Ilaya Street

So, after the Sudafed dilemma and finally deciding to take the med and Kevin staying home last Thursday, I felt good the whole day. The pressure was still there but the headache was manageable. I made an appointment to see the doctor and luckily, they were able to get me in the same day (11 am!). And luckily, too, it wasn’t my PCP because I was really planning to bitch at her. So, the doctor took a good look, said that it wasn’t bacterial, not the flu or common cold. It’s caused by my allergy (tell me what’s new, doc!). And so he said jsut continue taking sudafed up to a week but no longer than that. Ok..

I don’t want to take pill when Kevin’s not around so I just did the usual nasal steaming, saline drops and a little bit of rest. Same thing, pressure still there, headache manageable. That night, i thought about the crying and how it seemed to have relieved the pressure a bit. We thought of a ways to make me cry and but we ended up laughing instead. Before falling asleep, we made a decision that I would try cutting onions the next morning.

The following day, we found out that we have a lot of things to accomplish before we could head up to LA for Papa’s birthday.  I didn’t take a pill because that’s what we agreed on – if it’s not *that* bad, let’s not take any meds. So, i went ahead and got the biggest onion and started cutting. It wasn’t doing anything! I had the chopped onions all the way up my nose, inhaling it and all but it didn’t do anything! We probably got sweet onions. (i know there’s the sweet variety, but I am not sure if that was the reason why we’re not getting the cry-enzymes).  Kevin said “you should just rub them all over your face!”. I said,  ”Maybe I should just squeeze the juice directly to my eyes! If that worked, we should patent Onion Drops”.  I went through the day “managing” the headache but still functioning.

After using up more than half the day running errands and building stuff, we headed up to my parents for the birthday dinner, headache on board.  We went to Sagan, a korean barbeque/japanese restaurant. Then the Wasabi idea came to mind. I am going to eat wasabi and see how it goes. So, we actually ordered korean bbq and korean dishes so no wasabi was served. We had to ask for it. And so, the moment of truth – nothing ever worked to get to my sinuses. Wasabi should at least do something. All eyes were on me when i took my first bite. It was a piece of galbi with a little bit of wasabi. Nothing. Didn’t even feel anything. I was starting to feel really frustrated and hopeless. But i wasn’t going to give up. I tried again. Quarter teaspoon wasabi – straight up!. 3…2…1.. HOLY CRAP! My nasal passages opened up, i teared up really quickly and felt like it was going to burn forever. I had to spit the wasabi to a napkin. But after a few seconds, the burning sensation was gone (that’s what wasabi does). And believe it or not, that seemed to have done the trick. This morning, I started sneezing again and was able to release some mucus out.  I would prefer sneeze fits over debilitating headaches anytime (although i don’t like sneezing so much because I’m afraid I may be disturbing the little bugger’s nap time or something).