Thursday Review: Violet by Design by Melissa Walker

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The Blurb:
I was going to get out of the modeling business for good.

But now I’m having trouble sticking with my decision. After all, if it wasn’t for modeling, I might still be the invisible wallflower. Hot guys like Paulo wouldn’t be interested in me. And I’d never have seen Brazil or Spain-and now France! On the other hand…

I also wouldn’t have to choose between my best friend from home and my agent’s shrill demands. Or anguish over my body the way only runway models do. Not to mention all this trouble I’m getting into for speaking out in the press about eating disorders.

Maybe the life of an international model isn’t for me. But if I quit for good, I might always wonder…What if?

My review:

I actually enjoyed this better than book one because the arc was very similar, but this book tackled issues in a different way that I appreciated and had more developed side characters. I think it helped that the issues approached in this book were body image and weight, which is something all girls feel pressure about, whereas most girls aren’t models who deal with the pressures of fame, money, and nervous breakdowns due to the depression of maintaining a stressful career as a teenager. Plus, in book one, all the issues Violet had seemed so avoidable with one key word. Moderation. In this book, the issues go beyond Violet’s personal, and frequently bad decisions to factors outside of her control. Violet gains five pounds, is told to lose it, complains publicly on her blog, suffers consequences from her blog going public, and unexpectedly lands an ad campaign with a place trying to improve their PR by caring about body image…yet they still want her to lose five pounds. Disturbed by the hypocrisy of it all, Violet is torn between furthering her career and selling out.

In book one, Violet’s all or nothing approach kind of bothered me, but this book helped me see that’s her character. Moderation isn’t in her vocabulary. She either jumps head first into the darkest depths of the dark side of modeling, or quits completely. She either starves herself, or eats a half gallon of ice cream a day. She falls in love the exact same way. Violet doesn’t do half measures. I think that was easier to see this round because this book did have models who could live the lifestyle with professionalism and grace without completely losing themselves. The career isn’t evil, the other girls aren’t bad or lost. It’s just not a good path for someone as impressionable and sometimes immature as the protagonist and that’s okay. Flawed characters are more interesting. As an adult that sometimes struggles to get by, it was pretty frustrating watching Violet get handed opportunity after opportunity and seems hell bent on destroying them all. But that’s an age thing. The romances in this were frustrating, but again, this isn’t for my age group. One thing I really liked is this book focused a lot less on the whole “but I never thought I was pretty” thing.

There’s this trend in YA books to have obviously beautiful girls think they’re plain. And frankly, it’s annoying. I’m not talking about books with plain girls who discover the beauty of their own bodies, or find a guy who sees them as beautiful, or discover the friends they’re jealous of are jealous of how they look. That’s actually kind of realistic. Everyone is much prettier than they think they are and the message that we are our worst critics is an important one. But there’s a line and a lot of books cross it. Sorry, but if you’re pretty enough to be able to literally get recruited into modeling off the street, or be able to quit and have your agent bend over backwards to bring you back, or have multiple guys fall for you, or have a room of photographers go completely still and breathless when you walk out on stage, you’re more than average and refusing to accept that or acknowledge that actually makes girls feel worse about themselves because if she thinks she’s ugly, what the heck does that make actual average people? By this book, Violet’s mostly accepted she looks good, not in a vain way, but in a healthy one. Even though she crash dieted and got embarrassed when her agent kept making comments about her weight, I was never under the impression Violet thought those five pounds made a difference in herself or the way she looked. It was just something she had to lose to keep her job.

This book improves upon the first one. Worth a read if you enjoyed book one at all.

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Mythology Monday: Thetis and the Nereids

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Jason and the Argonauts encounter yet another pair of clashing/wandering rocks. This set is called the Planctae, and it is located near Scylla and Charybdis. To get through the wandering rocks, the Argonauts enlisted the help of Thetis and the Nereids.

