang Google is sending people to my blog post. Rarely does a day go by without my web traffic meter showing me that someone has been reading my post on trichotillomania. I posted it in March and I'm coming up on a thousand page views of that post alone. I guess that tells me I'm not the only one pulling my hair out!

It also tells me, if someone is trying to pull web traffic to their site, they need to post something about trichotillomania. :)

Quick Funny from Brekken

"Mom! There's something in my boot!... Oh wait... it's my toes."

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Tara and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week (and a half... or more)

It's been a long couple of weeks. Two weeks ago I had a good Saturday with the kids. We did a little Christmas decorating, made some cake pops, it was fun. I felt fine. On Sunday - I still felt fine. We got up and went to church where I (as usual) ended up in nursery with Brekken and Rylen. I read the nursery kids a story, helped with snacks and felt fine. And then suddenly, I felt really, really cold. Cold enough that I found a couple of blankets in the toy closet and wrapped up in them even while others in the room were taking off their jackets and sweaters. Within 15 minutes, the other ladies in the room were volunteering to go pull my husband and kids out of class so I could go home - the flu hit just that fast.

We went home and I was so out of it that I just stumbled to the bedroom to lay down. Never noticing a thing as I walked  right past our poor cat, Grace, who had died while we were at church. Poor Aaron. Grace was his cat. She loved him more than anyone, and she was definitely his favorite cat. They've been pretty inseparable since he picked her out and brought her home. She was a sweet cat and I miss her, but I know it's been much harder for Aaron. I was so sick and out of it that I was of very little help as he wrapped her up and carefully buried her and made a marker for her.

I was still so sick on Monday and Tuesday that I could barely function. I was trying to work from home and I was responding to emails as needed, but did receive a comment or two indicating that my emails were a little less coherent than they could have been. When I saw the doc on Tuesday, he confirmed that it was indeed the flu (type b to be specific) along with a small ear infection and a slight case of bronchitis. He gave me some Tamiflu, told me to stay home for a couple of days - all week if possible - and I should be okay by the weekend. I took the Tamiflu. I stayed home. (Though still working - I have no sick time and too many projects to not be working.) On Wednesday I moderated a couple of webinars from home and too much talking resulted in the lovely experience of coughing so hard that I threw up several times in the middle of a coast-to-coast call with around 20 nurses. Thank goodness I managed to hit the mute button before that little episode!

By Monday I thought I was doing well enough to go back to the office. Aaron disagreed and tried to convince me to stay home, but I had a bunch of people coming into Denver for an education session and felt like I needed to be there. I got there at 7 a.m., and by 8 a.m. my boss was sending me home again. Something about pale, sweaty, too sick to be here... Apparently it had been a bit too much, because when I got home I fell into bed and stayed there for about 6 hours before managing to get up and do a bit of work.

On Tuesday I was the recipient of a lecture about how influenza is a serious illness and it kills healthy people every year and I need to take it seriously and get more rest - blah, blah, blah... it really sunk in since here I am back in the office again on Wednesday. Where they repeatedly tried to send me home until they realized that there was no one who could fill in for me on some things that HAVE to be done today. We'll try again with the work at home tomorrow and shoot for the office on Friday. I'm sincerely hoping this no good, very bad week will come to an end soon!