• Demons of Oblivion
    • Bloodlines
    • Hunter
    • Lineage
    • Exhumed
    • Oblivion
    • Novellas, Shorts, & Collections
  • River Wolfe
    • River
    • Rebellion
    • How the Werewolf Stole Christmas
    • Wolfe
  • Livi Talbot
    • Solomon’s Seal
    • Odin’s Spear
    • Ashford’s Ghost
    • Emperor’s Tomb
    • Shiva’s Bow
    • Yampellec’s Idol
    • Charon’s Gold
  • Elis O’Connor
    • Blood Ties
    • Witch Hunt
    • Soul Spell
    • Hell Fire
    • Demon Fall
    • Season of the Bitch
  • Waverly Jones Mysteries
    • The Killing Beach
    • A Wild Kind of Darkness
    • Alone at Night
    • Silent All These Years
    • A Dark and Distant Home
  • Standalone
    • Soulless
    • The Silent Places
    • Dweller on the Threshold
    • Watcher of the Woods
    • The Taiga Ridge Murders
  • Boxsets
    • Hauntings: Two Tales of the Paranormal
  • Audio
  • Sales

Skyla Dawn Cameron

My characters kill people so I don't have to.

  • Books
    • Demons of Oblivion
    • River Wolfe
    • Livi Talbot
    • Elis O’Connor
    • Waverly Jones
    • Standalone Books
    • Boxsets & Bundles
    • Content Warnings
  • Skyla
    • Newsletter
    • FAQs
    • Skyla’s Home for Wayward Strays
      • Sponsor a Cat
  • Blog
    • Soundtrack Sunday Overview
    • Comment Policy
    • Evil Writer Blog Posts
    • Evil Writer Blog Posts – Old Site
  • Patronage
  • Shop Books
    • eBooks Direct
    • Deals/Sales
  • Upcoming
  • Hire Skyla
You are here: Home / blog / This Thing I Learned at Age 31

July 18, 2014 By Skyla Dawn Cameron

This Thing I Learned at Age 31

So I’ve been sick for…a while.

Since the middle of May, in fact.

May was kind of a blur for me because I had a stress breakdown after the fundraiser for Julie, I couldn’t afford food, I had the therapy dog test coming up, Sophie had her six month checkup, and then Jilly-bean rapidly became ill and went down hill and died the beginning of June. It seems I might’ve had a virus or something and I probably didn’t notice because I was already weak and tired and constantly dizzy by the sudden drop in daily calories while I was rationing food. But one thing stuck.

The Cough of Doom.

The cough that lasted all day. And all night so I was getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night. The cough that got progressively worse. The cough that had me choking in fits so hard that I threw up. Frequently. (TMI? Fuck you, it’s my blog.)

The last month and a half, people IRL have been giving me odd looks, because apparently I resemble death. I’m pale, I’m haggard and sickly. Not sleeping will do that to a girl. “Go to the doctor,” was the common refrain.

“But I don’t want to waste anyone’s time–I’m not sick. I don’t have a fever, I don’t have chest pain, I’m not wheezing. I just have a cough.”

“…that won’t go away. Go to the doctor.”

Dr. Dina finally threatened me, and she’s scary, so I went to see a nurse practitioner. And she confirmed I don’t have the plague but probably cough-variant asthma, and sent me home with an inhaler and instructions to come back in two weeks.

Twenty-four hours later, I’m better. I’m not coughing constantly. I slept–SLEPT!–seven hours straight. And as a result of sleeping, I could do things today like think and move and function and manage my moods and clean.  Sleep is the foundation on which everything else is built; without it, my day loses structure, and without that self-imposed structure, I become chaos incarnate in a filthy house staring at a blinking cursor on my screen unable to remember basic things like nouns and verbs with no energy to even feed myself and unable to battle crazy mood swings.

And the magical inhaler fixed it.

So this is the lesson I’ve learned: apparently when you’re sick you can go the doctor and then they give you medicine and you get better. And sometimes you don’t even have to argue with anyone or roll your eyes at them for being stupid.