Thetis was one of fifty children of Nereus, which made her a Nereid. She is among the most famous of the pack, sharing the spotlight with her sister Amphitrite, Poseidon’s wife, and Galatea (not the statue, Polyphemus’ girlfriend). Thetis is most famous for being the mother of Achilles. Her wedding to Peleus started the sequence of events that led to the Trojan War because they forgot to add Eris to the guest list, so she showed up with a golden apple, which caused a beauty contest, which caused a kidnapping, which eventually got Achilles almost killed. Thetis was protective of Achilles. She dipped him in the river Styx when he was a baby to make him impervious to harm. His only vulnerable spot was the heel of his foot because she held him by it when she dipped him in the river. She might have anointed him with Ambrosia instead, the myth varies. Anyway, it can’t be said she didn’t care about her son. When Achilles was near death, she snatched him away to the mythical White Islands (think Elysium, the ocean edition) to live forever.

At some point in her lifetime, she helped Zeus when some of the other Olympians tried to mutiny and throw the god-king in chains. Thetis summoned a giant with a hundred arms to scare off Hera, Athena, and Poseidon. It worked. Other versions of the myth have her releasing Zeus from chains, but make no mention of the Olympian’s part in putting him there. She also nursed Hephaestus back to health when he got tossed into a volcano and gave Dionysus shelter when he was kicked off Olympus.

Poseidon and Zeus both expressed interest in marrying the Nereid, but backed off when they heard a prophecy that her son would become greater than his father. They were pleased when she married a mortal.

Since her husband was an Argonaut, though the timing is shaky on this (maybe they met here?), she was pleased to help the Argo get past the wandering rocks. The Nereids tossed the ship around like a beach ball, getting it safely past the rocks where they…ran right into another storm.

More on that next week.

Recovered from the Tonsillectomy

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So today I woke up and my throat felt fine. I’ve been eating normally and everything. I’ve been super lucky with this whole recovery period I know. And I don’t know if it’s because I did everything “right” or if my recovery was just luck. But if it wasn’t, I hope my experience helps someone else have just as smooth of a recovery.

Now I’m back to work, and hopefully I’ll have news on Venus and Adonis soon. Revisions are going really well and I’m excited about my new project as well, Blood and Other Matter. All my audio books are out now, so expect contests and such in the weeks to come. I might start doing Freebie Fridays.

Lots of exciting stuff to come. Keep reading 😀

Thursday Review: The Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier

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The Blurb:

Gwyneth Shepherd’s sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon–the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

The Review:

I loved Ruby Red. I thought the concept was interesting, the way they time traveled was very neat, the twist at the end had me itching for the next book, and Gwyneth was awesome. The only thing I didn’t like was her confusion about the love interest. Literally the first time she sees him, she’s watching future her kiss him. So when he flirts with her and makes out with her, the “does he like me or doesn’t he” argument just seems a bit silly. Her confusion makes more sense after something that happened midway through book two, but until then, it just made her seem dense. But other then that, loved the first book. Get the first book, read it, it’s great.

The rest of the series kind of fell flat for me. Gwynneth started book one as such a feisty, strong character. I really don’t get why she would stand for the way she was treated in the rest of the series. People were outright rude to her and they kept needing her to do stuff for them. Say no. Make demands. Don’t just stare at the ground and grit your teeth.

Side characters I was really hoping would become more developed stayed very flat and one dimensional. I do have to say I loved her grandfather and the gargoyle, but Charlotte could have been a fascinating character. Ditto for Lucy and Paul. Gwynneth did things that made no sense with an alarming frequency (after your first experience, why would you continue to drink enough at parties in the past that you have been hit over the head with the importance and danger of? Why?). The time travel concept that was set up so well in book one was never really explained much more in depth. The rules got fuzzy, and a revelation at the (very) end made me really curious how that would impact future bloodlines. I didn’t know where all the prophecies and such *came* and they literally met the man who started it all. The thing with James at the end drove me nuts. Time is complicated. Time travelers of all people need to get that.

