Attack of the sinuses

I've had pretty bad sinus trouble the last few days. I guess it started Wednesday or Thursday? I've been achy, with a headache, a lot of congestion, occasional fever, coughing, sneezing...

I've had a rehearsal scheduled for about a month for this little quartet gig I'm doing later this month with my flute teacher, my old high school band teacher, and another flutist. It was on Sunday. I worried about this rehearsal since I first started with the symptoms - because my breathing was affected. I mean, if I just had a runny nose, I could deal. But try playing the flute when every inhalation results in some microscopic spot in the back of your throat being tickled, which then sets of a coughing jag that lasts about 10 minutes.

So on Saturday, Patrick went to the store and purchased Tylenol Sinus for me, and I took it that night, and sure enough, it dried me up; I thought I was home free. (Normally I don't like this kind of medication, because even though they put "Non-Drowsy" on the packaging, this stuff usually puts me to sleep instantly.)

Sunday, I get to the rehearsal, hoarse from coughing, armed with Purell hand sanitizer and my own box of Kleenex, and we started to play. I had taken the Tylenol Sinus right before I left the house. I had planned this out, right? Everything went okay for about 45 minutes, and then it started. It was as if all the coughing that had been suppressed was now, with a new audience, ready for its close up. It was awful. It was the kind of coughing where, once you finally stop, you're shaking and weakened and your voice is all jacked up. I wanted to keep going, I needed to rehearse this music, we all did (most of what we're playing is typical flute choir type music - beautiful, square! But Joe, my old high school band teacher, is playing flute 1 on this one piece called "That's a Plenty -I get to play bass, it's fun, and the bass part is all syncopated and funky - I needed the time on this one). Anyway, so bottom line is, we had to find another rehearsal date. And I need to get better before our gig, because coughing on stage sucks.