I am in awe of this concept.

I’m eyeing this “go to the doctor” idea warily still; the experiment might need to be repeated to be 100% sure (but hopefully not for a while).

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to being a functioning human being again. There is work, several meetings and a funeral next week, and also much to be done if I’m releasing a book next month.

(Speaking of, I saw an August 1 release date being posted around for River–uh, guys, LATE August. I’ve said that everywhere: LATE. VERY LATE. Aug 25th at the very earliest.)

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: lessons I will someday learn, life, personal

Comments

  1. Kym says

    July 18, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    Wow! Who knew?!?! I didn’t believe it either, but that was due to a doctor who -didn’t- help.

    • Skyla Dawn Cameron says

      July 18, 2014 at 10:28 pm

      My issues stem from when I had pneumonia as a kid and the family doctor I’d had basically forever went over my chart, remarked on how I was allergic to penicillin and all forms of it, and sent me home with a prescription that made me extremely ill and then the pharmacist was like, “Uh, this is amoxcillin and Skyla is allergic.” TRUST ISSUES. I avoid hospitals and doctors but Dina’s too scary to ignore.

  2. Danni says

    July 19, 2014 at 2:45 am

    Just gonna stand over here and quietly yell “WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!”

  3. Anna says

    July 19, 2014 at 8:32 am

    Good to hear you have some seriously scary friends! 🙂

  4. Melissa (My World...in words and pages) says

    July 23, 2014 at 8:02 pm

    Hmm, doctors know what they are doing from time to time. 😉 Glad you are doing better and sleeping.

  5. Anna says

    July 29, 2014 at 5:34 am

    Whilst The Daily Mail has a reputation for sensationalist reporting in the UK, I found this article interesting: research into hormonal rather than psychiatric treatments for depression (not just post natal). It strikes me as an area that should have been explored years ago.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2708901/Revealed-The-hormone-gel-banish-depression-women-Its-revolutionary-discovery-lives-countless-women-currently-given-antidepressants-transformed-using-simple-rub-gel-instead.html

Trackbacks

  1. When Mental Health Stigma Makes You Physically Sick says:
    January 28, 2015 at 4:00 pm

    […] was feeling pretty good about this, after the appointment. It wasn’t so bad, I thought! The inhaler started to work on my cough and I felt much better. My aunt, a nurse, raised the […]

In Memory of Gus

Become a Patron!

Buy My Books

Kobo | Kindle | Smashwords | iBooks | GooglePlay | Payhip | Find Paperbacks & Hardcovers at Amazon
Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books in Progress

38000 / 65000 words. 58% done!
Demon Fall

113233 / 113233 words. 100% done!
Beneath the Pines

20000 / 100000 words. 20% done!
These Haunted Woods

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • CRussel on Torching Kindle (and Probably My Career, YOLO)
  • Anna Blake on Torching Kindle (and Probably My Career, YOLO)
  • Martha Hubbard on Torching Kindle (and Probably My Career, YOLO)
  • Paula on Audiobook (Initial) Release: DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
  • Skyla Dawn Cameron on Audiobook (Initial) Release: DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
  • Melissa Hayden on Audiobook (Initial) Release: DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
  • Anna Blake on Nothing to Say (That Isn’t Incoherent Screaming)
  • Skyla Dawn Cameron on Soundtrack Sunday – THE TAIGA RIDGE MURDERS
  • Kerry on Soundtrack Sunday – THE TAIGA RIDGE MURDERS
  • Skyla Dawn Cameron on The Birthday Thing

MEET SKYLA DAWN

Writer of urban fantasy, thrillers/mysteries, and horror.
Fifth-generation crazy cat lady. Bitchy feminist.
So tired all the goddamn time.

My characters kill people so I don’t have to.

read more

Become a Patron!

Socials

  • Amazon
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Etsy
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Twitter

What I’m Working On:

Writing Elis 5. Also kind of sort of writing Waverly 8.

I'm not inclined to resign to maturity.