I think the books are worth a read because the parts that are good are SO good, but I actually think it would have been better if it wasn’t a trilogy, and instead was a longer stand alone book. The story wasn’t about the sapphire or the emerald, it was about the ruby. Her arc from start to finish and I think it may have been streamlined in a more compelling way in one arc instead of broken up because in three books there was some repetition, characters that didn’t need to exist, scenes that could have been cut. I think the story is strong and would have packed a much more powerful punch as a stand alone. I know several of you guys have read the series, what do you think?

Mythology Monday: Talos

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Talos was created when Zeus fell into lust with a woman named Europa, a Phoenician woman descended from the nymph IO. In order to seduce her, he transformed into a white bull and blended in with her father’s herd. When Europa went to the fields to pick flowers, she noticed the white bull and pet it. The bull was so friendly, she decided to hop on its back for a ride. Zeus took off to the sea with her in tow, transformed into a swan, and swam to the island of Crete. Upon arriving they had sex and he made her the first queen of Crete. Zeus then made the constellation Taurus to commemorate the happy occasion.

Crete had an issue with pirates, so when Zeus left the island, he left the bronze giant Talos behind to guard the island as either a gift to Europa or to Minos. Talos was forged by Hephaestus or Cyclopes or Daedalus. Whoever designed him included a major flaw, probably so he wouldn’t be a threat if he ever became self aware. He only had one vein running through his entire body neck to ankle(Percy Jackson fans, remember this?) bound shut by a single iron nail. He circled the island three times a day searching for anything amiss. If he saw any unauthorized ships approaching the island, he threw rocks at them until they either sank or went away. When he threw rocks at the Argo, Media either cast a spell on Talos to calm him down and removed the bronze nail herself; or tricked him into doing it himself with hypnoses or mind control; or drove him so crazy with drugs that he removed the nail to end his misery; or she used keres to drive him crazy to the same end.

Keres are female death spirits descended from the goddess Nyx. The were “dark beings with gnashing teeth, claws and a thirst for human blood” (cool quote wikipedia). They would scour battle fields in search of wounded or dying warriors. They may be related to Valkyries (related as in the same thing mythologically, not blood related, obviously).

Anyway, no matter how the nail was removed, all myths conclude Medea somehow removed it. All the ichor bled from his body and he died, allowing the Argo to sail on.

Tonsillectomy Day 4 and 5

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Was way too busy to write yesterday, and not much has changed. For the most part my throat feels sore, like a sore throat, but if I try to chew anything, talk to much, or like clean the whole house, I can feel it. I’ve gone back and forth the last two days between not taking my pain meds at all, and the maximum dosage. It just really depends on how easy I’m taking it.

Eating is harder than it was before so I guess my throat is in a new stage of recovery. My ears have hurt every now and then, but at the first sign of ache I microwave my little heat pack and by the time it cools down, I’m fine.

I’ve been super lucky. Friday I was able to drive my daughter to school, visit a friend, deal with some friend drama, and host my daughters first spend the night. Today I’m packing to go to California tomorrow. I’m able to do it all, but I’m looking forward to just resting on Monday. Monday will mark one week from my surgery. I know I’ve been super lucky.

So, I’m back to regular writing unless something crazy comes up. My only other is advice is seriously, don’t chew, it’s not worth it. Mushy, mushy foods. It’s not that the food is hard or soft (though I haven’t tried hard foods) it’s that kind of sideways chewing motion that rips into your throat a bit. I knew it was a mistake as soon as I took a bite and I’m still paying for it. But otherwise I’m doing great.

Tonsillectomy Day 3

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Yesterday ended up being an a good day for my tonsils and a bad day for television. After I finished my blog post I watched about ten minutes of Glee, before deciding the episode looked stupid, so I switched to New Girl. Ten minutes of Nick and Jess whining about being hungover, I switched to Supernatural, which was also a really weird episode, but at least I could sit through it. I don’t know if it’s the pain meds, or if I’ve just lost my patience for people being randomly mad at each other in my favorite shows. I finished the Fault is in Our Stars, but either the ending had been overly spoiled for me, or I simply lack compassion on pain meds, because I wasn’t too sad. Super good book, enjoyed the read. Just not a tear jerker, which all things considered is a good thing. Crying would hurt right now.

