In solidarity with fellow sinus sufferers

Phillies all-star Ryan Howard recently missed a game because of a sinus infection. While some might scoff and say, "Cal Ripken never sat out because of a sinus infection," I sympathize with Howard because right now I'm fighting my own sinus battle.

My head feels like it weighs about twice as much as it should — it's rolling around like a bowling ball up there. There's a terrific pressure pushing against the back of my eyeballs and pounding in my ears as if I'm on a plane that's in constant state of steep ascent/descent. The trail of mucus running down toward my lungs has me coughing my throat raw and I've gone through about a half-box of Kleenex trying to clear my nasal passages. Every time I discard one of those tissues I have to make sure to put the trash can out of reach because it seems that there is nothing more delicious to Baxter than human snot (not one of his most endearing traits).

I'm doing my best to medicate myself: Allergy/sinus pills every four or five hours, generic Dayquil/Nyquil depending on the position of the sun, a bag and a half of sugar free cough drops so far. But it's doing little good. I remain a hoarse, sniffling, aching wretch. Food is normally one of my greatest joys in life (which probably isn't healthy), but I don't even feel like eating right now. It's not nearly as much fun when you're so congested you can't taste anything and every swallow is like a torpedo heading down your throat and exploding somewhere in the middle of your esophagus.

My one consolation right now is that I don't have a job to go to. I can stay at home and nurse my way through this, nap on the couch with Baxter and avoid going outside and incubating this illness in the already-miserable heat. Ryan Howard doesn't have that luxury, so go easy on him, Phils fans.