rough recovery

On Sunday of our final matinee, I was still feeling pretty miserable. I began the amoxicillin regimen that was prescribed to me on Saturday, but wanted to hold off on the prednisone...except that upon waking up, it was clear that nothing had really cleared up, and so the only way that I was going to be able to phonate PAST the swelling in my throat was to take the two tiny pills.

Since it's kind of like Zpack that you have to split up over the entire day on the first day, I only took the first two--thinking--ok, if THIS is what messes up my voice forever...at least I just took 2 of 6. Maybe it will be less.

The matinee began at 2, and I was feeling vocally the same, but I could feel that the irritation in my throat was already lessening--a good sign.

So I sang like I would any other day--with full emotional and vocal commitment--and the last show was a blast.

As soon as the show was over, I went home, packed my things, and tried to shut up.
Since I have to begin auditioning again in Europe starting next week, I really really really wanted this thing to be over already.

Sadly, it is not.
Well, the original symptoms are. That is to say, chills, fever, post nasal drip, productive cough with tons of multicolored phlegm (stop me when this gets totally gross), sore throat.
Now it's just awful awful dry cough--and I THINK that it's actually a side effect of the meds, and not the tail-end of the sickness.

Which is totally horrible--because coughing puts actual acute pressure on the cords.

It's been scarily bad for the past 3 nights especially...ie, can't go to sleep for about an hour because if I lie down (back, side, or stomach) I start to cough. And now I'm getting paranoid that EVEN though I just got scoped BEFORE this sickness went away and everything was fine, that somehow SINCE the drugs have started working I have busted my voice seriously due to the dry coughing.

Of course, I do know this is KIND of paranoid, but it's still really really not cool.

So here I am, almost midnight, having just taken the last two pills of the evening, trying to stifle the cough and losing, hoping hoping hoping that in two or three days this will all be a thing of the past.

Because there are WAY more exciting posts to write about in terms of upcoming THINGS than this.