My day improved vastly when my friend gave me broccoli cheese soup, board games, and jello. Shannon, you are the best person in the world, and I love you. The soup was SO good.

And if you can’t tell by my description of day three so far, pain was minimal. Like a bad sore throat. Even at night.

Today was a slightly different story. On day four post-op, I was given instructions to rinse with salt water three times a day. (Preferably three different times then when I rinse with the bio-med stuff) and to open my mouth as wide as I can and stick out my tongue as far as I can three times a day. So I woke up for my seven AM dose of pain killers, and was feeling so good I decided to only take 2 teaspoons of the 2-4 teaspoon dose. I’ve been taking three. Last second I chickened out and did 2 and ½. It’s weird because my throat didn’t hurt, but it felt fragile. Like the pain is lurking beneath the surface and if I cough wrong or talk to much it’s going to come on stronger than I’ve ever experienced it.

So I lounged around for a bit telling myself to get up but getting distracted by facebook and tumblr. Just after 9 I finally got up, brushed my teeth, did the salt water thing, and then I opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue as far as I could.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Am I glad I gave the pain meds time to kick in! That was an hour ago and my mouth still hurts. So, my suggestion for dealing with that is give the pain meds about half an hour, open as wide as you can, then immediately put on a fresh ice pack and drink a very cold drink. It helped….a bit. Remember, this is still an hour later. Be careful, because the stretching doesn’t hurt all that much while you’re doing it. It hurts when you close your mouth again.

I’d also schedule all these mouth swishy things because doing them all at once probably undermines the benefits of keeping your throat moist and not getting too stiff. So I’ve been alternating the salt water and the biomed, both help with the stinging of the pain killers so I pair them with doses of the medicine. Also, drink at least a bottle of something, water (I still can’t drink plain water, my mouth tastes awful), gatorade, juice (nothing too acidic), whatever, between doses. That’s one bottle every four hours. Doesn’t sound like much but I’ve been sleeping a lot so it hasn’t been easy to work it in, but I can tell the difference when I’ve had enough to drink and when I haven’t. It might not feel like it when you’re taking a sip of water after a long stretch, but a dry throat really does feel much, much,much much worse than swallowing cold juice.

All in all, still not suffering too bad. Tonsillitis hurt worse than this does so far (but again, that’s after pain meds, who knows how I really feel. My doctor didn’t give me anything for pain when my tonsils were swollen so much they were actually touching, so my perspective on severe throat pain is still pretty fresh.). I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop because I keep hearing how much worse it’s going to get at some point within the next few days as the scabs start to heal and fall off.

Thursday Review: Zombies, Run! 5k

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8 weeks to become a hero
You’re Runner 5, a vital member of one of the last outposts of humanity at Abel Township. Over the course of an eight week, 25 workout training programme, you’re trained to help collect supplies and protect the town from the encroaching zombie apocalypse.

Okay, so this isn’t a book, but it is a story! So I’m going to review it anyway. I’m a huge fan of the original Zombie, run! app, in fact, I helped fund it on kickstarter (best ten bucks I ever spent) so look for my name in the credits. I did couch to 5k about two years ago and had been running 30 minutes a couple times a week on a regular basis when….

student teaching happened.

Then my daughter was out of school for the summer.

And life.

And stuff.

So when I went running again, I knew I would pretty much be starting over, hence me buying this app. I wanted something new and motivating, using the same 5k app would have just made me sad. Plus I wanted more story! So I’m breaking this review down into three parts: The Story, The Workout, and The Tech.

