My immune system... or rather, lack-there-of

When I was younger, I was sick a lot. Tonsils out, tubes in the ears, constantly in and out of the hospital for infections and what not. Of course, I don't remember any of this but I've been told numerous times by my parents about how sick I used to get. Fast forward a few years to the end of elementary and all through-out junior high. I don't know what it was, but I was sick pretty much every 6 weeks. Not majorly sick, but sick enough to stay home from school for a day, then have a man voice and runny nose for 2 or 3 days after. I was used to it, and pretty much could predict when I would get sick. I never took vitamins unless my mother forced me to, so this was probably part of the problem. It was no big deal really, since I was only ever midly sick. Then comes high school, where all of a sudden my immune system seems to get a boost and I only got sick about every 3 or 4 months. Even better! And it stayed like this throughout high school and college. The only time I was really, really sick during college was when I got food poisoning. Man, I do not wish that upon even my worst enemy. I was on the couch doing nothing but sleeping and running to the bathroom for a solid 2 1/2 days. Worst abdominal cramps of my life. They hurt so much I actually compared them to what I imagine the early stages of labor to feel like. It was painful. There were many tears. Many swears. So many trips to the bathroom.
Anyways, back to my lack of an immune system.
So there I am in Europe. I'm on a fantastic trip with school and hanging with a group of friends. Then my one friend Geoff gets sick, and it's all downhill from there. He was sick, then I got sick, then I got Briana sick who in turn got Tyla sick. And I mean, sick. I was in Portugal on one of the last days that we would be there, and I was completely bed ridden. I was having hot and cold flashes, a horribly sore throat and a massive headache. It was friggen nasty. Luckily it passed within about 4 days, and all was good. That was back in May. And I was pleased to say that I was disease-free from May until the beginning of October. That's FIVE months. Pretty much a record for me.
The beginning of October, I had to go to the walk-in clinic to get my prescription refilled. I knew going there that it was be a total ground zero type situation, and that everyone would be coughing and sneezing and hacking up all sorts of nasties. So, going there I did the total anal germaphobe thing and touched NOTHING. Not the magazines, not the arm rests on the sides of the chairs, nothing. Only the door handles. Anyways, I was there on Saturday, and I woke up Sunday morning feeling sick. Surprise, surprise! Damn you, walk-in clinic. Here I am thinking about the shitty timing of the illness, considering there were birthday's and parties coming up that I wanted to go to. Long story short, I spent almost 2 weeks with a huge nasal issue going on. I was insanely plugged up, and sounded like death. For TWO weeks. What the hell? Then last Thursday I start thinking everything is better. I'm feeling better, I'm sounding better, and my nose is starting to leak (which my Mom always said was good.) Then I wake up Friday morning and shit hit the fan. I woke up with a massive headache, I was weak, I was so tired and exhausted and I sounded worse than I had for the 2 weeks. I barely made it through work (thank-you aspirin and orange juice) and when I got home I went straight to bed. I woke up a few hours later feeling more sick than I had in ages. I pretty much wanted to curl up into the fetal position and die. It was horrible. I was thanking God it was a long weekend, because I was going to spend the 3 days in bed doing nothing but sleeping. I woke up Saturday morning, and I felt, literally, about 110% better. No headache, no fatigue, no nothing. It was insane. Don't get me wrong, I was happy. Ecstatic is more like it. But that just goes to show that my immune system is fucked right up. I can go 2 weeks with a total sinus congestion thing, feel like total death for a day, then be completely fine the next day.
Moral of this (quite obnoxiously long blog) is that my immune system sucks. It always has, and always will. It just pretends to play nice for a while so I let my guard down, then it sneaks up on me and attacks me.
Ugh.

Birthdays

Remember when you were younger and birthdays were the most exciting day of the year (next to Christmas, of course)? I miss that. Badly. After the age of about 13, birthdays were just kind of like 'meh' to me. And now that I'm *sigh* 20, it's pretty much all downhill from here. The only thing I have left to look forward to in life are marriage and kids. Screw birthdays. I'll just take the cake and presents, and not the aging. Thanks :)

Cellphones

I've had a cellphone since grade 9 (and I was on a family plan, and the phone was rarely used. This was before the massive outburst of text messaging, so the phone was 'for emergencies only'.) I was with telus until recently, when I decided to branch out on my own and get my own account. I did my research (because, I'll fully admit it, I'm cheap and want to pay the least amount possible.) So telus in all its infinite glory wanted me to put a deposit of $1000 down because I was only 19 and didn't have credit. To which I replied 'are you fucking kidding me?.' I don't just walk around with a grand in my pocket waiting to put it down as a deposit for a cellphone. A cellphone! Not like it's a deposit on a car or something that actually justifies the amount. Therefore, I pretty much said peace-out to Telus and started searching other places to see which place would ask for the smallest deposit from me. Then, I stumbled upon Bell. They had this kick-ass plan that was like $30/month for unlimited text messaging with so many minutes and blah, blah, blah. I thought it was pretty awesome, so I decided to go with them. (Plus, the deposit was only $200. MUCH more reasonable than Telus.)

So la-tee-dah, I have a new phone and a new number and all is well with the world of Caitlyn and Bell. Then comes the beginning of August. My phone literally got a mind of its own, and decided it was necessary to do whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted. It would randomly send text messages and the scroll button was jammed in the 'down' position so I couldn't even text message because it would just scroll through all the messages and I couldn't hit 'reply' or 'read message'. I go to my nearest Bell store and tell the guy what's going on with my phone and he sends it away and says it'll be '2 weeks' until I get it back. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with this loaner phone which I refer to as the 'calculator', because it literally looked like a calculator. Who would use such a phone? Anyways. I received a call last Friday from the guy at the Bell store saying my phone was ready and was all fixed. Hallelujah! I got my lovely phone back and was quite content that I no longer had the calculator phone.

All was good with the phone until Saturday night. I was at the Back Alley to celebrate my upcoming day of birth, when I went to send a text to Briana saying how cute it was that some guy kissed my hand because it was my birthday. I pull my phone out of my bra (boobs were meant to do more than 1 thing...they also hold money, cellphones, lip gloss, etc) and I go to send a message and my phone freezes. No big deal. I take the battery out and think all will be good. However, that wasn't so. Half the buttons wouldn't work, and for some reason my phone kept wanting to dial my Dad's cell phone number. Not cool at 2 in the morning.

Sunday comes, and my phone starts getting better. Most of the buttons work and, hey, I can still text message and that's really the big thing. Then my phone decides that it doesn't want to 'sleep' and stays on, and on, and on. Meaning, my battery went from being fully charged to being completely dead in about 7 hours. Ridiculous. Plus, it still keeps wanting to call my Dad's cellphone. (Is this a sign from God that my Dad and I don't talk enough? Haha, doubt it.) So, after work on Tuesday I go back to the Bell store and tell the guy that my phone is broken. Again. And I want a new phone, because this having to send it out every week and wait 3 weeks for it to be "fixed" is crap. So I was told that I have to send it out again and wait for it to get back. Then, once it gets back I can go back to the Bell kiosk I bought it at and talk to the manager and demand a new phone. So, I have to wait 3 weeks until I can do this and by that time who knows if I'll actually give a rat's ass.

Point of the story? Bell phones suck.