Thank Goodness for Sinus Infections

 

Well this past week mainly consisted of me picking up a gnarly sinus infection that made my voice as raspy as Roz's from Monster’s Inc seemingly overnight. I really thought it was just a sinus infection but that thought quickly turned into fear when I was making dinner one night and discovered I suddenly couldn’t taste. It threw me back in time to a year ago when I experienced similar symptoms and took a COVID test that ended up coming positive.

I was frantically texting our friend Amanda to see where she got her rapid COVID test and trying to see if I put straight chili powder on my tongue if I could taste it… nothing. Then when I looked at the stove and saw plumes of smoke coming from under the lid of our skillet I realized I also didn’t have a sense of smell. Needless to say the bacon I was cooking for our salad was reduced to charcoal and our apartment was filled with a thick smoky haze that set off smoke alarms throughout the house. So embarrassing! We opened all of the windows turned on all of the fans and dressed in our winter coats because it also happened to be on the night of a cold snap.

Jaden carried around a bath towel and tried to use it to wave the smoke toward the windows. All the while commenting he couldn’t believe I couldn’t smell it and that he was convinced I had COVID again.

I was finally able to find a COVID test and schedule it for the next day bummed to realize that I was going to spend my surprise half day off of work driving to a local Walgreens and getting tested for COVID. My biggest worry though was what this would mean for Jaden’s school schedule if we had to quarantine because midterms were the next week and he had an in class presentation as well as labs and exams he really needed to be on campus for.

After airing out the apartment for a couple hours and eating a bowl of spinach and a mug of broth for dinner (why eat an actual meal when I couldn’t taste it;) I got ready for bed and asked Jaden if he would give me a priesthood blessing of health, healing and comfort before I went to bed. He did so and as he was giving the blessing I began to feel my congestion clear up. He also spoke inspired words of comfort and peace regarding school and the future that I really needed to hear. I have strong faith in the priesthood power of God and am so grateful to be married to a man who is worthy to hold the authority of the priesthood and has the faith and willingness to exercise its power in order to bless others.

I slept better that night than I had all week and when I woke up the next morning as I stepped out of our room into the hallway I got a full whiff of the smoke I had missed the night before, I ran into the kitchen and discovered that I also had my taste back. I felt more hopeful again that it truly could be just a really bad sinus infection. I used to get chronic sinus infections as a kid. One summer I had four or five in a row and even went to an Ear Nose and Throat doc to see if I needed surgery to help clear up the reoccurring infections. During those times I would occasionally lose my taste so it definitely wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that this was another one of those times.  

When the time rolled around for my appointment I headed over to Walgreens and had my drive through test done and the pharmacist administering the test told me I’d hear back within 2-3 days. I thought it would be within 24 hours but because it was a Friday they said to plan for longer wait time over the weekend.  

Thankfully I only had to wait a little over 24 hours for the results to come in and it was NEGATIVE! Thank goodness for sinus infections!

We made sure everyone was still comfortable with us coming over for Sunday dinner at Zach and Jenna’s and it was there I learned that my ministering partner had her baby. I had no idea (because we were late to church and missed the announcement... oops) and hurried and texted her and she responded that she had gone into labor the afternoon before.

When I was waiting for my COVID test results to come back I had to cancel a ministering visit she and I were scheduled to go do and I realized that if we had gone we would have been right in the middle of cleaning a woman’s apartment when my ministering partner went into labor. I’m sure it would have been an adventure and we would have been fine but I’m just extra grateful that I had that sinus infection. Thank goodness for sinus infections!

At the beginning of the week I was so bugged that this happened especially since I work from home and only leave the house to go to the store and church both of those require social distancing and masks. I was worried about what it meant for Jaden and school and I didn't want to reschedule a ministering visit we had planned weeks prior. But by the end of the week I was thinking maybe it was all divinely inspired because my sinus infection canceled a plan and helped a family welcome their baby into the world under less stressful circumstances than being in the middle of a service project at the opposite side of town. And the service project was able to be rescheduled. I didn’t have COVID. Jaden didn’t have to quarantine and miss his midterms. I wasn’t horribly sick and didn’t contaminate anyone else. It really all worked out for the best.

I don’t know exactly how Heavenly Father orchestrates the details of our lives but I know He does. It was a good reminder to me that He truly does help pits turn to peaches. What started out as an unfortunate situation with me feeling sick and seeming to overturn all of our plans ultimately turned out for the best.

So eleven year old me who experienced those reoccurring sinus infections might not have ever thought I'd say this but thank goodness for sinus infections.

Peaches

• Seeing leaves the nieces and nephews found outside during our weekly Sunday dinner challenge
• Got a friendship bracelet in the mail from cute Sloane
• Finalizing a logo and starting to build out a website for work
  
• Going Christmas tree decor shopping with mom virtually
• Making digital and cardboard cards for family and friends' birthdays (Casey and I have a running joke after one time when Jaden and I were dating I wrote a card on a piece of cardboard and gave it to Amanda for her birthday and started this tradition where I give Casey a cardboard card for his birthday on November 4th and then he gives me one a week letter on my birthday)
• I know so many people with November birthdays it’s so fun to celebrate so many people
• FaceTiming family
• Getting an extra hour of sleep from daylight savings
• Jaden’s blessing and words of comfort
• Feeling better after getting a blessing
• My grandma telling me that my grandpa that passed away would be so proud of me for going back to school
• Negative COVID test
• Talking about families and temples at church
•  Seeing a friend at church after not seeing her for several weeks 
• Realizing there are reasons for everything
• Seeing a monarch butterfly on a Sunday walk
  

Pits

• Hearing that American Airlines cancelled 1500 flights and worrying that our flights home for Christmas were among them. Thankfully they are still a go!
  
• Not feeling great
• Not sleeping well because I was so congested
• Burning bacon
• Smoky apartment
• Thinking I had COVID
• Bundling up because our apartment is freezing, still trying to figure out how to work the radiators
  
• Worrying about messing up Jaden’s midterms
• Feeling overwhelmed after meeting with my school counselor to go over my schedule for spring semester
• Having to cancel plans with friends while we waited for my COVID test to come back 
• Having different perspectives can be peaches as well as pits at times in relationships
  

Lessons Learned

• Priesthood power is real
• God is so aware of us if we look we’ll find Him in the details of our lives 
• Pits really do turn into peaches 
• I’m grateful for sinus infections
• Boiling vinegar and water with lemons, limes or oranges helps get rid of smoke and odors (just don’t let the water get too low or you’ll burn that too)