The story: In terms of plot, it’s not as good as the main app. This is really more of a character development exercise than actual plot. There’s some intrigue. Someone is stealing supplies from your base and Sam is searching for his dead girlfriend’s lost sister, but mostly you’re meeting people and learning about them. Still worth it? Yes. Character development is fantastic. And if you’ve used the original app, heartbreaking when you realize who one of the characters is. The mini-plots get resolution and overall you’ll feel like a hero when you finish the training. This is a different experience than reading a book or even listening to the audio book because it requires more imagination. You’re runner five. Therefore your character doesn’t really develop and you have to picture the zombies chasing you. Not hard in a creepy park with zombie noises filling your ears. The only thing I wished they’d changed was that toward the final weeks they started going into story mode during the walking/stretching parts and doing nothing during the running parts. I got the app to distract me from the running bit not the nice breaks. But that won’t be an issue once you graduate to the main app.

The workout: I was really impressed with the set up. It was different from any other couch to 5k program I’d ever looked at before and way more effective than the last one I did. My time improved a ton. I’ve included the weekly summary at the bottom. The trick is to run the full time of the free form runs because they’re what gets longer, not the walk/run drills like in the traditional C25K program. I loved the built in stretch breaks and exercises. I think they helped a ton.

The tech: Mostly the tech worked great. Sometimes it would get stuck and I’d be in walk mode a minute or two longer so the run would get cut into by a minute or two when the audio caught up. Gosh darn. Glad it never happened the other way around though because I would have gotten angry. Sometimes the music didn’t start, but that was rare. Otherwise it worked perfect. Great program and would absolutely buy again

Week 1:
10 minute walk
1 minute walk/15 second run x 10
10 minute free form run

Week 2:
10 minute walk
30 second run, 5 heel lifts, 1.5 minute run x 5
10 minute free form run

Week 3:
5 minute walk
5 minute free form run
1 minute run, 1 minute walk, 20 knee lifts x 5
8 minute run
2 minute stretch break
8 minute free form run

Week 4
5 minute walk
5 minute run
10 knee lifts, 1 minute slow walk, 1 minute fast walk x 5
1 minute walk, 30 second run x 5
15 minute free form run

Week 5
5 minute walk
5 minute run
30 second walk, 1 minute run, 6 heel lifts x 8
10 minute free form run
5 minute stretch break
10 minute free form run

Week 6
10 minute walk
10 minute run
10 half squats, 30 seconds stretching x 3
5 minute fast walk, 7 minute free form run x 2
2 minute stretch break
7 minute free form run

Week 7

10 minute fast walk
5 minute free form run
1 minute running, 15 seconds skipping x 5
5 minute free form run
3 minutes stretch break, 5 minute run x 2

Week 8:

Day 1:
5 minute walk
5 minute run
4 minutes stretching
20 minute run
5 minute stretching
5 minute run
3 minutes stretching
5 minute run

Day 2:
5 minute walk
10 minute free form run
3 minute stretch
10 minute free form run, 5 minute walk x 2
5 minute run

Day 3:
5k

Tonsillectomy Day 2

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Two things I forgot to say yesterday, don’t drink/eat anything with red dye, it’s supposed to make it hard for the doctor to identify infection if they need to, and sleep with your head elevated. It makes a difference, because last night out of habit at some point I slouched down and turned over and I felt it when I woke up.

So when I left off yesterday, I was feeling great. Too great. I called my doctors office to set up an appointment, I paid bills (over the phone), I chatted with my husband, and overdid it. When I started feeling it, I decided to take a nap, but couldn’t sleep because my husband was watching TV in the other room too loudly and wasn’t getting my text messages asking him to turn it down.

So I did a truly stupid thing, I shouted for him to turn it down. To be fair, I was half-asleep and on pain meds, but ouch. That hurt. And he didn’t hear me. Then the fact that I got hurt made me mad so I went out there and physically turned it down, pointing to my phone like a madwoman. Also I was irrationally mad at him for cooking chicken-fajita stuff because it smelled SO good and I hadn’t eaten since Sunday night. AND he forgot to grab me a milk shake when he picked my daughter up from school. Not my best moment. He apologized (for the TV) and asked why I didn’t just say something, and like an idiot, I started arguing, out loud, that I had. He apologized and said he didn’t get the text, and went out and got my milkshake like the nice guy he is, but the damage to my throat was done.

