October 24 - Woke up today and my tongue was swollen to twice its normal size. Spent half the day trying to figure out what could have caused it. I didn't eat or drink anything out of the ordinary. I used Colgate Total at lunch yesterday to brush my teeth when I usually use Colgate Original but if I was going to have a reaction, you would think it would happen much sooner than 16+ hours later. Luckily, I had a checkup appt. scheduled with Dr. A this afternoon. Unluckily, it turns out I have thrush again which is what caused the swelling. Sigh.

So I'm back on thrush medicine. Happily she went straight to the good stuff this time and she doubled the dose so that it will hopefully work faster in a shorter period of time. On top of that, she showed me in the mirror exactly what the thrush looks like and put some refills on the prescription. She said if I see it come back yet again after we clean up this current round, to just go ahead, call in the refill, and self medicate. She also said that I should replace my toothbrush, otherwise I'm just inviting the thrush back in. Would have been nice if my cute little Indian doc had mentioned this the first time I had thrush although I guess it should have occurred to me. Alas, I freely admit that I'm not the brightest crayon in the box. :-)

I totally forgot to put heavy stuff in my pockets today. I was wearing a windbreaker instead of my leather jacket and lighter shoes too. Needless to say, I received a stern talking to about my weight. Supposedly I've lost 7 pounds in the past 2 weeks. I know this isn't true. As previously mentioned I've lost 2 pounds at the most. Whatever. My next appointment is 5 weeks away. Hopefully by then I'll be eating some real food like mashed potatoes and gravy or soup, and the weight loss will no longer be a bone of contention.

We had voluntary biometric screenings at work yesterday (if you get screened, you get a discount on your insurance!). I pulled up my sleeve so the nurse could take my blood pressure. I saw her eyeballing my scar and I think there was a brief internal struggle as to whether she should ask me about it or not. She finally did and I told her. She asked how long ago the surgery was and I told her July. She was really surprised! She said the scar looks fantastic for a surgery that recent. She really thought it was much older than that. Score another thumb's up for Mederma. That stuff rocks!

And let's end today's blog with an observation on hugs. Yes, hugs. Due to my adventure, there has been a lot of hugging going on in my life. Three coworkers in particular hug me on a weekly if not daily basis. I feel that all of this hugging is turning me into somewhat of a connoisseur and I wanted to give out some props where props are due. I was feeling a bit blue last week so I headed back to the Operations office where my buddy H sits. He is one of the coworkers that freely gives me hugs all week long. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. Neither was Tim, who is good for an occasional hug. The only employee back there was Al who does not give off vibes conducive to hugging. I said to hell with it and told him I was in dire need of a hug. Can I tell you, it was one of the best hugs I've ever received?? I had no idea there was an art to hugging but whatever it is, Al's got it. Mind you, I still love all the other hugs I get, they're GREAT hugs. I'm just saying the Al hug I received was AWESOME. And with that, I bid you adieu.