Ugh, stupid, stupid me. I drank my milkshake and napped until 7, and when I woke up my throat hurt. I don’t know if it’s because of the yelling (probably) or just because of where I am in the recovery bit (swelling should start becoming an issue on day three) but I was not doing that great anymore.

But happy news, I was allowed to have drinks that were not water or gatorade. I ate some mashed potatoes (SO GOOD!) and drank copious amounts of cran-grape juice with crushed ice.

I also started using this bio-med rinse stuff on day 2 and was allowed to brush my teeth :D. So my throat kept bouncing back and forth from bruised and battered to pleasantly refreshed. I’ve noticed I get really cranky for about twenty minutes between doses of medicine as one dose wears off and the other dose kicks in, but I get really happy about an hour in.

The bio-med rinse is weird, but actually super nice. You just rinse with it for 30 seconds 3 times a day. I do it right after I take the pain killers and it cuts down on the stinging. It also makes your mouth feel less dry? It’s amazing stuff.

Last night the medicine started to hurt really bad. It always stung, but last night it got really, really bad. I eventually figured out the cran-grape was a bit too acidic and switched back to gatorade to chase the medicine down with and that helped. I’ve gone from 4 tsp’s to 3 tsp’s (instructions say 2-4) , and I’m betting that’s why I’m up thirty minutes before the four hour window ready to get my next dose.

I was in a ton of pain this morning around 6:30 AM and it was weird because it was because I swallowed the pain meds and it stung so bad. Also my ears were hurting a bit. But nothing hurt until I swallowed the pain meds, which are supposed to help. I was pretty pathetic for about twenty minutes until the pain killers really kicked in and then I was out until my next dose at 11:00, washed it down with gatorade and felt fine. It still stung, but not as agonizingly. I was allowed to take a shower today (the paperwork said not to until day 3) so it feels great to be clean and the moist shower air helped my throat a lot too. I also started a new medicine today, some kind of steroid to help with swelling and infection risk. It’s a pill, so I was a little worried taking it, but I didn’t have any problem.

I’m able to eat soft foods now but it’s kind of exhausting. My mouth hurts after a few bites so it’s really just a couple of bites of this here, wait a few hours, a couple of bites of that there. Pain wise I’ve been doing fine since about 7:00 AM. I’m more sore than yesterday but I really think that’s my own fault so I’m not talking today, drinking lots of gatorade, replacing the ice backs constantly, and hanging around the humidifier and getting a lot of sleep. Seems to be helping. So hopefully I’ll get back to where I was tomorrow.

My suggestion, don’t talk. You’ll feel like you can talk. Don’t do it. Just text. Also, cranberry grape juice, while delicious, should be drunk sparingly because it is pretty strong. Tomorrow ear pain is really common, but I’m ready. I ordered a hot/cold pack that can wrap around the ears from amazon and it should arrive today or early tomorrow.

Wish me luck…

Surgery

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Yesterday I did something incredibly stupid. I woke up early in the morning and drove to an outpatient surgery center and allowed someone to slice into my throat and remove my tonsils. On purpose.

I haven’t had surgeries before. Not really. I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was eighteen, but I’ve had so many teeth extracted before then that I couldn’t make make myself view that as an actual surgery. I had my daughter, but that was kind of inevitable. She was coming, hospital or not. Humans have been having babies longer than doctors were around.

I kind of figured if I ever went under the knife it would be an emergency situation. Not something scheduled, driven to with intent, and planned for. As I was planning, I read everything I could online and came to a realization. I also have a blog. True, it’s for my books, but my readers might have had their tonsils removed and could have awesome advice to share. Or they may need it in the future. So might as well put this up here if I’m going to write about it. And I’m a writer. That’s kind of my thing.

So yesterday morning I woke up starving. I’m always super hungry in the morning, but I couldn’t eat anything after midnight so breakfast was out. I have to give my husband, the nicest guy in the world, credit. He woke up earlier than me so I wouldn’t have to watch him eat breakfast. I pretty much just rolled out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth and hopped in the car.

We arrived at 6:30 and I filled out some paperwork then hung around until 7:30. Then they took me back to get me prepped. I changed into a hospital gown and robe and then they stuck me a few times trying to get an IV in.

I don’t have veins, by the way. They aren’t sure where my blood comes from, but it’s never been anywhere easily accessible. But this hospital was super nice. They numbed me first before poking me with the IV, so at least I didn’t feel them digging around. I will say though, the numbing stuff they used, novacane , burned for like minutes after the IV was in, so if I had normal, easy to find veins, I don’t know that it would be worth it.

Then they brought in my husband to say good luck and ran me through a series of questions before administering an IV cocktail. They rolled me back to the operating room and knocked me out. I woke up to a nurse calling my name really, really loudly, and whoosh, I was in a recovery room asking for something to drink because my mouth was dry. They dosed me with dilaudid, which is like ten times stronger than morphine, gave me an ice collar, and I slept for a bit, chatted with my husband, and slept some more between lots of cups of orange gatorade.

Two things really surprised me right off the bat. They offered me soda, which I was not expecting. And I could talk. Normal sounding even. It didn’t hurt. Throughout my stay at the hospital, which lasted until about 2:00, the most I felt was like I had a very mild, scratchy throat.

I started feeling it on the way home though. It’s a thirty minute drive, and my husband ran a bit late coming back to get me because he had to pick up my daughter from school and the pharmacy took awhile. My advice, ask for one last dose of pain meds forty minutes before you expect to leave because they can’t give them to you within thirty minutes of leaving. But once I took my pain meds (liquid loratab, which stings a bit going down, so chase with gatorade) I was fine. I set my alarm for seven (you take the pain meds every four hours) and took a nice long nap.

Thanks to some awesome internet advice, I knew to have a big glass of gatorade (I tried water, but my mouth tasted too weird, I needed flavor, plus no mushy foods until day two, so the electrolytes are probably good for me) by the bed, a humidifier running, and an awesome husband who swapped out my ice packs every hour or so. I woke up at seven and wasn’t in a rush to get to my pain meds, but I took them right away anyway because I didn’t want that to change, stayed up until my next dose of pain meds, and went back to sleep. I set my alarm for four hours later each time I took my medicine, even at night, took big sips of gatorade anytime I was awake enough to think about it (especially before and after the pain meds) and swapped out my ice packs every time I woke up.

The humidifier makes a drastic difference. I know this because mine ran out of water at 3:00 and I was too lazy to refill it. When I woke up at 7, there was a massive difference in how dry my mouth was. The thing you really, really, really want to avoid is your mouth getting dry. Like at any cost. Drink constantly while awake. It hurts a bit to swallow but once you do it enough, it’s really no worse than a sore throat (except for that like 20 minutes between doses of pain meds, it’s a bit more painful then).

I did have two semi-major moments of pain. The ride home was not fun, and I kept having to couch just before I went to sleep that night. Coughing is not fun with two gaping holes in your throat. But weirdly, switching from drinking out of my cup straight to a straw calmed my throat down enough to fall asleep. I wouldn’t use a straw much/at all. But the way I was swallowing must have been bugging something and changing that up helped.

Today, so far so good. I’ve probably talked to much and need to knock that off (hence the blogging) because just because I feel up to talking doesn’t mean I won’t regret it when the meds wear off. Keeping near the humidifier, taking pain killers every 4 hours, and drinking lots of gatorade. I’m still starving but can’t have anything other than clear-ish liquids (they said the gatorade counted) until later this afternoon and no mushy solids until tomorrow :(.

If I’m up to it, I’ll write tomorrow. But in the meantime, you may see me online a lot, but I may not be responsive. Don’t take it personally, life is a bit fuzzy right now. Got any advice for recovery? I hear it gets worse around day 5.